Killer Shootout — LMI August Sudoku Test #2 — 25th-28th August
@ 2012-08-20 10:59 AM (#8245) (#8245) Top

Administrator



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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-20 10:59 AM



@ 2012-08-20 11:00 AM (#8246 - in reply to #8245) (#8246) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-20 11:00 AM


Logic Masters India announces August Sudoku Test #2 — Killer Shootout

Author : Stefan Heine

Dates : 25th - 28th August

IB and Submission Link : here

Length of the test : 180 minutes / Bonus : 0.03 points per second saved, if all sudokus are correct

Test-Solvers : Ulrich Voigt & Sebastian Matschke


@ 2012-08-20 11:01 AM (#8247 - in reply to #8245) (#8247) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-20 11:01 AM

Please note, there will not be any Sudoku test in September.
@ 2012-08-20 1:25 PM (#8251 - in reply to #8247) (#8251) Top

Richard



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Richard posted @ 2012-08-20 1:25 PM

Administrator - 2012-08-20 11:01 AM

Please note, there will not be any Sudoku test in September.


Meanwhile, looks like a puzzle/sudoku overload in august!

@ 2012-08-20 1:29 PM (#8253 - in reply to #8245) (#8253) Top

neerajmehrotra



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neerajmehrotra posted @ 2012-08-20 1:29 PM

I love this theme!!!
@ 2012-08-20 3:51 PM (#8254 - in reply to #8245) (#8254) Top

kishy72



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kishy72 posted @ 2012-08-20 3:51 PM

will there be regular beginner sudoku contest in sep?
@ 2012-08-20 3:56 PM (#8255 - in reply to #8254) (#8255) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-20 3:56 PM

kishy72 - 2012-08-20 3:51 PM

will there be regular beginner sudoku contest in sep?
We are planning one, and an announcement will be made one week before that in the Beginners' Contest topic. If you have any further queries, please ask them there.
@ 2012-08-22 7:16 PM (#8267 - in reply to #8245) (#8267) Top

Fred76




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Fred76 posted @ 2012-08-22 7:16 PM

When will be the IB published?
@ 2012-08-22 10:03 PM (#8268 - in reply to #8245) (#8268) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-22 10:03 PM


Logic Masters India announces August Sudoku Test #2 — Killer Shootout

Author : Stefan Heine

Dates : 25th - 28th August

IB and Submission Link : here

Length of the test : 180 minutes / Bonus : 0.03 points per second saved, if all sudokus are correct

Test-Solvers : Ulrich Voigt & Sebastian Matschke


@ 2012-08-22 10:17 PM (#8269 - in reply to #8245) (#8269) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-22 10:17 PM

Regarding the Navigation variant -
For 9 cells, Compass will have to be on the cell itself right? So we shall have to write the digit over it for that cell.

Also, for the Bird variant, which sum belongs to which group will have to be determined during the solve right? And I assume numbers can repeat in the bird groups, since one of the sums for 3 cells is 25 and another is 5.
@ 2012-08-22 10:50 PM (#8270 - in reply to #8245) (#8270) Top

ssandy



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ssandy posted @ 2012-08-22 10:50 PM

Is there online solving?
@ 2012-08-22 11:11 PM (#8271 - in reply to #8245) (#8271) Top

Ours brun




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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-22 11:11 PM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-22 6:17 PM

Also, for the Bird variant, which sum belongs to which group will have to be determined during the solve right? And I assume numbers can repeat in the bird groups, since one of the sums for 3 cells is 25 and another is 5.

As I understand the IB, I would say yes, and yes.

I am planning to be very careful about two things : repetition/non repetition in the diagonals, since puzzles are not grouped according to this (however almost); and on a personal plan, I will have to slow myself on the "Little Odd Even Diagonal Killer" since the association of parity and colors you made is quite the opposite of what naturally comes to my mind - I see even digits as round and green or blue, and odd ones square-shaped... This promises to be fun!

I just noted the 180' timing; how many puzzles of each type are we to expect ?
@ 2012-08-22 11:23 PM (#8272 - in reply to #8270) (#8272) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-22 11:23 PM

ssandy - 2012-08-22 10:50 PM

Is there online solving?


I'm not certain, but I think its unlikely. Classics vs Innovatives didn't have online solving, and this test has some innovative variants with actual birds and fishes on it so I doubt it will.
@ 2012-08-22 11:24 PM (#8273 - in reply to #8245) (#8273) Top

tamz29



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tamz29 posted @ 2012-08-22 11:24 PM

3 hours?!
@ 2012-08-22 11:31 PM (#8274 - in reply to #8245) (#8274) Top

swaroop2011




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swaroop2011 posted @ 2012-08-22 11:31 PM

Really a new innovative test with so much fun. Waiting for it!!

