Mock Test 15 will be on 07-Mar-2010

Sudoku Author - Gaurav Korde
Tester - Amit Sowani
Number of Rounds - 1
Type of Sudokus - Some basic and some advanced variants
Time - 24 hours

Looking forward to it...

Sorry guys for delaying things a bit too much. Got extra busy with work. Anyways Mock Test 15 puzzles are almost ready with the following list:
Will upload a proper Instruction Booklet tomorrow. In case of any confusion please post your queries here.

1] Mirror Sudoku:
R(m)C(n) = R(9-m)C(9-n) for all 4 corner boxes. In short box 1&9 and box 3&7 will have digits so that they form mirror image. (eg: R3C2 & R6C7 will have same digits)

2] Repeatable Extra Region:
There are two extra regions of 9 cells each but digits can repeat in those regions. Both the regions contains same set of numbers, same number of times.
eg: If one region contains 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9 then the other region will also contain same numbers 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9

3] Circles
There are several circles in the grid each passing through 4 cells. There are 4 digits entered on the circumference of each circle. These 4 digits should occur in the same 4 cells in the same order (meaning the circle can only be rotated).
It will be more clear once you see the example in the IB.

4] Knight Moves:
All same digits with knight step away are marked in the grid.

5] Diagonally Consecutive:
All diagonally adjacent cells which are consecutive are marked with a line.

6] Wrong Sky skyscraper:
Skyscraper rules apply. The digits outside the grid are +1 or -1 than the skyscrapers observed for that row or column.

7] Quad Max/Min:
http://www.sachsentext.de/en/maxquad1.htm
sudoku is similar to above variant but the dots will mean that the cell is either smallest or the largest amongst the 4 cells.

8] Equation Sudoku:
There are 9 alphabets in the grid, each representing one number. There are numbers given outside the grid which are sum of the digits of all alphabets in that row/column

9] BlackOut Sudoku:
My all time favourite. Each row/column/3x3 region contains one cell which is blacked out. Fill the grid such that no numbers repeat itself in 3x3 region/row/column. Check ISC2009 or fed-sudoku online variants for more.

10] ArrowPath Sudoku:
In a 3x3 box there are arrows in each cells. The arrows are such that 1 points to 2, 2 points to 3.... 8 points to 9 and 9 points back to 1 (in 3x3 box only)

11] Palindrome Sudoku:
ISC2010

12] There are 2 digits outside each row and column from both sides. (If 6,4 are outside digits to the left of row 3 then either R3C4=6 or R3C6=4.)

In case of any confusion please feel free to ask as the IB will take another day.
Also there might be a possiblity that 1 or 2 puzzles from above list might be replaced.

Cheers
Gaurav

Gaurav, thanks for updating the list of Sudokus. The set looks very interesting indeed. [ Looks like you are working really hard. Posting notes at 4:15AM]

Please plan to send the IB soon, so that I can upload it to the site.

Hi, I want to know when the puzzles will be published ... and if the contest will be held as before, means for 24 hours, starting on GMT Saturday afternoon. Thanks

The IB will be put up within 3-4 hrs.
The puzzle booklet will be up for download tomm in the Indian morning.

Also the contest will begin and end at the same time as the previous 2 mocks.

Thanks, that´s all I wanted to know

The IB is uploaded here.

Note that the current IB is without the points distribution. Gaurav will be providing the points distribution soon.

can we have the examples for practicing online?

Akash, It looks difficult at this point in time to have the examples ready for practicing online.
We'll update the forum if we can do that.

Havn't understood "Descriptive Pair Sudoku", could someone please explain?

In the example, look at Row1. The left side hint is 26. That means In Row1, either 2 is at 6th position OR 6 is at 2nd position
i.e. either R1C6 is 2 OR R1C2 is 6

Is it clear now?

You can solve the puzzle online too. Click Here

Note that is OR clause is not exclusive, i.e, both possible statements could be true simultaneously.

Chris is correct.

@All

Sorry for an error in the instructions of mirror sudoku.

Correct instruction is R(m)C(n)=R(10-m)C(10-n)

I hope you will enjoy the puzzles.

Why 0703 points?

