Here's last year's CTC link

You'll also be able to find Tapa among other puzzles on various blogs like mine/Serkan's/Palmer's etc. or on the Grandmaster Puzzles website.

Comments on 2013-09-04's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-04 00:09:32
A little difficult to start with. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so stubborn to not use uniqueness logic and actually see where the connectivity breaks. At least I didn't make a mistake on a big puzzle again like the first day.

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macherlakumar commented at 2013-09-04 00:19:58
Honestly started at a point where I did not deduce any logic to shade it. Solved most of puzzle on guess work and intuition. Too hard puzzle for me, should solve it logically now.

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-04 00:25:16
Actually I looked back and tried to spot another break-in. Is R3C6 the only break-in? Quite a nice one, but makes it a little narrow. I'll probably have to go and see others' solves and how they've done it.

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-04 00:43:22
Yes, it is difficult, but some of 35 Tapas must be difficult. This one is one of them. I planned to hide the starting point, I think it's done. You should consider these clues together: R2C5 + R3C7 + R4C6 (This is a clue pattern that I discovered recently). Then you can complete the puzzle smoothly.

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macherlakumar commented at 2013-09-04 00:44:55
Just now solved it logically. R3C6 is the break-in (coincidentally this is where I started R4C7 just diagonal) where I found the solving path to progress quickly. After that it is all about connectivity. Brilliantly constructed with more difficulty level. 10+ :)

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gareth commented at 2013-09-04 06:19:38
Too hard for me, but that's probably just me and not a criticism of the puzzle.

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About the big grid size days, I wonder if the 1 hour time limit should be extended. We don't want majority of the solvers not finishing I suppose?

Comments on 2013-09-05's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-05 00:08:32
Could've saved 5 seconds at the end if I wasn't convinced I'd made a mistake when I hadn't :|

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macherlakumar commented at 2013-09-05 00:11:49
Good one, but I solved it slowly.

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gareth commented at 2013-09-05 00:28:36
Wow, I made that much harder than it was. I kept making the exact same (dumb) mistake at bottom-left.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2013-09-05 01:15:22
after making virtual mistake yesterday i had to solve it slowly today awesome puzzles it had been from past 2-3 days which has nice tricks and all. Hope to avoid mistakes in further days :)

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Yes, if possible, please extend the timer. I am certainly not playing for speed, just for fun. But when I take over an hour, it would be nice to still submit it so I can know for sure that it is - finally! - correct.

Also, is there any way to slow, or better yet pause or reverse the playback of "other people's solves?"

Thanks!

Comments on 2013-09-06's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-06 00:11:23
Got distracted for a long time from the true opening near the bottom left :) Flow was nice after that.

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carljohan commented at 2013-09-06 11:57:20
So difficult...

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Thanks much for the timer extension!
Cheers,
EMJ

Comments on 2013-09-07's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-07 00:08:12
Pretty much had to use uniqueness on this one, just wasn't spotting the necessary logic. Went back and resolved and it was pretty well constructed. I see Serkan used the 22-22-23 pattern again ;)

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gareth commented at 2013-09-07 00:13:30
Nice solving theme, although trying to solve it quickly I only spotted it by accident as I repeatedly got it wrong. :)

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macherlakumar commented at 2013-09-07 12:55:00
Certainly a hard one right from start to end. Serkan has put the same trick as Sep 4 puzzle. R4C3,R5C4 and R6C2 clues. Puzzle is completely packed with deductions only. Honestly solved this by intuition only.

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carljohan commented at 2013-09-08 11:50:31
Too hard for me too :(

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so with bigger size grids this time,
i guess with big PuPo, the rankings gonna be affected by large amounts if we do mistakes :)
Hope to do good. :)

I'm one of the first victims :P Hopefully, I make it up with the other big ones.

Comments on 2013-09-09's Tapa

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MellowMelon commented at 2013-09-09 00:19:39
Adjacent clues... still my nemesis.

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kiwijam commented at 2013-09-09 08:18:14
A minor setback, but I'm sure you'll survive (unless Serkan suddenly changes the rest of the puzzles). I enjoy adjacent clues, they're better for us logical plodders, whereas separated clues are better for the intuitive solvers. What do others think?

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-09 12:18:58
I'm not sure what to classify mysellf as. I'd say I use a bit of both, but mainly, compared to last year, I'm solving a little slower and going for consistency. Within that constraint, I think I'm faster when there's more of connectivity type logic, and a bit slower at clue-influenced logic. Many times I just forget to mark the basic patterns until its a bit late.

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-09 14:18:03
I'll make some changes :)

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Comments on 2013-09-11's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-11 00:06:09
What a stupid error! Great thematic puzzle.