@ 2012-08-22 11:44 PM (#8275 - in reply to #8274) (#8275) Top

Richard



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Richard posted @ 2012-08-22 11:44 PM

Hmmm,
Seven example puzzles, adding up to 200 points. It's not clear how the points distribution over the contest puzzles will be. Unless the contest will only contain 7 puzzles... But that is very unlikely, looking to the 3 hours time for the test. Can organizers say anything about this? Or do we have to make choices on what puzzles to try and what not only after seeing the real PB?
@ 2012-08-22 11:58 PM (#8276 - in reply to #8275) (#8276) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-22 11:58 PM

Richard - 2012-08-22 11:44 PM

Hmmm,
Seven example puzzles, adding up to 200 points. It's not clear how the points distribution over the contest puzzles will be. Unless the contest will only contain 7 puzzles... But that is very unlikely, looking to the 3 hours time for the test. Can organizers say anything about this? Or do we have to make choices on what puzzles to try and what not only after seeing the real PB?


Confirmation will come when Deb/Author/Test-Solver is online, but yes it is mostly 7 difficult puzzles.
@ 2012-08-23 12:43 AM (#8277 - in reply to #8276) (#8277) Top

Richard



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Richard posted @ 2012-08-23 12:43 AM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-22 11:58 PM

Confirmation will come when Deb/Author/Test-Solver is online, but yes it is mostly 7 difficult puzzles.


I guess you are right; 3 hours is 10.800 seconds and for 200 points it should mean 0,019 points per second, which relates to 0,03 points bonus per second. But: let's wait for confirmation...
@ 2012-08-23 1:45 AM (#8278 - in reply to #8245) (#8278) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 1:45 AM

Hi there,

I am proud and happy to present to you my first LMI Sudoku Test!

I will try to answer all of your questions step by step.

First notification:

Because the UK Puzzle Championship and the US Puzzle Championship is also scheduled to happen this weekend the "Killer Sudoku Shoot Out" is open for 96 hours, instead for 72 hours (including a Tuesday).


yours
Stefan Heine
@ 2012-08-23 1:54 AM (#8279 - in reply to #8269) (#8279) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 1:54 AM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-22 6:17 PM

Regarding the Navigation variant -
For 9 cells, Compass will have to be on the cell itself right? So we shall have to write the digit over it for that cell.

Also, for the Bird variant, which sum belongs to which group will have to be determined during the solve right? And I assume numbers can repeat in the bird groups, since one of the sums for 3 cells is 25 and another is 5.


Three times yes - all assumptions are correct!

Stefan
@ 2012-08-23 2:00 AM (#8280 - in reply to #8271) (#8280) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 2:00 AM

Ours brun - 2012-08-22 7:11 PM

...how many puzzles of each type are we to expect ?

Only one puzzle of each type - it is seven sudokus for the whole test!

Stefan
@ 2012-08-23 2:08 AM (#8281 - in reply to #8275) (#8281) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 2:08 AM

Richard - 2012-08-22 7:44 PM

Hmmm,
Seven example puzzles, adding up to 200 points. It's not clear how the points distribution over the contest puzzles will be. ...



It should be clear because you see the points for every puzzle between the puzzle and the headline in light grey - even in the IB. Maybe this grey is too light.

14 - Little Regular Killer
22 - Irregular Navigation Killer
23 - Little Irregular Killer
56 - Little Diagonal Bild Killer
41 - Little Odd Even Diagonal Killer
20 - Non Consecutive Little Odd Fish Killer
24 - Dots Killer
----------------------------
200 Killer Points


Stefan
@ 2012-08-23 2:41 AM (#8282 - in reply to #8273) (#8282) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 2:41 AM

tamz29 - 2012-08-22 7:24 PM

3 hours?!


Yes, it is three hours.

Primarily I planned to enable four hours of time because I wanted to give the chance to most of you to finish all puzzles. These sudokus are really not easy to solve and my experience from creating puzzles for dozens of contests is that the results spread the more the more difficult the puzzles are in average.

I believe only the very very best in the world (if participating) will be able to overleap 300 points by finishing within two hours.


Stefan
@ 2012-08-23 3:35 AM (#8283 - in reply to #8282) (#8283) Top

Fred76




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Fred76 posted @ 2012-08-23 3:35 AM

It looks like this tournament will contain harder sudokus than my test diagonal vision .

