Hello,
May we know when is "soon" ?

As far i can tell,
it should be between Feb 18 and Feb 27. :)
Still its just a logical guess :p

Yes, around that time. Allow us one more week to publish the IB.

So is this correct match of puzzle authors and puzzles?
Bernhard Seckinger - Araf
Bram de Laat - Yajilin
Nikola Zivanovic - Scrabble
Palmer Mebane - Statue Park
Ravi Kumar Macherla - Turning Fences
Rohan Rao - Kakuroh
Salih Alan - Mini Coral
Tawan Sunathvanichkul - 4 X 4 sudoku
Tom Collyer - Heyawake
Yuki Kawabe - Nanro

3/10

then...

Bernhard Seckinger - Turning Fences
Bram de Laat - Mini Coral
Nikola Zivanovic - Scrabble
Palmer Mebane - Statue Park
Ravi Kumar Macherla - 4 X 4 sudoku
Rohan Rao - Kakuroh
Salih Alan - Araf
Tawan Sunathvanichkul - Heyawake
Tom Collyer - Yajilin
Yuki Kawabe - Nanro

???

2/10

A few hints/reminders -

Ravi has a blog up recently - http://ravimacherla.blogspot.com/ see what types he posts there.

And, an effort is made such that the same authors don't have the same puzzles from last year

I think putting the two guesses from Kishy and Joo together, we have a fair idea which 2 are sure.

Hello,
I try to open the Nanro puzzle pdf of Marathon 2013, but the password seems to be wrong ... Help...

Can someone please rephrase the instructions for Mini Coral?
So strictly 2 of 4 corners must be shaded in every cell. All white continuous regions must touch the border.
No 2x2 corners can be shaded. And the numbers... shouldn't the 1s be 2s? Since the big white area contains two 7s and it is 14 cells big.
What am I misunderstanding?

- You have to colour 2 of the four corners of each cell, but they must be adjacent. (In Corral you can never have a checkerboard pattern, so that is pretty much forced)
- Nowhere a 2x2 area of four corners can be coloured.
- The numbers indicate the amount of cells (or half cells), not the amount of corners. There's 2 corners per cell white, but they count as a single cell. So the 7s both indicate the same area of 7 cells (or 14 corners). The 1s indicate 1 cell (or 2 corners). Just like in for example Fillomino multiple numbers can appear in the same area as long as they both indicate the size of the area in cells (not corners). So if you want you can see each clue as its double and count the number of corners as all white corners per cell are connected.

Edited by Para 2014-02-16 3:09 PM

I get it now. Thanks Bram.

The password NAN_Tyr3tH seems to work for me. Can you please recheck ?
Otherwise, you can download the full booklet (link) which does not have a password. Refer to page 9 and 10 for Araf and Nanro respectively.

In the original versions (see puzzles at LMD), Berni had used the number of corners/quarters. But for Marathon, he suggested that we divide the clues by 2 so that each clue shows the numbers of connected cells. I agreed that it is a better representation.

I've got it ! Thanks a lot.

Concerning ARAF, does "between" refer to a strict inequality, or not.
I mean: is it possible to have the numbers 2 and 3 in the same region whose size is 2 or 3 (and why not a region whose size is 2 with numbers 2 and 2) or the two numbers in a same region are they necessarily separated by at least 2 units ?

It is strict inequality. So, the numbers in one region must be separated by 2 units, at least.

Link to original post : Tutorial: Turning Fences

This week the LMI Puzzle Marathon will start. It will run from February 21st till March 2nd. For this event I have written a Turning Fences puzzle. To prepare people a bit for a more unknown genre, I will write a tutorial about the logic behind the genre. It won't be complete, but it should be enough to tackle the upcoming puzzle. In the next days there will also be a few practise puzzles. You can also practise some of the puzzles already on my blog, but most of these are logically harder than the puzzle in the actual test. For those who happen to own Akil Oyunlari Issue #75, there are also 4 of these puzzles by my hand in there. They are logically a bit more friendly.

Rules
Draw a single closed loop by connecting dots horizontally and vertically. The numbers in the grid indicate the amount of turns taken on the four dots around it.

