Thanks Deb....I did go to the link provided by you above which led to the instructions and steps provided for June Beginners Championship. I have one more question...In step 3, it says using the password provided below the timer, the Sudoku booklet can be unlocked. Now how to use this passwork, click on it or paste it somewhere....Actually on Aug 11th, I was frantically clicking on it and a couple of other tabs not knowing exactly what to do with it. And lo! it just worked....but didn't know how...hence now this question to you, so I don't repeat this again. Thanks in advance again.

Password is not to be used by players who are solving online. You can simply ignore it.

If you are solving on paper, you need to download the "Sudoku Booklet", which is a password protected pdf file. When you click on "Start Classics" (or Start ISC), we display the password. Using this password, you can open the pdf file and print and start solving on paper.

So, to repeat, if you are solving online, you don't need to do anything with the password.

Some of the documentation may be little out-dated or may not be clear enough. We have been running these tests for so long that everything just seems natural to us. So, feel free to point out any oddity that you notice anywhere, and we will rectify it as needed.

Thanks Ravi for the links

Thanks again Deb and one more request! Can you put me on some links where I can practice online solving. I came across a lot of archives with sample sudokus in PDF form....but I guess practicing online would be better in terms of pre-preparation prior to the ensuing Beginner's Championship on 21st Aug, 2013. Thanks again in advance.

You are right that all the archived tests are only in pdf-form. As of now, the June Beginners Test and ISC 2013 are available for practicing online. But I guess you have practiced both of them already.

We did put lot of interactively solvable sudokus here - http://logicmastersindia.com/puzzles/ but it has been a while since anything new was added there.

First time I've managed to actually submit all 8 in the beginner's contest before time, so hooray for that! Question, though; according to the results, it looks like I migrated into the Seasoners category at some point recently. The beginner/seasoner label doesn't really mean a whole lot to me, but I didn't think I had met any of the criteria for promotion yet, plus I don't seem to be on the list of seasoners. Is that where I'm supposed to be now, or was there a glitch in the categories?

Edited by FoxFireX 2013-08-21 9:00 AM

Looks like some glitch... Will look into it.
We have already found few glitches after we had the Beginners Masyu contest.

Hi! I managed to submit all 8 sudokus correcty but not within time! I am still happy participating in the beginner's championship. Just wanted to know how the points are calculated. Thanks.

Each sudoku has fixed number of points. If you submit it before 40 minutes, you get full points. Otherwise, you get half of the points. That is the reason you have got full points for Classic 1,2,3, Diagonal, Irregular, but half points of Classic 4, Odd Even, Trio.
Also, you get 1 minute penalty for every wrong attempt (which you didn't have)

Thanks Deb. I really appreciate your patience to explain each and every query raised!! It was great fun playing the contest. Hope the next one is organised soon. Waiting eagerly for the same!!

Can I ask you to logout in the Beginners page, and login again? It should ask if you are a Beginner or Seasoner.
The database somehow has lost the record of you being Beginner or Seasoner. If you logout and login again, it would repeat the question.

Done. Looks like it's set up correctly again now. Thanks! (Now I just have to repeat that performance and I get bumped up anyway.)

Hello Deb

It's not really important but why I am never on the list of the participants ?

I can see your name. Are you able to view the score page, but your name is not there?

August Beginners' Sudoku Contest is over. Password removed from the booklet. Prasanna will post a summary soon.

The August Edition of the Beginners' Sudoku Contests had 364 participants, including 179 Indians. It seems that the high number of Indians could be due to all the offline contests happening here recently. We hope everyone, newcomers and regulars alike, had a good time of it.

The Top 3 Beginners are Regina (Estonia), sa3664 (Shalini Arora) (India) and beartan (Seunro Joo) (South Korea).

The Top 3 Seasoners are TiiT (Estonia), jaku111 (Czech Republic) and Gotroch (Czech Republic).

Congrats to all the winners, and thank you all for participating!

On a personal note, I was a test solver for this Beginners' Contest. I noted that the Trio is harder than most Trios out there, and I thought thats a good thing, because concentrating on 2-3 numbers at a time is one of the best ways to learn new techniques for a Beginner (in my opinion). If anyone does want to know how to finish off the Trio or any other of the 8 Sudokus, feel free to post in the forum, one of us will help you out.

Oh and of course, Thanks to Jan Mrozowski for preparing these two quality sets :)

Vunk family monopolized the 1rst place in both category, haha !

hey according to my results,I should be promoted to seasoners category but my name isn't on the list of seasoners.

We usually do that before start of next Beginners' Sudoku test. But it is done now. Following players are promoted to Seasoners category after August's test. Congratulations.

gaurav.kjain
pisipaha
distri
dp_94
purzelbaumfan
Ptiguigui

Looks like I got bumped to seasoner status again. Noticed text on logging in: "You have Achieved 100+ in a Beginners Contest. Marking you as seasoner" I'm guessing that's from the Masyu one, so I guess the glitch is still there. Either that, or my assumption that there would be independent sudoku and puzzle beginner status was wrong. :) Regardless, I'll still be here solving everything I can.

The Masyu test was considered, by mistake, as you had guessed. Unfortunately, some of the data is lost. I have tried to restore from the history. I hope (?) it is correct now, for everyone. My apologies.

I found the trio sudoku quite difficult, got stuck once the 1-2-3 was done. I would certainly like some pointers to solve this. Also in the recently concluded ISC, I am afraid I found even a few of the 6x6 difficult. Can anyone help ? Similarly smashed sums, greater than consecutive too.

Lets go one at a time. This Beginners' Trio Sudoku first. About the 4-5-6 - Concentrate only on elminating 4s throughout the grid, you should get a 4 in the 9th box because of eliminations throughout the grid. About the 7-8-9 - Note that 9 can only be in R2C6 or R8C6 for C6. Also, for C7 and C9, 9 can be either in R2C7,R8C9 or R3C9,R7C7. If its the former, then 9 can't be anywhere in C6.

Let me know if this helps, or if you need more help with Trio. If it helps, then I request you to ask the ISC related stuff in the ISC topic, just to not mix up everything.