Having been stuck during more than 30 minutes in an official competition on a little killer (having found only 7 digits) created by Stefan Heine should perhaps scare me, but I look forward to this uncommon test.

Fred
@ 2012-08-23 10:25 AM (#8284 - in reply to #8245) (#8284) Top

akash.doulani



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akash.doulani posted @ 2012-08-23 10:25 AM

in Irregular Navigation Killer do the cells covered by a compass have different numbers or can they repeat?
@ 2012-08-23 12:16 PM (#8285 - in reply to #8284) (#8285) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-23 12:16 PM

akash.doulani - 2012-08-23 10:25 AM

in Irregular Navigation Killer do the cells covered by a compass have different numbers or can they repeat?
They can repeat. (They repeat in the solution to example also)
@ 2012-08-23 3:16 PM (#8286 - in reply to #8285) (#8286) Top

Fred76




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Fred76 posted @ 2012-08-23 3:16 PM

Administrator - 2012-08-23 12:16 PM

akash.doulani - 2012-08-23 10:25 AM

in Irregular Navigation Killer do the cells covered by a compass have different numbers or can they repeat?
They can repeat. (They repeat in the solution to example also)


Otherwise, it would just be an extraregions sudoku (compass covers 9 cells)
@ 2012-08-23 3:18 PM (#8287 - in reply to #8286) (#8287) Top

Fred76




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Fred76 posted @ 2012-08-23 3:18 PM

On the Little Odd Even Diagonal Killer, are all the possible rectangles and circles marked?
@ 2012-08-23 8:05 PM (#8288 - in reply to #8287) (#8288) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-23 8:05 PM

Fred76 - 2012-08-23 11:18 AM

On the Little Odd Even Diagonal Killer, are all the possible rectangles and circles marked?


You never know ;-)

(And you dont need to know)
@ 2012-08-23 9:15 PM (#8289 - in reply to #8272) (#8289) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-23 9:15 PM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-22 11:23 PM

ssandy - 2012-08-22 10:50 PM

Is there online solving?


I'm not certain, but I think its unlikely. Classics vs Innovatives didn't have online solving, and this test has some innovative variants with actual birds and fishes on it so I doubt it will.
No online solving this time as well. Tried to make some changes to the flash code, but the compass is creating bigger problem than birds and fishes.
@ 2012-08-23 10:38 PM (#8296 - in reply to #8245) (#8296) Top

kishy72



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kishy72 posted @ 2012-08-23 10:38 PM

any particular reason for giving examples in 6*6 grid in IB even though the actuals would be in 9*9...would have been really helpful in the actual test if the examples were 9*9 too......:-p
@ 2012-08-23 10:42 PM (#8297 - in reply to #8296) (#8297) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-23 10:42 PM

kishy72 - 2012-08-23 10:38 PM

any particular reason for giving examples in 6*6 grid in IB even though the actuals would be in 9*9...would have been really helpful in the actual test if the examples were 9*9 too......:-p


Well, the point of the IB, as the name suggests, is only to instruct. As long as you understand the rules it's done its job. If you want to practice Killer Sudoku, we had a Killer Variations test earlier. http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201204S (obviously, not with the same variants, but you'll get more familiar with Killer anyway)

Edited by prasanna16391 2012-08-23 10:42 PM
@ 2012-08-24 12:31 AM (#8303 - in reply to #8245) (#8303) Top

Ours brun




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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-24 12:31 AM

And yes, there is a particular reason to this fact, which is quite obvious : preparing one set of 9x9 puzzles is already lots of work; preparing two, even if the examples are of a simpler conception, means of course that much more work.
@ 2012-08-24 12:53 AM (#8305 - in reply to #8303) (#8305) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-24 12:53 AM

Ours brun - 2012-08-23 8:31 PM

And yes, there is a particular reason to this fact, which is quite obvious : preparing one set of 9x9 puzzles is already lots of work; preparing two, even if the examples are of a simpler conception, means of course that much more work.


Thank you!

Some of the contest puzzles took me more than one week of work. Another reason is that I want to give at least 100% to create the best I achieve from the variant setting. To produce an other 9x9 set for the IB would result puzzles that could not meet my claim.
@ 2012-08-24 3:27 PM (#8312 - in reply to #8305) (#8312) Top

Statistica



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Statistica posted @ 2012-08-24 3:27 PM

One remark: In the 'Non consecutive little odd fish killer' (what a name...) you write something abaout the "main diagonals", but it isn't true at all...