Basics

The puzzle type somewhat looks like the standard Slitherlink puzzles and has some similarities in the layout and the way you have to avoid multiple loops. But that's where the comparison in solving pretty much stops. The solving of a Turning Fences puzzle pretty much always starts on the edge of the grid. This is because knowing that a turn finds place on a dot, still leaves four ways to draw that turn, but on the edge this is reduced to two ways. So to start Turning Fences puzzles you should direct your focus to the edges and corners of the grid.

It is important to keep good track of which dots are turns and which dots are not turns in this puzzle type, even if you can't actually deduce the way the loop goes through the loop. Knowing that one dot can't be a turn or has to be a turn, can determine the other dots around a number and give you lines and/or crosses.

For this tutorial I will be indicating dots that have turns with green and dots that don't have turns with red.


If a dot on the edge has a turn, you can always draw a line away from the edge. If a dot on the edge has no turn, you can cross out this line running away from the edge.


If a line reaches a dot without a turn it will always go straight, so can draw the line through the dot and cross out the sides. If a line reaches a dot with a turn, the line will have to run, so you can cross out the segment going straight.




If there is a cross next to a dot with a turn, then a line segment can be drawn in the opposite direction. If a cross is next to a dot without a turn, then a cross can be drawn in the opposite direction.




That is the basic solving technique of this puzzle type.

Numbers on the edge of the grid
As mentioned before, the edge of the grid is the starting point of any Turning Fences puzzle. So what can we do with numbers that are on the edge of the grid.

The number 0

The number 0 on the edge of the grid is pretty simple. You can draw four crosses as the loop always have to turn when leaving the edge of the grid. The same then goes on the dot one row off the edge.


The number 4

The number 4 on the edge has 3 different ways of being drawn. These options all have 2 lines and 2 crosses in common. So you can draw these at the start.


The number 2

This is where the logic gets a bit more complicated. There are too many options to draw out on how the turns can behave. There are already 6 ways to distribute the places where the turns are located.
But there are some deductions that can be done with a 2 on the edge. The two indicated segments running away from the 2 are always both a line segment or always both a cross.







The number 1 and 3

I am doing these together as the logic on the edge for both is the same. Just like the number 2, there are too many ways this number can behave to draw any direct deductions on its own. But just like the number 2, there is some generalised logic to be learned from these numbers.
With the number 1 and 3, the two indicated line segments always have one segment being a cross and one segment being a line.

So if you know that one segment is a cross, then the other one is a line. And if you know one segment is a line, then the other one is a cross.




As you can see I indicated that the two dots under the cross in the 1 can't have a turn and under the 3 both have a turn. This lets you draw the extra line and cross in the image.

Practise puzzle #1

Here is a first practise puzzle to show how the above can be applied.



Now we can look at the numbers to the right of the 0. As we know that one of the segments leading away of the 1 is a cross, the other must be a line. Now we can look at the 2 and deduce that the other segment leading away from the 2 is also a line. Then we look at the 3, where we know the other segment leading away from the 3 must be a cross. We also know where two of the turns around this 3 now go and we can mark these as turns.
We can do a similar thing with the numbers to the left of the 4, leading to the given lines, crosses and no turns.


Now we can look at some of the other numbers. We can see that both 3s on the right already have one dot marked as not being a turn. This means that for both the remaining three dots must be turns. Now we have both 2s on the left with two turns marked, so we know that the other two dots must not be turns. Now we know how those dots behave, we can draw the given lines and crosses.


When we look at the right, we can see that the top 1 already has one dot marked as being a turn, so we know the other dots can't be turns. This means we can draw a number of crosses and lines around the 1. If we look at the 1 below, it has one cross leading away from it, so the other must be a line. IF we then look at the 2, we can see it has one line leading away from it, so the other segment must also be a line. The same now goes for the 2 below that.


Now we can draw some more loop if we look at the bottom right. The lines around the 4 must escape to the right and left. To the left it has to connect to the line between the 2 and 3.
Now you can look at the left and see that the end in the bottom has to go up and the two end in top have to connect to eachother.
When you then look to the right top, you can see this end has to escape to the right and downwards.


