Yes Deb, rules for 4th & 5th rounds are confusing.
Can you explain?

Without revealing too much about the puzzles, in some 3X3 boxes both odd-sum-circle and consecutive-bar are present.
In Stage 4 : Converse rule applies to those boxes.
That means, between 2 neighbours
a) if consecutive symbol is present, they have to be consecutive
b) if Odd-Sum-circle is present, their sum has to be Odd, but they can't be consecutive.
c) if no symbols are present, they can't be consecutive, their sum can't be odd

In Stage 5 : Converse rules don't apply at all.
That means, between 2 neighbours
a) if consecutive-bar is present, they are consecutive
b) if Odd-Sum-circle is present, their sum has to be Odd. But they still can be consecutive
c) if no symbols are present, they can still be consecutive or their sum can still be Odd.

Note that Converse rule applies to all puzzles in Stage1, Stage2 and Stage3

Is it clear?

@deb: Thank you for posting the excellent explanation.

@mjaipal: If you're still a bit unsure about the rules, wait a day or so - I'll be posting some puzzles similar to the stage 4 and stage 5 puzzles as additional practice.

Here's a set of puzzles using the same rules as the ones in Sampler Platter. Hopefully they help out a bit!

thegriddle.net/521

Edited by davmillar 2010-07-27 11:56 PM

David, In the pdf file the top 2 puzzles are Stage 4 type puzzles and the bottom 2 are Stage 5 type puzzles. Is that correct?

Thanks Deb & David.

Yes, that's correct.

Just now solved the IB puzzles.............it was really great fun............now let me try the ones in griddle.net........
@Deb thanks for making the instructions so clear....

Excellent and Interesting Puzzles Dave... :)

Rishi

The puzzle booklet is now ready to download on the submission page! The passcode for the PDF will be shown when you begin the test.

logicmastersindia.com/M201008S1

Edited by davmillar 2010-08-05 2:59 AM

In the submission site, there are 6 tabs. One for each of Stage 1 to Stage 5 and one tab for examples.
After you click on "Start", Stage 1 tab will directly be selected. At any point in time you can click on any other tab to go to the corresponding Stage.

As long as you don't close / refresh the browser, the state of sudokus in all tabs will be maintained.


Also, note that the Sudoku booklet has 7 pages (including the header page). Page 6 has one Sudoku from stage 4 and one Sudoku from Stage 5. All other pages have stage specific Sudokus.

Best of luck to all the participants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so many points to lose..aiyoyo...but overall i like ur puzzles.. thanks

Thankyou for these nice puzzles.

David thanks for this nice set. But anyone who wish to deal with it must be very careful. Otherwise he/she can make silly mistakes just like me In one of the puzzles I entered two same digits in a 3x3 region and lost points of a successfully soved puzzle while entering the solution. My other mistake was seeing a sign (greater that) wrong Anyway the whole set was fascinating. Where you're using different tools to obtain a solution. What can I say, this sampler platter really tastes good

Regards

Edited by zhergan 2010-08-07 6:15 PM

Zafer, Good points.
Comparatively, I see many scores between 400 and 500. But only a handful getting bonus points.

Many thanks for these very nice puzzles with a good mix of rules.
I ask: puzzle n° 13 (the first of stage four) has a double solution, even if out of answer area?
I think that two "3" can be exchanged with two "9", but it is not important for tha answer.

Remember this rule:
In Stage 4 : if Odd-Sum-circle is present, their sum has to be Odd, but they can't be consecutive.

Ah, yes! Thak you very much, Amnon!

well this was my first attempt at solving puzzles and sudoku...i scored extra low...but i loved the experience.....thanks...looking forward to learning puzzle solving admist some great guys..:)

Hm, I should read forum posts more carefully next time.
That costs me time in some puzzles, but at least it makes 6x6 puzzles little more challenging

David, thanks for nice competition (4th and 5th stage - very nice puzzles)

cool puzzles

Very, very nice puzzles. I like how the logic flowed in the latter stages even though it looked like it shouldn't.

A feature suggestion for the online submission: give a warning when you haven't filled all the cells you need to (all cells pre-"show cells to fill" time, highlighted cells after clicking "show cells to fill"). I almost missed a region of cells to fill in one of the 6x6 puzzles!

Will not be difficult to implement. but do we really need this feature?
in an actual competition, you are never going get this kind of helping tools.

Congratulations to jaku111, Hideaki Jo and Fred Stalder for topping in LMI August Sudoku Test - Sampler Platter.

There were 138 participants out of which 122 got non-zero scores and 20 of them got bonus points.

Thank you all for participating and making this a success.