Greetings to Hamburg: Jörg
@ 2012-08-24 3:50 PM (#8313 - in reply to #8312) (#8313) Top

Stefan_Heine



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Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-24 3:50 PM

Statistica - 2012-08-24 11:27 AM

One remark: In the 'Non consecutive little odd fish killer' (what a name...) you write something abaout the "main diagonals", but it isn't true at all...

Greetings to Hamburg: Jörg


It is true! :-) But in 6x6 it is not possible (I think) to create an non consecutive with not repeating numbers on the main diagonals. That is why I wrote "In the example, digits on both main diagonals may be repeated" as the last sentence in the IB.
@ 2012-08-24 6:45 PM (#8314 - in reply to #8313) (#8314) Top

Ours brun




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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-24 6:45 PM

Stefan_Heine - 2012-08-24 11:50 AM

It is true! :-) But in 6x6 it is not possible (I think) to create an non consecutive with not repeating numbers on the main diagonals.

Definitely impossible indeed, since 6x6 nonconsecutive sudokus have to obey one of these two patterns :

hebergeur d'image
@ 2012-08-24 11:11 PM (#8316 - in reply to #8314) (#8316) Top

Administrator



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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-24 11:11 PM

Announcements


• Password protected pdf is uploaded. It has 8 pages, including a cover page. Each page has one sudoku.
For each sudoku, enter the digits in 5th row and 5th column. Arrows are not marked in the puzzle pdf.
• As announced earlier, there is no online solving in this test.
• Link to score page : http://logicmastersindia.com/M201208S2/score.asp


@ 2012-08-25 10:11 AM (#8322 - in reply to #8245) (#8322) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-25 10:11 AM

Superb grids. Its really difficult to set a time for difficult puzzles, because one puzzle may cost you quite a lot when you finish...

Edited by prasanna16391 2012-08-26 4:11 AM
@ 2012-08-26 12:28 PM (#8380 - in reply to #8245) (#8380) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-26 12:28 PM

Restricted Thread

This is a restricted thread corresponding to an ongoing test at LMI. This mainly means :

Comments posted in the thread after the test started can only be viewed by players who have finished the test. If you are not logged in to forum or if you have not finished the test, you will see first few characters of the post.

The purpose is to encourage players to freely post comments while the test is running. All the posts will be made public after the test is over.

This is an experimental feature, and the behaviour may change during subsequent tests.



@ 2012-08-26 12:47 PM (#8382 - in reply to #8245) (#8382) Top

debmohanty




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debmohanty posted @ 2012-08-26 12:47 PM

So players who have already participated can freely post about the puzzles / difficulties / anything else about the test, and they are encouraged to do so now, without having to wait till end of the test.
@ 2012-08-26 1:16 PM (#8383 - in reply to #8245) (#8383) Top

kishy72



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kishy72 posted @ 2012-08-26 1:16 PM

fellas ...got really depressed and dejected solving these sudokus...clearly these sudokus were not meant for beginners or people who have just crossed the beginner stage..the sudokus were in a totally different level to an amateur like me...broke my head over 3-4 sudokus and eventually managed to solve just one though i partially filled the others...could not even get a look at the 41 and the 56 point sudokus...solving these types of killer sudokus makes me think that guessing is not after all a bad alternative ....all in all these sudokus looked insanely tough atleast to me...but nevertheless a good experience!!!
@ 2012-08-26 1:19 PM (#8384 - in reply to #8382) (#8384) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-26 1:19 PM

Great. I'll start off by saying, I enjoyed the test as far as solving goes. As for the 3 hour format, well I personally think this would've been great in a Marathon-like format. I solved 6 of the grids in 70 minutes before starting the Non Cons- Odd Fish variant, and I got stuck on that one for the remaining 100+ minutes. In between(after some 60 minutes of trying), I decided to submit the other 6, and then take a break. Got back in 5 minutes, and then completed it with 8 minutes to spare. Totally, 104 minutes.

I'm not saying it was that difficult, I got back and solved it with a fresh mind later and it is just as "easy" as the others. Its just that, out of the 7, I did 6 pretty fast and I feel like thats all been wasted due to the 7th one. I see janoslaw had a similar experience, and maybe Kota too in the middle, I don't know. If this were a single-Sudoku-submit format like Puzzle Marathon, Sylvain and Hideaki would still be at the top, but at least the gap won't be so huge for those of us who just blundered in one puzzle, as we'd still get the bonus for the rest at least. A really difficult set does that, you miss one thing and you end up staring for long spaces of time.