Now we come to a bit trickier step that we haven't discussed before. But it should be clear anyway.
If we look at the 1 in the middle, we can see that the right lower dot can't be a turn. Because if it were a turn, the line would have to travel up, but then the right top dot would also be a turn. That would mean we have two turns around a 1 and that is not allowed. So we know the right lower dot is not a turn and the line has to go straight.
This is one of the more important observations you can make in the later stages of a solve of a Turning Fences puzzle, to avoid getting more turns then allowed around a number.



There are a lot of ways these patterns can be hidden. It is therefore important to remember the logic behind these patterns. Try to notice when a pair of dots can only have one dot, or when a pair of dots needs to have at least one dot. And then see if this interacts with the numbers around them.

The distant 0

A 0 can lead to interactions from a distance. This occurs when a line is forced through them, but you aren't sure which one yet. This may sound a bit confusing, but I will explain.
As mentioned before, a 1 or 3 on the edge must have one line leading away from it and one cross. If either of these lines would reach a 0, then they both would have to go straight. This means that the line can't go through the 0 in the different direction as seen below. This leads to a number of crosses that can be drawn.





Let's now start and look in the left top. We can see from the corner 3-1, we have to go straight at the top and the other dot must be a turn. We can them figure out how the lines go around the 1-3 pair just below it.


Now we look at the 3-1 pair in column four. The left bottom dot can't be a turn, because then the right bottom dot would also be a turn and there are too many turns. So that one has to be a no-turn. We can fill out a number of lines and crosses again now.


Now when we look at the 1 in row 4, we can see it has to turn in the left top dot as otherwise we would create a loop. Thus the other three dots are no-turns. Now we have two no-turns around the 2 in row four, so the other two dots must be turns. We can draw a bit more of the loop to the right.


Now we look at the 1 in row six. The left top dot can't be a turn as then we would have two turns around the 1, so the line goes straight down. The right top can't be a turn as it would create an extra loop, so it goes down straight. Now the left bottom dot can't be a turn as it would either create an extra loop or two turns around the 1, so the line goes straight down again. This means that the right bottom dot has to be a turn.


Around the 2 in row six, we now have to avoid creating an extra loop. To do that the right top dot has to be a turn. This leads to more line segments using the 4 and surrounding numbers.


We can now draw some simple line segments using the 3 in row seven as the left bottom dot has to be a turn, now the left top dot is a no-turn. We can also apply some edge reasoning with the 1-2 pair in row ten.


Now we come to the hardest part of the puzzle. this really uses the logic we learned about numbers in the middle of the grid. From the edge logic for 2s we know that both the purple circles have to be a line segment or both have to be a cross. This means there's always an even number of line segments there. If we now look at 1 in column eight, we can deduce the fourth vertical segment. We know the 1 always has an odd number of vertical line segments going to it. As the top two vertical line segments always have an even number of line segments, we know that the bottom two vertical segments always have to have an odd number of line segments to create an odd total. As we already have one cross, we know that the one line segment has to be a line.
We can employ the same logic with the yellow circles and the 3 in row eight.


Now we can finish filling out the 3 in row eight as we know the right top dot can't be a turn. The whole bottom left can now be filled out by avoiding creating an extra loop. We can also fill out a little bit of loop from the 3 in row seven.


Now with a bit of edge number logic with the 2-3 pair in row ten, we can fill out a lot of the right edge.


A way to continue now, is to count the number of ends in the bottom right corner. We can see there are seven ends there. as we always need en even number of ends to create a loop, we need an eighth loop end. This forces the line segment between the two 4s in column five to go down.


Now a way to fill out this bit is to count the horizontal segments around the second 2 in row nine. We have two horizontal line segments and one cross. As the total of line segments has to be even, the fourth segment has to be a cross. Now the bottom fills out simply.


Now to finish the top right of the grid. We can start at the 4-3 pair in column six. The loop there only has one way to go. This then force the left bottom dot of the 1 in row one to be a turn. So the rest are no-turns. Now the 2 in row one has two no-turn dots, so the other two dots need to be turns as well. And we can draw a whole bit of loop again.


