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Sudokus from Serbian Championship
Selected by : Branko Ceranic
Tested by: Goran Vodopija (Croatia) and participants of 5th Serbian Sudoku Championship

Number of Rounds : 1
Type of Sudokus : Standard Variations Relay and Sudoku Mix
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Mock Length : 3 hours
Time : 48 hours
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Dates : Weekend of 27th and 28th March

Here is link

Sounds good... and I guess we will be missing quite a few Czech Players for this mock as they have their national championship on the 28th.... All the best to them....

What are the timings for Czech championship?
US championship is also on 28th. But that starts after our Mock is over.

Should we consider changing the timing of Mock18 to accommodate these 2 championships?
OR
Should we make it 48 hours?
OR
Leave it as scheduled for 24 hours!

I think we can leave it as a 24hr championship.... Since our mock starts at 8Pm IST on 27th which is sat morning for US... I Think the US and the Czech players can/may play on saturday night our time as practice for their respective national championships....

Since the championships are on Sunday, if we can prepone the mock start time it might be a boon for Czech and US players to practise prior to their championships.

Something like 5pm IST (Sat) to 8pm IST (Sunday).
I would still prefer 48hrs: 8pm IST (Fri) to 8pm IST (Sunday).

I mean, what difference does it make in having 48hrs instead of 24hrs? It would only attract more participants, definitely not less! (Take Sudokucup for example!)

For reference, Mock Test 17 was from 10:30 AM on Saturday to 10:30 AM Sunday in my time zone (Eastern Daylight Time, GMT-4). The US championship is 1PM on Sunday in the same time zone. I don't think you have to do anything with regards to the US championship at least (though I don't know the timings on the Czech championship). I would go with Rohan's suggestion of adding 24 hours to the beginning of the normal mock test period, especially if my guess that the Czechs have an all-day offline championship is correct.

In fact, (if the puzzles are ready in time) a 48hr window can work better for ALL mocks, not just this time.

Exciting...........I think 48 hrs would be fine. Ofcourse if the puzzles are ready...........
Any idea if we can participate in US and Czech championships...........(are they online or offline)

US...yes (online), Czech...no (offline)

thanx..........whats the link

got the link ..........thanx to Google as usual

http://wpc.puzzles.com/register/it/

Here is the list of all puzzles for mock 18.

Relay (Easier puzzles used for a one of qualification rounds in Serbian Sudoku Championship)
1. DIAGONAL
2. KILLER
3. IRREGULAR
4. CLASSIC
5. XV SUDOKU
6. ANTI-KNIGHT

Sudoku Mix (Contains more challenging puzzles used for final of Serbian Sudoku Championship)
7. ALPHABET (Sudoku with letters. Some letters repeats)
8. ODD (Classic sudoku with some grey cells that can contain only odd digits)
9. CLASSIC
10. KILLER
11. NEIGHBOURS +N (All adjacent cells that differ by N are marked)
12. NONCONSECUTIVE
13. CLASSIC
14. BIG BANDS (There are some grey bands in the grid, and some digit numbers beside the grid. You need to place digit numbers in grey bands and solve sudoku)
15. IRREGULAR-DISJOINT REGION (Irregular sudoku with one disjoint extra region)
16. WINDOKU

IB will be ready soon.

Branko

IB is uploaded at mock18 page.

As discussed earlier today with Deb... There is one more implementation we can think of.... Since we are going on percentile basis.... we can let the organizer of the mock decide the length of the mock.... we can allow users to take as much time as they want to submit answers ....

say as a creator of mock If I decide the mock is of 2 hrs duration.... we ckeep it open for 48 hrs... that allows enough time for all to take part... Also anyone who completes the mock in lesser time gets time bonus based on the exponential scoring system and if anytime takes more than 2 hrs they can have negative scoring again based on the exponential system.... This way even if an average player cannot complete the mock in time.. they do have an opportunity to attempt/solve all puzzles for that mock...

Rishi

I think we can compete in US championship but results will not be announced.. only the names of the US team.
But I'm not sure.....

I have one question.... in the 1st page of IB there are 16 puzzles. But in the instructions part there are 18 puzzles??

I'm not sure where you found 18 puzzles in IB. There are 6 relay puzzles and 10 puzzles in mix part.
Only "18" I found is number of pages.

If I missed something, please be free to ask again.

Branko

Oh I am sorry. The relay puzzles shown are just examples. I thought they were a part of mock test. :P :)

Gaurav,
There will be 6 relay puzzles in the mock.

1. DIAGONAL (38)
2. KILLER (43)
3. IRREGULAR (47)
4. CLASSIC (53)
5. XV (58)
6. ANTI-KNIGHT (66)

The IB has 6 relay puzzles for practice, but they are different types of puzzles.