All in all, probably my favorite set of Killer variants ever(which is saying a lot since Killer's my favorite Sudoku variant anyway), but I'm not happy with my performance, and also don't feel like I got full value for it, even though I finished an LMI test for the first time.
@ 2012-08-26 1:30 PM (#8385 - in reply to #8245) (#8385) Top

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Administrator posted @ 2012-08-26 1:30 PM

@kishy72, Thanks for your feedback. I have no hesitation in agreeing that this is very tough test if you are a beginner or have limited experience with Sudokus.
At the same time, every test offers different experience and I'm glad that you enjoyed the ride.
@ 2012-08-26 2:56 PM (#8386 - in reply to #8305) (#8386) Top

neerajmehrotra



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neerajmehrotra posted @ 2012-08-26 2:56 PM

Stefan_Heine - 2012-08-24 12:53 AM

Ours brun - 2012-08-23 8:31 PM

And yes, there is a particular reason to this fact, which is quite obvious : preparing one set of 9x9 puzzles is already lots of work; preparing two, even if the examples are of a simpler conception, means of course that much more work.


Thank you!

Some of the contest puzzles took me more than one week of work. Another reason is that I want to give at least 100% to create the best I achieve from the variant setting. To produce an other 9x9 set for the IB would result puzzles that could not meet my claim.


Full marks to you for such wonderful grids..... efforts put in are clearly visible....thanks for the nice test!!!
@ 2012-08-26 3:06 PM (#8387 - in reply to #8245) (#8387) Top

neerajmehrotra



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neerajmehrotra posted @ 2012-08-26 3:06 PM

Now coming to the difficulty of the grids.......infact non consecutive fish is very difficult compared to the points allotted to it.....atleast i could not crack it till now....i am not able to get the right start....even birds i have to try again....i wasted full 1hour in these two puzzles and achieved nothing....
But getting continuous 3 hrs spare time is really difficult atleast for me.....
But overall a wonderful test.
@ 2012-08-26 3:27 PM (#8388 - in reply to #8387) (#8388) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-26 3:27 PM

Neeraj -

I didn't see this till after the test but, its quite easy. Sum up all the given diagonals, and since the main diagonal is 45, all the rest of them should add up to 360. This gives you, for example, R1C1 + R9C9 = 4, because all the other diagonal clues above and below the grid add up to 356. I'm hoping you already figured out that R1C1 is 1/4 (because the 8 clue is either 3-5 or 2-6, which eliminates all those numbers for R1C1)
@ 2012-08-26 4:26 PM (#8389 - in reply to #8245) (#8389) Top

swaroop2011




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swaroop2011 posted @ 2012-08-26 4:26 PM

A wonderful test and such a new experience of different level of sudokus.
I started 1 by 1 and finished first 3 grids within 1hr and now 4grids were left with 2+ hrs to spare.
I then went to "little odd even diagonal" as this is my favourite one and comfortable over that and finished it well.
Then i started "little diagonal bird killer" i immediately figured out which bird has to what total, but then no inch ahead except 2-3 numbers in place.
Now almost 1.5 hrs were left and i then moved to" non consecutive" but stuck for 10-15 min and didnt get anything then i tried "dots killer" again nothing for 10-15 min. basically for almost 2 hrs i was stuck with these 3 grids breaking head to get atleast start at least. Just 5 min left i got dots killer but could not submit it on time i needed just 30 sec more to submit the answer. And "non consecutive" as prasanna said above i didnt think in that way and so was not getting the start. Now will try remaining ones. :)
Nice experience i would say. Thanks to LMI AND Stefan_Heine.
Regarding difficulty i would they were not hard but tricky. Well i am still learning new things so 4 is ok for me or 5(unofficially) :p


Edited by swaroop2011 2012-08-26 4:27 PM
@ 2012-08-26 5:54 PM (#8390 - in reply to #8245) (#8390) Top

caudmont



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caudmont posted @ 2012-08-26 5:54 PM

Nice set of sudokus.

My favorite was the little odd even diagonal which has a regular level of difficulty during all the solving. Dots, Non consecutive and birds were more difficult to start but when you find the starting point there is no great difficulty to continue the grid.
For example, when I saw non consecutive, I thought that there was many numbers outside for a variant (non consevutive) which often didn't need many digits to start. That's why I immediately used the sum of diagonals to find L1C1 + L9C9 and L1C9 + L9C1. I think that it was the sudoku I need the least time to solve.

@ 2012-08-26 6:34 PM (#8391 - in reply to #8390) (#8391) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-26 6:34 PM

caudmont - 2012-08-26 5:54 PM

I think that it was the sudoku I need the least time to solve.