The last bit can easily be solve with some edge number logic on the 3-2 pair in column ten. And finally we have to connect the last two ends around the 1, so it only creates one turn.




Posted in LMI, Naoki, Turning Fences, Tutorial

To avoid confusion I now halved all numbers at LMD too (and adjusted the instructions accordingly).

Yajilin's answer key should be fixed. :)

Any basics to solve Araf. Easy smaller practice puzzles available?

Re Araf, Serkan's blog has a couple, see http://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/araf/, and there's one on croco-puzzle: http://www.croco-puzzle.com/Ue-Raetsel/ue-raetsel2.php?datum=2013-1...

I wouldn't say any of those are particularly easy though.

Links for practice

Statue Park:
http://mellowmelon.wordpress.com/category/puzzle-types/statue-park/
2 years back Palmer has released a Statue Park pack pdf, it can be found at http://mellowmelon.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/pack02statuepark_v2....
http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/category/statue-park/

Marathon Yajilin and Heyawake:
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/dl.asp?attachmentid=162&view=...
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201010P1

Araf:
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201303P
http://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/puzzle-15-araf/
http://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/araf/

Nanro:
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201303P
http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/category/nanro/
http://prasannaseshadri.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nanro2.png
http://prasannaseshadri.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nanro3.png
http://prasannaseshadri.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/nanro.png

Yajilin:
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/category/yajilin/
http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/category/yajilin/
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.in/search/label/Yajilin

Regards,
Ravi

And here is Mini Coral practice. (4 puzzles)
http://www.logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Suche/erweitert.php?tag=M...

Thanks for practice puzzles. But I am unable attempt Araf. Any basics to solve it.

I tried to make an easier Araf: http://maybepuzzles.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/puzzle-10-araf/ It does get tricky towards the end, but hopefully it should be easy to start.

I don't know about particular tricks except that
1) if two consecutive numbers are adjacent - then draw a bar between them
2) Two numbers connected should at least have difference of two
These are pretty much from Rules of ARAF.

Others things you can check out is as the size of region has to be between those two numbers, so see if any closed or forced regions are formed, which makes size of region not falling between the two.

I don't know whether i explained clearly, but if you start an puzzle and got stuck then put that here, so we can help out to direct that puzzle. And then may be you can figure out some tricks on your own.
:)

I made an Araf practice. It's bit hard at the end, but I think this practice will be helpful to solve Marathon puzzle last year.





Attachments
----------------
araf-practice.png (5KB - 5 downloads)

Based on useful feedback from chaotic_iak, puzzle image for Turning Fence is made paint-friendly (i.e. flood fill can be used to draw lines). Paper solvers shouldn't see any difference after printing.

Please note, this is just an informative post, and is not indented to encourage you to solve on paint.

Here's a little nudge to the layout of my puzzle.

Ungh. Emboldened by the announced "Easy" difficulty level of the KakurOH, I expected to make quick work of it and started 30 minutes before I actually had to leave. Stupidest idea ever. Oh well.

Congratulations to Gotroch for solving all 10 (as first player and also all at one stretch)

In Scrabble is there a possible 2nd solution? My 2544494613 is rejected but it looks right, to me. Horiz words from top to bottom : 2 -kruglov, winter,meng; 4-evensen; 5-tikhonova;6-haug;9-nagano,heiden;10-skeleton;11-vedenin;13-oslo,oreiller;14-ulvang;16-enke;18-klassen;19-gustafsson.
Thank You.

Maybe I'm counting wrong.

Are you counting the number of letters or number words?
We expect number of letters.

if you are counting number of letters, and still getting wrong mark, can I ask you to send your solution (a photo) to logicmasteradmin@gmail.com ?

Edited by debmohanty 2014-02-21 11:47 AM

Like previous years, there is time limit this year too. Once you start a puzzle X, you can't start another puzzle Y until you submit X or one hour is over, whichever is earlier. So 2 (and more) puzzles can be started together. But you have to wait for 1 hour or submit the first puzzle correctly.