Given that lot of members are suggesting for 48 hours, [red]Mock18 will be open for 48 hours.[/red]
It starts exactly 24 hours before the usual start i.e. 26th Mar 20:00 IST (26th Mar 14:30 GMT)
There is no change in end time.

Thanks to skywalker who has everything ready for the mock.

Selected examples are available to be solved online. The ones which are selected have not been part of mock tests recently.

@Akash, please take note :-)

Looks like a nice set of puzzles... waiting to have a go at them...

You can participate in this mock test compiled by Branko Ceranic from puzzles in the Serbian Championship for 48 hours, anytime from 20:00 IST on 26th Mar to 20:00 IST on 28th Mar (from 14:30 GMT on 26th Mar to 14:30 GMT on 28th Mar). Branko has suggested a time of 120 minutes for the test, however we will have the test in one round of 180 minutes. You can take the mock any time during this period at one stretch.
Your time for the mock will start after you click on "Start Mock" and you will have exactly 180 minutes to solve the mock and submit your answers.

A timer will be displayed on the answer page, to show how much time you have remaining.
Also, every time you click on 'Submit' (for any puzzle) it will show how much time you have remaining.

Show cells to fill will be activated 1 hour after you start the test

180 mins............looks like puzzles are going to be really tough......eagerly waiting for Friday night.

Good luck and solving speed to all participants.

Branko

neerajmehrotra - 2010-03-26 12:09 AM
180 mins............looks like puzzles are going to be really tough......eagerly waiting for Friday night.

Neeraj, it is not correct to assume that puzzles will be tough. Branko had decided 2 hours, but we added a .5X factor so that more players can solve. It has got nothing to do with the difficulty, it is as per our discussion in the other thread.

Puzzle booklet is uploaded at mock18 page.

Can anybody tell how to solve BIG BANDS sudoku................can the sequence of the numbers in the 7 digit strings given be interchanged??.kindly post the solution if someone has it..........

Hi Neeraj,

In Big Bands the numbers cannot be interchanged.... but they can be reversed... in the example you have a band 1614821

This can be used linearly as given or in the reverse order of 1284161.

hope this clarifies

Neeraj, I don't have the solutions. But Branko has and he will post the solution soon.

Here is another example I created a while back. Attaching the same with solution.

thanks Rishi & Deb...........I think now I can solve the example puzzle...........let me try

You are welcome buddy

Now I cud solve it...........
here is the solution
142859637
739461285
685732194
458673912
371295468
926148753
213987546
594326871
867514329

amitsowani - 2010-03-25 10:33 PM

Your time for the mock will start after you click on "Start Mock" and you will have exactly 180 minutes to solve the mock and submit your answers.

3 hours? in one single round? :(

I think I'll not found 3 hours this weekend to do this mocktest...

Or perhaps I'll try to solve the most grids I can during 2 hours...

Fred

Fred76 - 2010-03-26 7:20 PM
3 hours? in one single round? :(
I think I'll not found 3 hours this weekend to do this mocktest...
Or perhaps I'll try to solve the most grids I can during 2 hours...

Fred, Branko suggested that the mock should be of 2 hours. So, you should be able to solve most (all) grid in 2 hours.
We've made it 3 hours so that many people get a chance to solve more puzzles.

Hope you enjoy the mock as much as you did in other mocks.

Deb

Puzzles are from Serbian Sudoku Championship 2010.
Relay puzzles are one round from Champ - 45 minutes round
Mix puzzles are from final set from Champ. In the final were 16 puzzles in 2 hours. I think that 75 minutes is correct time for chosen puzzles.

Branko

grt puzzles...............says my score is 705..i think this is a good score

neerajmehrotra - 2010-03-27 1:18 AM
grt puzzles...............says my score is 705..i think this is a good score

Cool... dude, that is the 2nd highest score so far

Thanks so much for giving score back immediately. Nice puzzles as one of the final warmups for Sunday.

(780, if anyone is curious, and it would have been 54 more if I could spell as well as I could count...)

debmohanty - 2010-03-26 8:08 PM
Fred, Branko suggested that the mock should be of 2 hours. So, you should be able to solve most (all) grid in 2 hours.
We've made it 3 hours so that many people get a chance to solve more puzzles.

Hope you enjoy the mock as much as you did in other mocks.

Deb

Thanks, I'll try to do it on Sunday, and certainly not participate in US qualification, where it seems that foreigner are not welcome...

Branko,

Great set of puzzles.... really enjoyed solving them... thanks

can i know my score?

Akash: Scores are displayed on the mock page itself.

@ Rakesh........whts ur score.....

who gets the highest score so far?
--------
i 've solved all of the puzzles,but i havn't bonus score, why?

Edited by jcvb 2010-03-27 7:29 PM

jcvb - 2010-03-27 7:23 PM

who gets the highest score so far?
--------
i 've solved all of the puzzles,but i havn't bonus score, why?

purifire has got highest so far 43 minutes bonus.
you have got 16 minutes bonus.