@ 2012-08-26 6:44 PM (#8392 - in reply to #8245) (#8392) Top

debmohanty




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debmohanty posted @ 2012-08-26 6:44 PM

Congrats Sylvain for a very impressive performance.
It looks like most players missed the trick in Non Consecutive sudoku - even though it is only 20 points, it is solved by very few players.
@ 2012-08-26 9:51 PM (#8394 - in reply to #8388) (#8394) Top

neerajmehrotra



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neerajmehrotra posted @ 2012-08-26 9:51 PM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-26 3:27 PM

Neeraj -

I didn't see this till after the test but, its quite easy. Sum up all the given diagonals, and since the main diagonal is 45, all the rest of them should add up to 360. This gives you, for example, R1C1 + R9C9 = 4, because all the other diagonal clues above and below the grid add up to 356. I'm hoping you already figured out that R1C1 is 1/4 (because the 8 clue is either 3-5 or 2-6, which eliminates all those numbers for R1C1)


Thanks Prasanna,will try now.
@ 2012-08-27 12:07 AM (#8401 - in reply to #8245) (#8401) Top

Ours brun




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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-27 12:07 AM

Of course you are all wrong, since the hardest one was obviously the Dots Killer. I needed 30' to solve it, more than any other puzzle. But maybe that is because it had no solution. I am not kidding. When there are only two options and that both lead to contradictions, there is obviously a problem. And when, after 15', you realize you had missed a third option and that this one also proves impossible, there remains no doubt : there definitely is a problem.

And there was !

There really was a problem !

There was a big problem !

There was a huge problem named me and me needed 10 more minutes to understand that there was a fourth option - a perfectly valid one.

So, a total of 30' on this only puzzle; 64 on the other 6; 2 minutes to copy the codes, and today is not yet the day when I will say :

@ 2012-08-27 12:25 AM (#8402 - in reply to #8245) (#8402) Top

Ours brun




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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-27 12:25 AM

Disappointment apart, this was a really good test, with some superb puzzles. All of them were nice, but a few were truly excellent. The "Bird" was of course tough but very interesting to solve. The "Odd Even" was perhaps my favorite; as Sylvain said, the puzzle was very homogeneous in its difficulty and the path was very pleasant to discover and follow. No big trouble for me on the "Fish", I did just as Sylvain and summed the diagonals; still, it was probably not the fastest one for me. The "Dots" was nice too; the best proof is that I liked it despite the big amount of time I wasted on it! Just a remark about the "Navigation" : if my memory doesn't abuse me, I did not use the two sums at the top of the grid; only the two at the bottom. They really did not seem of any help to me, so I guess I somehow deviated from the intended path.

Anyway - thanks a lot Stefan. I join Neeraj : it is obvious that you spent a lot of time on this set. Now take some deserved rest.
@ 2012-08-27 12:54 AM (#8403 - in reply to #8401) (#8403) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-27 12:54 AM

Ours brun - 2012-08-27 12:07 AM

Of course you are all wrong, since the hardest one was obviously the Dots Killer. I needed 30' to solve it


Heh? I took 104 minutes on one. I win. No one else. No arguments.
@ 2012-08-27 2:28 AM (#8405 - in reply to #8403) (#8405) Top

Richard



Posts: 191
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Richard posted @ 2012-08-27 2:28 AM

Little Killers are not really among my favorite ones. I think that has to do with the possible repetition of digits anlong the diagonals, and the 'unnatural' looking to (non-visible) diagonals, instead of the more 'natural' rows, colums and blocks. Whenever possible, I skipped them. So far.
When I saw the IB this week I had two feelings.
1) It is a test from Stefan, who I know from past German Sudoku Championships, so I should give this test a try and
2) OK, I will have to step over my feelings towards little killers and practise a few.

So I did. I found a few older LK's, started practising and found a few tricks and thought of a few other possible tricks. I wrote them down and that was quite a good idea. Pretty helpful for some grids in the test.

Before the test I thougt the 41-pointer and the dots-killer were highest on my 'most wanted' list.
I decided, when I would finish these two puzzles within 75 minutes it would be wise to try to do the 56 pointer too.

But like others, I got stuck in it. The birds-values were easy determined, but after that progress didn't come, so I decided to finish the other grids first. The last 15 minutes I have been busy with it again, but without finishing it.
Now that I am typing this message, I feel I am tired of the marathon concentration.

But all in all I had a good evening, with 6 out of 7 grids solved.