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rob commented at 2013-09-11 01:39:27
Well... took quite a while to realise that two neighbouring 2s aren't neighbouring 22s.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2013-09-11 06:11:07
Ahha, I guess because of symmetric clues arrenged symmetrically i was able to do fast as most of the places no need to think again :)

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swaroop2011 commented at 2013-09-11 06:11:43
But yes an awesome and beautiful puzzle to begin the bigger grids :)

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kiwijam commented at 2013-09-11 16:09:06
Serrkan, I was just kidding ;)

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-11 16:12:43
:) I know. I made these puzzles nearly one week ago

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debmohanty commented at 2013-09-11 16:27:16
I will have the solution ready in a paper, and see if I can type it in '113' seconds

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chaotic_iak commented at 2013-09-11 18:34:30
@deb: Actually it's possible; you only need to shade the black cells right. If you don't just see the paper (but also thinking for some trivial steps so no time wasted looking on the paper), 113 sounds likely. :P

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figonometry commented at 2013-09-11 23:08:00
I like the big grids, except when it takes forever to find a stupid error.

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Comments on 2013-09-12's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-12 00:14:15
The 2s of the right side reminded me of yesterday :P

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xevs commented at 2013-09-12 08:39:15
1 cell wrong at 186(ToT)

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deu commented at 2013-09-13 12:52:49
Same time with my wife!

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debmohanty commented at 2013-09-13 12:57:00
!!! Interesting coincidence !!!

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Comments on 2013-09-13's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-13 00:09:31
Got a slight pause for connectivity in the middle, not as easy as the other two big ones I think. I could be proved wrong though :)

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-13 00:14:56
You are right, this one is harder than last two big puzzles. If I remember correctly you need to black just one cell for connecting two groups in the end. Probably some solvers will miss this.

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gpagano commented at 2013-09-13 03:51:16
I probably am one of the solvers who missed that last square :P. Thanks for all the puzzles so far Serkan.

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Comments on 2013-09-14's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-14 00:03:25
Ok wow, I really thought I dragged through that area. :|

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rajeshk commented at 2013-09-14 22:21:39
Very good puzzle. Cleared many of my concepts of Tapa puzzle

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Comments on 2013-09-15's Tapa

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Para commented at 2013-09-15 05:17:59
Couldn't find the logical path during my solve for the left side, but got it afterwards. Tricky finish.

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feels good to be at first place even though for some time ;) :)

Comments on 2013-09-16's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-16 00:55:02
Used just a little uniqueness in some places there. Its pretty hard logically. Some nice little patterns that aren't normally used. 2,1-2 reastricted the 1-1-1-1 to just one possibility and that gives a fair start.

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-16 01:03:02
Yes, you are right about the starting point. I used minesweeper logic, it worked well. I tried to preserve whole design from uniqueness effect, but it could be put final position of clue 6 with using uniqueness. However this is not big deal for the puzzle. I think this is a hardrock Tapa :).

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These smaller grids seems to be much more exciting than the bigger size grid ones ;)

Comments on 2013-09-17's Tapa

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swaroop2011 commented at 2013-09-17 03:59:28
shyeah silly mistakes :(

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Comments on 2013-09-18's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-18 00:09:00
Very nice logic here, I made a complete and utter mess of things. Kept thinking I had it wrong and then actually going the wrong way and then confusing myself entirely :|

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-18 00:17:36
This one is based on connectivity. How do you connect upper left blocks to bottom left blocks?

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-18 01:12:31
I think the puzzle can be solved a lot by using the top left 4s area. I did do that the first time but made a few misclicks resulting in lot of clearing and problems.

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prasanna16391 commented at 2013-09-18 01:12:51
Eek, top right I mean. I'm confused at everything today apparently :P

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deu commented at 2013-09-18 06:10:10
Extremely hard for me! Connectivity logic is always my weakness.

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easonrevant commented at 2013-09-18 08:00:02
I started with a lucky guess!! i should be using deductive logic -_-

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swaroop2011 commented at 2013-09-19 02:06:01
excellent puzzle :)

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MellowMelon commented at 2013-09-19 09:56:56
The email conversations I've had with Serkan suggests he considers it a personal victory whenever he gets me to make a mistake. I think he won two victories with this puzzle...

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yureklis commented at 2013-09-19 12:21:38
Actually this is not my intention. You are so fast in the Tapa. So I'm thinking Palmer is so fast, how should I make puzzle so that all solvers has a chance for being winner of the day, or winner of the whole contest. So my intention, my goal is that balance. I want the contest to be fun and I want that every solver has this feeling that they can be the winner of a day. Nothing to do with my personal satisfaction :) I'm such an old puzzlemaker for this stuff :)

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