The score that you see on the mock page itself does not include time bonus.

Neeraj: I got 834. Could not complete the last two sudokus even after three hours :(

Deb: Just a thought - Since individual scores are being discussed on the forum, why not as well open up the scores on a live basis instead of displaying them at 8.05 pm. This may also encourage people to score more.

Thanks Branko for nice set:) I got 939. I made an awful mistake on Odd and became unable to get bonus points for about 17 minutes. Good luck to all who didn't tried the sudokus...

Zafer

@ Rakesh

We will include the scores for all participants from the next mock test.

good Rakesh.............834 is a good score...............

Edited by neerajmehrotra 2010-03-27 10:59 PM

amitsowani - 2010-03-27 10:23 PM

@ Rakesh

We will include the scores for all participants from the next mock test.

that will be grt

if i didn't make a mistake on alphbt, i 'd get 43mins bonus!!:( i'm always too careless to get a higher score.
but i think 1080 is a good score. :)

Edited by jcvb 2010-03-28 7:32 AM

jcvb - 2010-03-28 7:24 AM

if i didn't make a mistake on alphbt, i 'd get 43mins bonus!!:( i'm always too careless to get a higher score.
but i think 1080 is a good score. :)

Your score is 1160 not 1080 :)

purifire - 2010-03-28 9:19 AM

jcvb - 2010-03-28 7:24 AM

if i didn't make a mistake on alphbt, i 'd get 43mins bonus!!:( i'm always too careless to get a higher score.
but i think 1080 is a good score. :)

Your score is 1160 not 1080 :)

JCVB, ignore my post... I guess bonus points are 5 per minute so 1080 is correct :)

Branko, Deb -

Thanks very much for the puzzles, very nice set!

Dave

davep - 2010-03-28 11:23 AM
Branko, Deb -
Thanks very much for the puzzles, very nice set!
Dave

Dave, all thanks to Branko.
Hope it was useful practice for tomorrow's championship.

Deb

Mock18 score is out.
There are couple of problems -
1. The time bonus should be 5 instead of 10
2. The ranking is not correct
will fix that tomorrow.

Nice puzzles.

Found the relay really tough, lost lot of time there.

Thanks for the mock. Really good grids. Unfortunately I made a mistake which made me lose 53 pts + time bonus (something like 29 minutes).

As Caudmont remarked, it seems that it was a little problem in the XV grid. We think that it misses a V between 1 and 4 in the first row. Is that correct?

Fred

You are right. I see now.
This error was also in files for Serbian Sudoku Championship and no one noticed that before (participants, test solvers, me...).
I apologize to all that had problem with this puzzle.

Branko

I hope that the error in the XV has not affected the solving of any of the participants.
The error would have almost gone unnoticed, because the 1,4 combination is achieved at the very end of the solving process when everyone stops looking for X, V clues.

To avoid such errors we generally create the images for puzzles like XV, Kropki, Consecutive sudoku programatically using EPS files which Deb has created.
We have to just feed in the solution to such puzzles and it creates the images automatically removing the possibility of manual errors.

If anyone is interested to know more please drop in a mail to Deb or me.

Solution booklet is uploaded in mock18 under 'Downloads' tab

Good to see so many participants giving their feedback which is a clear indication that this was a great mock test :)

This was the most enjoyable mock test for me of the mock test season so far. Apart from the minor glitch with the Sudoku XV, which luckily/unluckily almost went unnoticed, this was the most efficiently organised test, mainly because the entire setup (instructions, puzzles, images, xmls) were in place a week before the event.

The test had a good range of puzzle difficulties, with some difficult ones in the end.
I was solving Neighbours + N for the first time and really liked this type. Liked the nonconsecutive and the the alphabet sudokus too.
Killer sudoku is my favourite type so was very happy to see 2 puzzles of that type :)

Branko had perfectly estimated the time required for the puzzles by the top solvers as proven by cpickerel, by finishing it within 2 hours.
The concept of 1.5X also worked pretty well with more number of solvers ending up finishing the mock test. The feedback and the results suggest that this system works, but the system still depends on the ability of the creator/ tester to accurately determine the time for the test.

Some final comments from me:
1. Relay round was exactly the same as it was on Serbian Champ. Time for that round was 45 minutes. Two solvers finished in 40 and 42 minutes.
2. From the final round (16 puzzles) I took 10 puzzles for Mix. In the Champ no one finished all puzzles in 2 hours (best solvers not solved windoku and neighbours).
For this mock I expected 40 + 80 minutes for best solvers.
Thanks to Deb&Amit for this opportunity and I hope that I'll be able to repeat something like this next year.

Best regards from Serbia. Wait to see some of you in Philadelphia.

Branko

Hi Branko,

Thanks for the great set of puzzles... really enjoyed solving them.... Yes we will definitely meet in Philadelphia.

Rishi