I have one question about the planning of this test. LMI is encouraging unexperienced players to participate and is even organizing beginners' tests. And then one of the first real tests beginners can participate in, is this one with pretty tough puzzles. Is there a reason for this? I guess so...
@ 2012-08-27 4:23 AM (#8408 - in reply to #8388) (#8408) Top

ashar



Posts: 1

Country : Finland

ashar posted @ 2012-08-27 4:23 AM

prasanna16391 - 2012-08-26 11:27 AM

Neeraj -

I didn't see this till after the test but, its quite easy. Sum up all the given diagonals, and since the main diagonal is 45, all the rest of them should add up to 360. This gives you, for example, R1C1 + R9C9 = 4, because all the other diagonal clues above and below the grid add up to 356. I'm hoping you already figured out that R1C1 is 1/4 (because the 8 clue is either 3-5 or 2-6, which eliminates all those numbers for R1C1)


Thanks for the hint, now that I tried after the test, it went really quickly. During the test, I just didn't see any way to get started so I didn't even attempt it seriously...

All in all, a really nice test, what I did manage to do was really fun to solve, though I'm still a bit shaky with little killers. I liked having lots of time to solve, as I could just keep working on a grid without feeling like I'm wasting the time if I don't make quick progress all the time.

The non-little killers I mostly just breezed through, with a bit of a hiccup on Navigation. Bird I ended up brute-forcing by bifurcating heavily: The eventual solution was the second try from the third try at the top. Still, it was very well constructed, as the solving progressed very nicely from each try and the contradictions did come up. I was a bit disappointed that it was so easy to figure out which bird gives which sum, though.

Apart from the Fish, I also missed out on the Odd Even. I hadn't thought about the solving techniques properly and ended up having to discover most of them during the solving. When I finally got my act together on that, it wasn't too difficult to solve, but by then I'd already run out of time by several minutes.
@ 2012-08-27 6:47 AM (#8410 - in reply to #8405) (#8410) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-27 6:47 AM

Richard - 2012-08-27 2:28 AM

I have one question about the planning of this test. LMI is encouraging unexperienced players to participate and is even organizing beginners' tests. And then one of the first real tests beginners can participate in, is this one with pretty tough puzzles. Is there a reason for this? I guess so...


Well the monthly tests are difficult. While we do encourage players who do well in the Beginners' test to participate in these, it is a big step from being successful at that level to being one of the top solvers at this level. The Beginners' Contest deals with the basics and fundamentals. I believe, if an inexperienced player clears those the person will at least be better equipped to deal with these harder monthly tests, even if not Time-solving them.

The Beginners' tests will keep going every month, and such a good set of grids should not be passed over because of that, so I feel, no better time than now ;) Of course its a tad bit too difficult since we've not yet introduced Killer/LK into the Beginners' Contests, but we can't really change up schedules and what not because of that and we just hope the Beginners who had too much of a difficulty with this one will understand that. If any of them do have a doubt with any grid, they can definitely ask over here.
@ 2012-08-27 4:49 PM (#8418 - in reply to #8245) (#8418) Top

Akuma21



Posts: 22
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Country : ITALY

Akuma21 posted @ 2012-08-27 4:49 PM

Hi, can someone send me dots killer's solution?
@ 2012-08-27 4:53 PM (#8419 - in reply to #8245) (#8419) Top

Administrator



2000100050020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2012-08-27 4:53 PM

Sent to your registered email id (yahoo).
@ 2012-08-27 5:00 PM (#8420 - in reply to #8245) (#8420) Top

Ours brun




Posts: 148
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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-27 5:00 PM

Oops, didn't notice the answer. I just sent it via PM.
@ 2012-08-27 5:51 PM (#8422 - in reply to #8245) (#8422) Top

Akuma21



Posts: 22
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Akuma21 posted @ 2012-08-27 5:51 PM

Thanks! now i understand.... not all dots were given....
@ 2012-08-27 6:24 PM (#8423 - in reply to #8245) (#8423) Top

Ours brun




Posts: 148
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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-27 6:24 PM

All dots were given, but they only applied to vertically adjacent consecutive digits.

Always read very carefully the instructions!
@ 2012-08-27 9:29 PM (#8428 - in reply to #8245) (#8428) Top

Akuma21



Posts: 22
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Akuma21 posted @ 2012-08-27 9:29 PM

Damn!! You are right! Thanks for the precisation!
@ 2012-08-28 1:15 AM (#8436 - in reply to #8245) (#8436) Top

euklid



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euklid posted @ 2012-08-28 1:15 AM

I think I am alone with the problem that I had:
I have completely overlooked the "non-consecutive" constraint at the little odd fish killer! :-)
Without this constraint the puzzle was pretty unsolvable (of course :-) although I had counted the diagonals and knew the corner numbers pretty fast...

