Beginners contest for November is over.

Thanks to the different solvers for all the feedback thats been given. I will generally explain some of the thought process that went into things and hope to cover all relevant points. Mainly, I'll say that most of the things we wanted happened here. Its probably debatable if what we wanted is actually whats best :)

Firstly, we feel that there should be a good challenge even for the Beginners. I mean, we could throw in 8 easy puzzles and keep it at 90 minutes so that about 50 beginners will finish, but we don't see that as a good challenge, especially when there is extended time to solve and get some points for the rest. My expected target was that about 10% of the Beginners should finish each set. By that marker the Star Battle has probably turned more difficult than imagined, or "gimmicky".

More than finish-ability though, the priority for us was to establish a system that allowed two things we feel are highest priority for beginners -
1. Accessible, easy puzzles that everyone can solve and get to understanding the type.
2. Challenging, and even twisted ones that are more towards elevating the beginner through the final step into mastering said type.

The major contests often have twists, variations, and even one single round could have a variety of different types. So compared to that, if we don't keep the twists here somewhere, there's too much of a gap between the major contests and these helpful contests. The point of having a contest that concentrates on just one or two types should be to cover most of the things that can be done with said types.

For Star Battle, maybe the rules could've been worded to "stand out" a bit more to prepare folks for the 7th puzzle, but when we introduce an Exploratory category with the main purpose being twists, and then we say the given rules will cover the exploratory part too, it is expected that the rules be read carefully for possible loopholes. Again, this is probably not good to expect complete newcomers to do, but we think its a necessary part of preparing a solver for major contests. However, if more participants feel the rules need to be clearer about the twist, we can consider that for future contests.

Regarding solutions and solving tips, we'll hopefully have them ready by next week.

Thank you all for participating, and now that the format is in place (and I think, been generally successful), we'd love it if other authors express interest in putting together future Beginners' Puzzle Contests.

By the way, when will puzzle booklets with solution(held on November 2013) be uploaded?

Good question. I think we'll be able to upload it on Saturday, but if not then surely by Tuesday. Its a bit of a double-duty week for me with an offline event to conduct too

I will be providing a few starting steps for Star Battle Number 7 as that has been requested by a participant on the forum. If any other ones are required in more detail, feel free to let me know.

Solutions are now appended to the puzzle booklets. Links below, for quick reference :

Star Battle Booklet

Slitherlink Booklet

The hints for SB7 included on the last page.

Can we have the four shapes - L, I, T and S in the Instruction booklet as how the shapes will look so that any beginner can find out about the shapes and then go about the Sample problems in the Instruction booklet.

i am in chennai,
when is next competition ????

This is an online competition. You can participate wherever you are.

Attaching Image containing LITS shapes. Remember it can be Rotated and Reflected.





Attachments
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LITS_sym.png (5KB - 2 downloads)

Well its 1st test this year and 1st test for me too as an author.
I wish Best of luck to all ! Hope you will enjoy the test. :)

I liked the test. Not surprisingly (for me), I did much better on the LITS compared to the skyscraper. Any tips on how to improve on the latter? I often have to write out the min/max range on a cell, which may not be the best idea.

Skyscrapers kills me again. I don't know what it is about that puzzle type that just screws with my brain, but it just won't solve those puzzles. At least there was the warm comfort of LITS to make me feel better. :)

I almost complained about LITS 7 having no solution (thinking that R6C8 must be part of T, which collides with R5C8; I submitted the answer key with that solution), before I noticed that it might be L. Luckily that part wasn't in the answer key, so it's still correct. :P Nice puzzles!

achan1058: For me (that is not a strong solver for Skyscrapers either), you can try to keep track where the highest numbers are (the numbers N, then N-1, then N-2, ...), and also to put some inequality signs on the grid... At least for this particular test those two are enough.

Really elegant puzzles :) I liked that the variations were very friendly, but made the solving process rather different.

Any idea what are the plans for the coming Beginners' Puzzles?

The strategy I use for Skyscrapers, beyond the obvious "Where are the Ns? Where are the N-1s? ...", is to replace clues with inequalities as much as possible and cross out clues that are redundant. So for example, in Skyscraper 6 on the test, when you get the 6 on R3C2, you can write R3C6 < R3C5 < R3C4 < R3C3 and then cross out the 5 clue. You can also sometimes cross out clues after writing in candidates for some cells. Here's an example in a partial 1-4 puzzle:

____
4___ 3
____
____

Here, if you mark that R2C4 can only have 1 or 2, and that R2C3 can only have 1 or 3, then all remaining ways to resolve that row satisfy the 3 clue and you can cross it out. (This is one of the more nontrivial uses that comes up a lot, so I just know it now.)

In general, I find that I have only one or two clues that aren't crossed out when I hit any sticking points in the middle, so then I know which clues to take a harder look at.

The biggest weakness of this approach is that it doesn't deal well with clues that give information like "the first cell is the largest of all before the 6". So it won't help as much on puzzles like this one: http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2013/02/dr-sudoku-prescribes-33-skysc... Also, if you're bad at Futoshiki (aka greater-than latin squares), writing in the inequalities might not be as helpful for you.

And as I didn't win the Skyscrapers portion of the contest, bear in mind that this may not be the best advice anyway.

I have read the "LITS" instruction booklet. But I don"t understand how to play, please explain how to play step by step. I think many new beginner players is waiting.

I'll just start you up on the harder example puzzle in the IB.

1. Each region must have 4 continuous shaded cells, and they cannot form a 2x2 square. So whichever extremity you try to fit from, in some smaller regions there will always be some common cells shaded.



2. Ways to eliminate cells from being shaded, could be that if a shading starts from there you can't fit in 4 continuous cells by 2x2 rule (upper 2 yellow cells), or maybe it forces two similar shapes (bottom right).



3. Region on the left has two possible ways to be filled, either an S from the top or an S from the bottom. If it's from the bottom it forces an S in the region to the right.



This should mostly help you get through this one, and the general usage of such logic should get you through all of them. Only other step is to maintain connectivity of the wall.

Anybody know if the administrators accept points claims for these 'instant grading' type of contests? I very stupidly entered the wrong row into one of the Skyscrapers answer boxes and it's looking like it will end up costing me 13.5 points total after bonuses are awarded. [Finished up with puzzle 6 at 40:47 on the clock]

Hope everybody enjoyed these two competitions as much as I did! Great work LMI and all involved!

-John in cold Buffalo NY

Edited by john_reid 2014-01-09 4:27 AM

Actually, a further question for those in the know. Does an 'Adj Time' on the results page of '040:47(+1)' mean that my time BEFORE adding the penalty minute was 40:47, or AFTER it? I had thought it meant AFTER, but I'm a little confused now after looking at some of the other results. Thanks again for the help.

The time shown (i.e. 040:47) is the last puzzle submission time in the round. Additionally, if you have any mistakes that will be shown inside the bracket.
So, the time shown is "BEFORE", to be specific.

You can use the "submissions tabs" to see the individual puzzle submission times.

We have removed your penalty since wrong row / column submissions are not penalized. It does not happen automatically, and we have to do it manually.

Edited by debmohanty 2014-01-09 6:20 AM

Ok, thanks for doing that for me. Turns out I was wrong then and had misunderstood the timing notation.

So all the lost points turn out to be my own fault for leaving the most expensive puzzle until the end and falling short by a few seconds! This is not the first time I've made that mistake either. Oh well, live and learn.

Password removed and solutions appended.