It was not clear last year that you actually have to reload the submission page. We have added a "Refresh Status" button for this purpose.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I could do better in mini coral, statue park, yajirin and nunro.
My 4th favorite was Araf.
Thank you all for excellent puzzles!

Darn, I repeated vedenin.

It could have been easily 10/10/10 for you.

Can someone explain rules of mini coral, especially importance of numbers i didn't understood.



Edited by swaroop2011 2014-02-22 6:14 AM

1. The clues indicate the number of cells connected in the white region.
2. Don't start the puzzle if you just understood the rules.
3. See LMD link for practice puzzles. Solve couple of them first.

ok thanks
i was thinking as number of white cells seen and was counting each quarter for it, so was not matching.
Anyways now understood, thanks.
Yeah i will practice and then give :)

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

The printing on the mini coral sucked. The middle lines were so light that my printer isn't printing them at all on draft mode, which never happened before on any of the contests I have done previously.

How did you guys get started on the Heyawake? I ended up doing quite a bit of trial and error before finding a contradiction that I could work with. As usual, I am completely lost on the scrabble. Any tips on how to do that kind of puzzle is welcome.

The lines dividing the cells into quarters were meant only for flood-fill. But now that you mentioned, it is not a bad idea to have them little darker.

Had you printed the practice puzzles from LMD?

Seeing that the puzzles on LMD do not have the middle lines to begin with, I failed to see the point.

Sorry I was probably not clear.
I just meant if you had printed and solved them. You would have faced the same problem while doing those practice puzzles.

Anyway, I guess the bottom line is, it wouldn't have been harmful to have them little darker.

I can not correct my solution. I got it wrong on the first try of sudoku, corrected it, written in the solution second time, and when I press submit it is not accepting my new solution, but keeps counting the time. no matter found my mistake

Edited by Zrile13 2014-02-22 6:36 PM

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

One or two minutes ago I wasn't able to either commit my solution or enter the forums for 2-3 minutes :(. Fortunately furiously pushing the refresh button solved the problem... :D

I could not understand the Yajilin answer key format. Some thing wrong in IB

See image below. Is it clear?

Thanks. Answer submitted.

i love that mini corral awesome :) Few days back i even didn,t know that type and now its one of my favourite :)

Can someone explain the Mini Coral example in the IB. It has two 7s and how the number of cells are calculated.

White areas can contain multiple numbers. There is no restrictions on that.
The clues represent the numbers of connected white areas. (For 7 here, I have made them in yellow. You will notice that 7 cells are connected)
Remember that each white area has to be connected to the edge of the diagram.

If it is still not clear, please post here.

As I suggested to Swaroop, please solve one or two examples on the LMD site before trying the marathon.

Thanks Deb. Actually i thought cells as the smaller ones. But I later understood that cells refer the bigger square consisting of 2x2 smaller ones.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Mmmhmm, editing this.

I can't edit it; out of time. :(

---

Comments for every puzzle! In order from the one I did first.

Heyawake
I chose Heyawake first because this cute dinosaur thingy told me about "an insane Heyawake". Or because of this, I don't quite remember (did it yesterday). So I opened it...and totally didn't expect it. Impressive construction, and indeed extremely evil. It took me 50 minutes to notice the opening (I had split the puzzle into three branches by then, bruteforcing at the wrong place), and midway I had to branch again; it was by a lucky guess that the branch I chose to work on is the correct one. I'm still figuring out a logical way here. Easily becoming the best puzzle.

Yajilin
As a nice break, I chose an easy puzzle. Here we have a cute easy puzzle with a blatant theme. At first I feared about missing a few clues (hard to scan rows/columns in a large grid), and indeed it's a bit tough but still quite doable. Puzzle-wise, there's nothing particularly striking, although it's indeed a smooth, easy solve.

Nanro
Of course I had to visit one of my favorite genres, Nanro. Unfortunately this one is the worst in terms of aesthetics (along with Mini Coral), so let's go to the solving path. The solving path is neat and varied, with plenty of tricks indeed. Nice one, but not quite memorable.

