Puzzle Jackpot at LMI

On 8th/9th January 2011, LogicMastersIndia will be holding a Puzzle Contest named Puzzle Jackpot. This contest is created by Serkan Yurekli of Turkey.  He is the editor of Akil Oyunlari puzzle magazine and they have published several books including logic puzzles.


The test is of 2 hours duration and can be started anytime during the weekend of 8th and 9th January 2011. Your timer will start once you click on the "Start Puzzle Jackpot" button on the LMI website. You will also have a 5 minute grace period for answer submission. A Timer will be on once you start the test. Once your time has run out you will not be allowed to enter any answers.


The puzzle types are :

Skyscraper and Variations
• Skyscraper
• Gappy Skyscraper
• Sum Skyscraper
• Skyscraper Either/Or
• Domino Skyscraper

Snake and Variations
• Snake
• Snake Egg
• Dotted Snake
• Japanese Snake
• First Seen Snake

Math Puzzles
• Kakuro
• Gapped Kakuro
• Magic Summer
• Trid
• Orbits

Tapa and Variations
• Tapa
• Knapp Daneben Tapa
• Tapa ?
• Easy As Tapa
• Tapa Filler

Word Puzzles
• Crisscross
• Missing Letters
• Scrabble
• Jumping Crossword
• Crisscross Crash

The IB can be downloaded here.
The Puzzle booklet of 16 pages has been uploaded. You can download the puzzle booklet here.
Further discussions on this contest is at the LMI Website

Samurai N1

Todays puzzle is a Samurai Sudoku.

Rules of Classic Sudoku apply. Overlapping boxes share the same positions of the numbers.

For Solution click Here.

Solving Technique for Magic Square Sudoku

Today we will look at the solving technique for Magic Square Sudoku. Now we know that all the 9 centers of the 3x3 boxes add upto 15 row wise, column wise and diagonally. Always remember that the middle cell ( R5C5 ) will always be a 5. The four corners will always be even numbers and the remaining 4 centers will be odd numbers.

At the corners of the center dots, 2 and 8 will always be diagonally opposite to each other and the numbers 4 and 6 will be diagonally opposite to each other. These two digonal sums will add upto 15 since the number 5 is always at the center at R5C5.

Let us take yesterdays Magic Square Sudoku for example. I have updated the pencil marks for the centers.

Now let us look at R2C8. Since the only even number that can fit there is 8, we also get the number 2 at R8C2, so that the diagonal sum is 15. That leaves us with options 4 and 6 for R2C2 and R8C8. Since number 4 already exists in Box 1, we can safely place number 6 in R2C2 and number 4 in R8C8. so we have placed 5 numbers till now and we have the diagonals in place. Diagonals here meaning the centers.

Now we can fit the odd numbers as per the sums of each row of centers. We have 6 and 8 as the two centers in R2. So in order to have a sum of 15 we can safely place the number 1 in R2C5, 7 in R5C2, 3 in R5C8 and  9 in R8C5. Once all these 9 digits placed, the sudoku can be solved like any other Classic Sudoku.

Irregular Diagonal N1

Todays puzzle is a Irregular Sudoku also known as Chaos sudoku or Jigsaw Sudoku with Diagonal constraints.

All rows, columns and jigsaw regions contain digits 1 to 9. Additionally the the two main diagonals also contain the digits 1 to 9.

For Solution click Here.

Magic Square N1

Todays sudoku is a Magic Square Sudoku.

Rules of Classic Sudoku apply.

Additionally, all the highlighted centers of the 3x3 boxes are unique numbers from 1 to 9 and the sum of the centers ( horizontally, vertically and diagonally ) is always 15.

For Solution click Here.