- I am having a bit of trouble with the Guide Arrow [Loop] rules. Is the following a correct paraphrase?
Shade some empty cells so that no two shaded cells are orthogonally adjacent and the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area, which contains exactly one loop. (A 2x2 square of cells is considered a loop.) Cells with stars must be unshaded and part of the loop. Cells with arrows must be unshaded, but not on the loop. An arrow indicates the only direction in which one could begin a path to the loop without going through a shaded cell or backtracking.
- For the Water Walk [Isowatari] example, the Isowatari part of the puzzle is solvable without any deductions from the Water Walk part. Is this necessarily true for the contest puzzles as well? (I'm guessing not, but...)
Version 2 of the IB has been uploaded.
Changes -
1. Points Distribution added.
2. Number of PB pages added.
3. The rules of puzzle 10 and 11 have been modified for better understanding (I borrowed the wording above a bit)
The website is behaving a bit weirdly right now, I advise not starting the contest for a bit while we figure it out. If you do start and you cannot submit for whatever reason, then as a reminder you can send an email to logicmasteradmin@gmail.com with your answer keys (obviously this means you forego the instant grading option so it is not advisable unless you cannot submit on the website).
Shading & Loops - 10th - 16th Apr 2026 - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier 2026