Turning Fences
Before doing this, I have found that given all the dots where the loop turns, there is either 0 or 1 loop satisfying it. (The proof is left for the readers.) So I was focusing more onto the dots, finding where the loop turns...before realizing that the loop gives another kind of deduction: if a loop passes straight through a dot, the other two segments aren't used. And there I just realized how Turning Fences is practically a very good mix of two puzzle types, with a regular switch between marking dots and drawing loop segments. I used mostly Minesweeper rules together with this rule...and got stuck after resolving about 5 rows and columns. And since I was sleepy and the timer crossed 60 minutes, I put it off.

The next day, I tried bruteforcing a bit (only about 3 segments!), and things fall through. Dang. Continuing with this solved all of the puzzle.

Probably the difficulty lies more in the unfamiliarity of the puzzle type, and the tendency to think numbers Slitherlink-style. Also, impressive theme; took me a minute or two to get the theme, all done while the timer was ticking...oops.

4x4 Sudoku
Nice theme here, with MARATHON at the top, although I was expecting more than just a random symmetry at the bottom. Also, this puzzle got the award for the most profanity I shouted while working on this puzzle, to find yet another undetermined 2/5 pair... No particular thing in solving path besides that one; the solve is pretty smooth.

Araf
Ah, Araf. The puzzle genre closest to Numberlink among all I know. It has scattered clues without much global theme, but I can identify the powers of two, the Fibonacci sequence, the complex of 7s, the 23456/454545 digit sequences... Local themes while still maintaining an interesting solve. A very varied solve here, with those random large numbers giving a good laugh. I intuited somewhat at the endgame, with the bottom-left and the middle unsolved, just like Numberlinks, but I think there's a good logical path around there which I didn't find in the pressure of time. Well done.

Statue Park
Hmmm... What is the theme... And when it struck me, I was delightfully amazed. The solving path is also clean, with a couple small bruteforces required but not hindering the quality. Of course, I have to botch the solve up somewhere in the middle after 15 minutes, leading me to redo the puzzle again to find the same failure before retracing carefully to find a fallacious assumption. And of course, the final "put these pieces without any black circle around" phase is impressive.

Scrabble
Oh hey Winter Olympics. Is LMI planning the Marathon to coincide with the Winter Olympics or the puzzle is designed around Winter Olympics because the Marathon coincides with it? :P This one I couldn't quite get a clean path. After the first half of the puzzle, I just randomly tried words that connect to the required letters, tweaking things until they work. The theme SOCHI and the five rings is neat though, so I suppose that makes it up.

KakurOH
I was expecting a large amount of large cells. Oh well. The solving path is nice, with only basic Kakuro tricks, although they have to be tweaked somewhat to accommodate the large cells. And yes, there are a few tricks by virtue of the large cells. Only symmetry, but I guess it's hard to squeeze in good visual theme with Kakuro, so well done.

...oh. Who says this is easy. It takes a good squint to figure out where the next part is, a bit like Hitori's observation part. But yeah, if you're told where the next deduction can be done at each step, the solve is very smooth.

Mini Coral
No theme :( This is the second Mini Coral I solved (the first was the example). I discovered some tricks on the fly. Yet I can gloat over my 21-minute time, beating Prasanna. :P (He said he has to redo the puzzle once. Okay, your problem for botching up the solve. :P ) After all that self-boasting, I'd say there's almost nothing remarkable of the puzzle. The ending with the bottom-right, however, is indeed remarkable, close to being a Fillomino or a Nurikabe, and I like that part.

Marathon
Regarding the marathon itself! It's impressive. According to the "five major genres of puzzles" by Dr. Sudoku (number placement, object placement, shading, loop, region division), if you can take placing words to be object placement, all genres appear twice except region division which is only one (Araf), replaced with another shading instead. (I take Mini Coral as shading.) That's perfectly balanced, even though I desire way more shading puzzles due to it being the easiest to do on Paint. The difficulty range is pretty much perfect. I'm missing some global puzzles (puzzles where the deduction is done by observing the entire grid; Palmer's 320 and 334 are good examples) here though; perhaps the large grid is just prohibiting, but eh.