07/03/2010

Thanks Deb, its clear now. :)

moderator sir i have participated in the mock after a long time... is it possible to know my score...

nice puzzles gaurav, but practice puzzles are a must in the IB for all the variations.... however simple it may be... opens up the mind on the approach to a puzzle...

your score is 349. You have got 2 digits wrong in WrongSkyscraper (111 points)
Also check your email.

Yes I know... I am extremely sorry that I couldnt create practice puzzles. I know for new variants it matter a lot. Deb helped me a lot in making the examples for few of the examples put in the IB. But still example for circles and repeatable extra region and diagonally consecutive were missing.

btw you will be able to see the results at 10pm IST tonight.. :)

can i know my score?

235. Also check your email.

can i know my score?thanks. : )

You did pretty well :)
514

Anyways, have patience.. the complete results will be out later tonight.

Thanks a lot!

Results will be out at 8:05PM as usual.

Very nice puzzles Gaurav... I liked Circles and Descriptive Pairs the best...
I kept making a stupid mistake in Equation Sudoku due to which I lost 5-6mins :|

Waiting for the results...

I found Extra Region more difficult than Descriptive Pairs and Circles...

Very nice puzzles!
I personally liked Circles, Diagonal Consecutive, Blackout (because this was the 1st time I got it correct! :D)...

Made a silly mistake in Descriptive Pairs, else ciuld have have submitted it in time :(

The test was timed also very well... I guess appointing a tester actually helps! :)

Actually the puzzles were quite difficult earlier and our target was that 10-15 people should finish the test. So I added hints in 5 puzzles.. and now we found that it wasnt that easy either... But many could finish 8.

Anyways I am glad you all enjoyed the puzzles. :)

Also an awesome round by Janoslaw. 18 min before time was really great

Being the tester couldnt participate :(
But I got a first hand look at the puzzles which were a little more tougher then the final cut.

Gaurav reduced the difficulty of the puzzles for the Skyscraper, Circles and Arrow Path.
Overall the test had a good mix of puzzles with difficulty ranging from quite easy (Mirror Sudoku) to the diabolic Skyscraper.

I didnt find the arrow path sudoku interesting, it gets solved one box at a time and required more of scanning then anything else.

The circles puzzle was awesome. I couldnt get a start into the puzzle, during the first round of testing. The entry point was quite difficult to spot, so Gaurav added a second equally difficult entry point to the puzzle, hoping that solvers will spot at least one of these to solve the puzzle.

This was the first time I was solving a Blackout puzzle which was not created by Deb, was relieved to know that easy puzzles can also be created for this type :)

Good to see Sumit back in the fray :)

I will be creating puzzle for the next mock along with my room-mate Kshitij. Watch out for the Mock 16, as we have some interesting variations in store for you !!

Amazing Puzzles... blackout was comparatively easy when we compare to the ones created by Gaurav in the past... descriptive pairs was damn interesting.... the skyscraper ate my head!!! :D intersting mock overall... Thanks Gaurav...

Nice set of puzzles Gaurav. Wrong Skyscrapers was really great !

I also expected more players to complete the whole set, seeing that I lost much time (about 20 minutes) doing some puzzles twice (including the Skyscrapers Sudoku) but did all of them anyway (with a stupid mistake on the last cell of Blackout Sudoku...).

I suppose the fact that most puzzles were "rare" or new variants can explain it. I personnally love solving puzzles that I had never seen before. :bleh:

1] Mirror Sudoku:
R(m)C(n) = R(9-m)C(9-n) for all 4 corner boxes. In short box 1&9 and box 3&7 will have digits so that they form mirror image. (eg: R3C2 & R6C7 will have same digits)

is it "9" or "10" ? R(m)C(n)=R(10-m)C(10-n)

2] Repeatable Extra Region:
There are two extra regions of 9 cells each but digits can repeat in those regions. Both the regions contains same set of numbers, same number of times.
eg: If one region contains 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9 then the other region will also contain same numbers 1,1,2,3,4,4,5,7,9

all numbers should be in the same order, right?

1] It is "10". Gaurav had already corrected it, but not in his first post.

2] Not necessarily in the same order. Both regions just need to contain the same set of numbers.

Edited by Ours brun 2010-03-08 4:39 PM

Check Diagonally Nonconsecutive Sudoku at http://janoslaw.blogspot.com/2010/05/diagonally-nonconsecutive.html