Accepted any answer.

Only one solver gave the last digits of the numbers, but I'll count this answer as correct.

In the puzzle VOYAGE five solvers have indicated a certain number once (instead of having to do it twice). I think to count such answers as correctly, because the solvers could be difficulties with the translation of the text.

Riad, I'd like to know your personal opinion about the way to solve optimizers - how do you think, is it ok to write programs to solve them, or they should be solved by a human alone? I know you can't check how everyone does it, but how are they intended to be solved? Can a solution, found by a program, be "true"?

Igor, I am not a programmer. In the years of study at University, I have relied on pure math, and now regret that I ignored the programming. 16 years since I quit math and do editorial work. As a solver I don't use programs. Are programmers other solvers? I don't know. I know that Kiwijam, won in the April Contest in past years, reported in detail on their strategies for optimization puzzles and without programming.

Zadanije 7. Nugno perechislat vse cisla v geltoy linii (primer 12) - 12,12,10,8,11 ili tolko po odnoy - 12,10,8,11

I generally don't think it would be fair to use programming in this contest, and in fact I am very pleased with Riad's ideas for optimizer puzzles, which in general are fairly accessible to logical reasoning + taking educated guesses, and wouldn't be trivial at all to do by computer. (Of course the computer software, if you manage to write it, would find the optimal solution. In this year's contest my impression is that optimal solutions to both optimizer puzzles are achievable purely by logical deduction, but we'll only know once my scores on those puzzles become known. In previous year contests the optimizers involved a lot more guesswork for me and I didn't get optimal solutions or see a way to reason entirely logically to find those (even after seeing the optimal solution).

for question 7; voyage:
for example some portion of loop is white cell-10-10-white cell...
answer format should be which: 10 or 10,10 ?
example given does not clarify this.

About programming for optimizer, I agree that it's not the spirit of this test to allow programming. I fail to see how "opti-pentobattle" could be programmed, but "in the citadel" can be modelized by a very classical optimisation problem (I'll probably code it for fun at one point). But despite the tentation, I was happy to notice that for "in the citadel", there was a purely logical way to know if a path is optimal or not (well, until answers are checked, I hope I'm right). I've yet to do opti-pentobattle, so I can't comment on this one.

For now, I'm quite happy to have solved Mirrored Sudoku and Voyage today, afer breaking both of them twice this week-end !

Question for "Borderless Sextet" : that's probably me overthinking, but can the battleships region contain black cells ? I ask only because other types mention it specifically ("possibly with black cells"...) and not battelships. If so, I understand that ships can't go on black cells, so black cells are necessarily water ?

Answer should be just 10. Each block of numbers between white cells gets one number written only.
But if there is a white cell between them, you write one number for every block: e.g. for "white cell-10-10-10-white cell-10-10-white cell..." you will write "10,10".




Yes, the Battleship region can contain black cells. Nothing can be written in any black cell.

Po odnoy. Vsyakiy raz pri vhode linii v zhyoltuyu figuru.

If 10-10-10-white cell-10, the answer should be: 10, 10. The line has twice been recognized as a yellow figure, so 10 twice.
I was originally offered other answer format, but he admitted long. The current format I think difficult to grasp, but this proposal of my Indian friends.

Ships can be only in the blue cells, symbolizing water.

Thank you James for the answers! I did not immediately drew attention to it.

The warning box is still visible in my Opti-pentomino answer. Should I ignore this?

I don't have any error warnings. Do all your rows have 10 characters, even rows that have no pentominos in them?

The pentominos have different set of symbol than what you have submitted (for example J for N). Your submission will be accepted.

Check out my answer to In the Citadel!! This is why I will never be the World Puzzle Champion. Thanks for the puzzles Riad. Never thought I would get so many done.

Haha, I'm hoping you thought it said 'maximise' instead of 'minimise'.

Edited by kiwijam 2016-04-29 3:41 AM

Would someone be willing to spoil the Accordances puzzle?


Edited by rob 2016-04-29 3:24 AM

Check out Cordelia's "wrong" answer for a clue

And thanks James for your sympathy.

So close, I had considered both ingredients.

Sorry David, I hadn't noticed that the rest of your answers and your other optimiser were perfect, and this alone was keeping you from being 1st=. (You know I think you're wonderful.)