Uhm, that's all from me. Whoa, that was lengthy. I took one hour. :O

Edited by chaotic_iak 2014-02-23 7:13 PM

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	4X4 Sudoku
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

Heyawake was much try + error for me. All of the others puzzles I likes very much.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

In Nanro, can any region be empty without numbers. Or all regions must have atleast one number.

Each region must have at least one number.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I really enjoyed all of the puzzles; ranking them was somewhat arbitrary and I ended up favoring the more original types. I am not the best speed solver; I like to look for logic rather than trust my intuition. Nice inclusion of Olympics theme in the crisscross puzzle. Many of the puzzles seemed to be composed of smaller puzzles in the corners and almost a different puzzle in the center (especially araf and statue park) which added to the fun. I like large format puzzles and look forward to this contest next year. Bob Herceg USA

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	KakurOH
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

This was a very enjoyable puzzle marathon in which to participate. Many of my favourite puzzle types were represented, as well as some that were completely alien to me, which is always a fun challenge. Thank you very much to all the craftsmen who designed the puzzles and to LMI for making it available for free.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	4X4 Sudoku
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

A little question about scoring.
Only the best 8 results count right?
So it is out of 400 plus bonus points.

Which means person A solves 8 puzzles no bonus = 400 points
and person B solves 10 puzzles no bonus = also 400 points

Am I right?

Yes

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	KakurOH
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to all the setters and for these puzzles and to all at LMI for this marathon. As usual, I made some silly mistakes.

My Statue park solve is here. I am getting the submission wrong.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

You have entered bottom-to-top. We mentioned top-to-bottom (and left-to-right).
In any case we have accepted your answer.

Puzzle booklet missed how can i play and submit, and i was already start it. What can i do.

Click on on each puzzle to download the booklets.



Edited by debmohanty 2014-02-26 1:08 PM

please kindly reply me

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Flunked the two 'hard' puzzles. Personally I thought Mini Coral was at least a medium due to its unfamiliarity and the puzzle itself being quite difficult.

Edited by tamz29 2014-02-26 11:10 PM

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Great marathon, thanks to everyone involved! It's really hard to pick favourites.

The Heyawake was too hard for me, but that's fine. I still need to solve that one properly. And apparently, I need to practice Kakuro.

If there's anything to criticize, I felt the dots on the Turning Fences were so large that it was a little hard to mark them for turn vs. no turn, and that some puzzles used a little more of an A4 page than my printer can deal with.

I created all the pdfs after receiving image files from authors, so sorry about any printing issues.
I think I just reused last year's templates, but it looks like I should be having more margin around the page than what we had.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Great contest!

On the other hand, small dots and Paint users can't flood fill the dots easily...

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Bit unfair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

where can I get the password

Hi,
Select the puzzle you want to start and scroll down a little (or more depending on your screen size), where you will find the puzzle name you have selected along with a button for starting it.
Once you click on the button the password will be shown and the timer will start for that puzzle.
See attached image for better clarity.

Regards,
Ravi





Attachments
----------------
Marathon_Psswrd_Fetch.png (32KB - 2 downloads)

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Thanks to all the authors - wonderful, beautiful set of puzzles :)
I have some 'w's against my scores (Not that it matters for position, just pride), which I presume means 'wrong'. However, I believe I never entered a wrong answer. Why is this?

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

You should have (up to) two 'w's, which mark the two puzzles that don't factor in to your final score, because they're weakest/worst/whatever.

submit in sudoku 4x4 don't allow to take the answer

Turning Fences was nice. The tutorial was very helpful.
But needs lot of concentration.
one mistake in finding which dot is turning or not turning and any where if you draw line without justification you are at the dead end. I felt Tracing back mistake is very difficulty in this type so had to start over all again :(
But yes one more type added to my favorite list.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I thought Palmer's Statue Park was particularly nicely constructed, both because of the repeating structure (with different solutions in each occurence) and the way the pentominos sort of paired off neatly as the solve progressed until you had two matching pairs to place in the middle.

The mini-coral had very nice logic once I got the hang of it, but it took me longer than it should because I was teaching myself to solve it as I went. Still, once I grokked the more Fillomino like aspects it was lots of fun.