Could have finished this test but I am happy with my result anyways.
@ 2012-08-28 1:33 AM (#8437 - in reply to #8245) (#8437) Top

Ours brun




Posts: 148
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Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-28 1:33 AM

Do not feel alone, I faced the same problem for a few minutes before I got it!
@ 2012-08-28 4:03 AM (#8438 - in reply to #8423) (#8438) Top

Fred76




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Fred76 posted @ 2012-08-28 4:03 AM

Ours brun - 2012-08-27 6:24 PM

Always read very carefully the instructions!
@ 2012-08-28 5:41 AM (#8440 - in reply to #8245) (#8440) Top

Ours brun




Posts: 148
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Country : France

Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-28 5:41 AM

In my case I could just have read the title... but I guess it wasn't written big enough.
@ 2012-08-28 9:41 AM (#8441 - in reply to #8245) (#8441) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2012-08-28 9:41 AM

Reminder to Participants


This is a reminder that Killer Shootout has not ended, and you may still participate over the next 20 hours.


@ 2012-08-29 6:46 AM (#8446 - in reply to #8441) (#8446) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2012-08-29 6:46 AM

Killer Shootout is now over. Congratulations to Nikola, Sylvain and Hideaki for taking the top 3 spots. Sylvain took 2.5 minutes to check his answers which probably cost what-could-have-been his first LMI title.

22 players finished all 7 puzzles in the allocated 3 hours. Many others submitted 6 puzzles (there are 20 scores of 144, being separated by submission times)

Thanks Stefan for the Sudoku set, and we hope to hear from you about your experience as well.

ETA : Password removed from test pdf file.
@ 2012-08-29 3:30 PM (#8448 - in reply to #8405) (#8448) Top

Richard



Posts: 191
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Richard posted @ 2012-08-29 3:30 PM

Richard - 2012-08-27 2:28 AM

So I did. I found a few older LK's, started practising and found a few tricks and thought of a few other possible tricks. I wrote them down and that was quite a good idea. Pretty helpful for some grids in the test.

Some of the possible techniques for the Little Irregular Killer that I had written down were not necessary to use in the test.
Since it is possible to have a nice co-operation between chaos areas and diagonals I have made two puzzles for the puzzle portal Germany in which those techniques have to be applied. The easier version solves much faster if you apply the technique, the harder one is very tough if you don’t apply the technique.
Have fun!
@ 2012-08-29 5:00 PM (#8449 - in reply to #8245) (#8449) Top

RASHI



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Country : India

RASHI posted @ 2012-08-29 5:00 PM

any1 can tell the solution of all puzzles?
@ 2012-08-29 5:25 PM (#8450 - in reply to #8245) (#8450) Top

Stefan_Heine



Posts: 9

Country : Germany

Stefan_Heine posted @ 2012-08-29 5:25 PM

Thank you all very much for participating at my first LMI Test! It was very exciting to watch what you do. I hope you all liked the puzzles and if there is anything in general, that I could have done better - please tell me so that I can learn from this.

Congratulations to Nikola, Sylvain and Hideaki - you were sooo fast - incredible!

I hope to see many of you in Croatia.

Thank you!
Stefan
@ 2012-08-29 6:00 PM (#8451 - in reply to #8448) (#8451) Top

Ours brun




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Country : France

Ours brun posted @ 2012-08-29 6:00 PM

Richard - 2012-08-29 11:30 AM

Some of the possible techniques for the Little Irregular Killer that I had written down were not necessary to use in the test.
Since it is possible to have a nice co-operation between chaos areas and diagonals I have made two puzzles for the puzzle portal Germany in which those techniques have to be applied. The easier version solves much faster if you apply the technique, the harder one is very tough if you don’t apply the technique.
Have fun!

I can only advise you to have a look at them; both are very nice, the harder one being truly excellent (and quite tough even with the right technique).
@ 2012-08-31 12:08 AM (#8466 - in reply to #8448) (#8466) Top

prasanna16391



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prasanna16391 posted @ 2012-08-31 12:08 AM

Richard - 2012-08-29 3:30 PM

Richard - 2012-08-27 2:28 AM

So I did. I found a few older LK's, started practising and found a few tricks and thought of a few other possible tricks. I wrote them down and that was quite a good idea. Pretty helpful for some grids in the test.

Some of the possible techniques for the Little Irregular Killer that I had written down were not necessary to use in the test.
Since it is possible to have a nice co-operation between chaos areas and diagonals I have made two puzzles for the puzzle portal Germany in which those techniques have to be applied. The easier version solves much faster if you apply the technique, the harder one is very tough if you don’t apply the technique.
Have fun!


Solved both. Were great fun. Nice usage of the technique. Thanks Richard :)