Puzzle 385 (Remembered Length)

This is a Remembered Length puzzle.

Puzzle 385

Puzzle 384 (Nurikabe) [Pairs]

This is a Nurikabe puzzle, with a twist. Every region of unfilled cells must contain exactly two numbers (instead of one) and have total size equal to the sum of the two numbers.

Puzzle 384

I had to cheat symmetry a little bit on this one. Oh well; this was hard enough to construct as it is.

Many of you may be aware that my team (Manic Sages) won the MIT Mystery Hunt this past weekend. I’m hoping to contribute quite a bit to next year’s hunt, both logic puzzles and non-logic puzzles. I don’t anticipate any delays in my blog posting (whether the Wednesday puzzles or packs); the most likely compensation is that I’m probably not going to be writing as many LMI tests this year as I hoped I would.

Puzzle 383 (Castle Wall)

This is a Castle Wall puzzle.

Puzzle 383

Puzzle 382 (Tapa) [Borders]

This is a Tapa puzzle, with a twist. The borders between some cells may be either thick or nonexistent. A thick border separating two cells means one is shaded and the other is not. A lack of a border means the two cells are both shaded or both unshaded.

Puzzle 382

Puzzle Pack Vol. I: Slitherlink

Happy 2012 from the Eastern US timezone. Expect Puzzle 382 to be posted on the 4th.

Download the pack (PDF; 1.27 MB)

This pack contains

• A Slitherlink primer for novice solvers
• 15 classic Slitherlinks, mostly on the easier side
• 5 variations with 3 puzzles each: All Threes, Interior Path, Domino, Relation, Liar
• 3 chimeras each combining two of the above variations
• 2 larger puzzles
• Hints and solutions for each puzzle

Version 2 uploaded on 1/3/2012 10:12 AM ET. Fixed multiple solution errors in I.12 and I.23.

Version 3 uploaded on 1/8/2012 12:28 AM ET. Fixed a major uniqueness error in I.35.

There is a nontrivial possibility of a broken puzzle somewhere. If you think you’ve found one, you may either comment here or email me at palmermebane -at- gmail -dot- com. Any updates to the pack will be announced in this post, so be sure to check here first before reporting an error.

Announcing Puzzle Pack Series

First, the numbered puzzles posted on this blog will now become weekly posts, with a puzzle of whatever type or difficulty going up every Wednesday.

In place of my usual 3-4 per week schedule, I plan to release a pack of puzzles as a PDF every couple months or so. The packs will have 20-25 puzzles minimum spanning a full range of difficulties. Each one will have puzzles all of the same basic type or be themed in some other fashion.

WPC 2011 Closing Remarks + Extended Hiatus

Click here if you want to skip to the part about the blog schedule and to find a PDF of WPC practice puzzles I made.

Virtually everyone reading this probably already knows the “twist” of the last post, which was that I ended up winning the world championship. Furthermore, the likely chance of us having made no error on the last team round came true and we won over Germany by an extremely narrow margin. Finally, the US team members went from preliminary round positions 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 21st to final standings 1st, 3rd, 4th, 21st. The playoffs were very kind to us.

WPC 2011 Update 5

There might be one more post about the team results once we learn them, although we’re 95% sure that the US team has bagged first place. It comes down to whether we have a mistake on the final team round or not. Germany beat us by a fair amount in time, but not enough if we’re both clean. This post has info about the last team round (before scores are released) and the rundown of the individual playoffs.

WPC 2011 Update 4

Morning before the last team round and the individual playoffs. Rather than post a score chart (mostly done to give context to the post) I’ll refer you to the website, as these results are going to be staying online.

WPC 2011 Update 3

And the second day of the WPC is done. The individual preliminary rounds are over. Here’s an update on the top ten.

[#. Name (R8; R9; R10; R11; Total)]
1. Ulrich Voigt (120, 315, 280, 560*, 3105)
2. Palmer Mebane (110, 375*, 270, 429, 3024)
3. Thomas Snyder (170*, 360, 245, 341, 3016)
4. Hideaki Jo (120, 340, 185, 385, 2745)
5. Bram de Laat (95, 325, 235, 297, 2662)
U. Michael Ley (145, 310, 115, 242, 2642)
6. Roland Voigt (145, 300, 205, 407, 2642)
7. Philipp Weiss (130, 280, 210, 341, 2531)
8. Neil Zussman (130, 310, 225, 319, 2529)
9. Wei-Hwa Huang (160, 345, 210, 286, 2521)
10. Peter Hudak (120, 300, 160, 297, 2512)