Detuned's Heyawake was beautiful but deadly. Spent a very very long time just figuring out a really good break-in, but once I got some momentum it was a fun solve.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

How do I get the passwords for each puzzle in the marathon? Thanks

Please refer to this post.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	KakurOH
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Finally done with all, Last one was Statue Park for me , did messed up at last but solving to fit two T's and X's was awesome at the end.
Luckily got the bonus.
Overall All were beautiful puzzles, Thanks to all authors.
Could have grabbed bonus even though little in all of the puzzles but, the puzzles like Turning Fences, Heyawake with small mistake tracing back was huge problem.
Scrabble too made a mistake but recovered fast but not enough to grab time bonus.
I really enjoy the marathon, hoping for 10 on 10 again next year :)

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I just love the annual marathon! Thanks to the puzzle makers!

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Little more than a day left, as I type this, for Marathon to end. See the submission page, just above the puzzles, for exact timing in your timezone.



Given that the score page has been displaying partial scores, you rank will take a (huge) dip if you have not completed at least 8 puzzles.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	KakurOH
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Bit unfair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

I think a few of the puzzles could have been easier. While the puzzles as they are will differentiate between the top solvers, the solvers around #50-60 have too many that take over an hour.

The equal points per minute scoring system for all puzzles regardless of difficulty seems a little skewed.

How to attach a paint file here. As file size is large I am unable to attach. My Araf solve is correct but submission shows wrong. I want to send the attachment.

Upload at http://tinypic.com/ and post the link here. (See this post for details)
OR
send email to logicmasteradmin@gmail.com

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Thanks to all the puzzle makers! This was incredibly fun.

The statue park in particular was cool: The givens were super elegant, and solving it was nice when everything kept getting paired up.

Edited by anderson 2014-03-02 1:49 PM

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Would love to know what the intended break-in was for the Heyawake. I noodled around for about 30 minutes before I caught a contradiction, at which point it was way too late to push through for a bonus.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	4X4 Sudoku
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

How to start Heyawake? I guessed one square ( http://imgur.com/UxG5adv ) and then it went with no bigger problems (...I mean without guessing). I want to know how to start it logically.
I really liked Turning fences and sudokus. The worst part for me was scrabble (because I hate word puzzles) and solution code for Araf (but the puzzle itself was really nice).

karzym: I believe that's the right break-in point. The 2 by 2 square in the upper half of that 3 room there needs at least one shaded square. The other three positions hit very quick contradictions.

Well, I noticed that the bottom of that 3-room must have 2 blackened cells. Then I found that the square with number 3 written (in the same room) must be blank. And then I panicked :).

Edited by karzym 2014-03-03 12:45 AM

i felt the logic of 3 squeezed between two 0's was almost used many times in top left half of the puzzle which you gives you the whole start :)

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	4X4 Sudoku
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Seeing all results after the contest would be nice.

I can only see the few I completed.

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Heyawake
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

All results are now available. It was supposed to be available immediately after the contest ended, like all other LMI contests. But a bug had crept in.

The link, as usual, is : http://logicmastersindia.com/2014/02P/score.asp

About answer key of Araf : We did have alternate thoughts about it. But we stuck to this because 1) we used the same answer key last year (without any complaints) 2) if the answer key is computationally extensive, it is same for all.

I love Sudoku.What date is the next competition?

Edited by Hamed 2014-03-03 1:23 PM

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	KakurOH
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Scrabble
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Nanro
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Araf
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

Really enjoyed it, even though it took me some time.

But I did not manage to finish the Nanro. Can somebody help me ?

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Yajilin
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice

May be you can post how much you have solved so far. It will be easier to help with next steps.

[ You can upload images at http://tinypic.com/ and post the link here. (See this post for details) ]

Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Mini Coral
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Statue Park
Your 3 most favorite puzzles of the contest.	Turning Fences
How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice

I know it's hard to coordinate difficulty with ten different puzzle makers. But I still think that a "best 8 out of 10" approach doesn't work well with such a big spread on difficulty.

However, this small scoring problems are outweighted by far by the original nature of the contest, which is a highlight of the puzzle year every time. I really enjoyed the puzzles!