No particular reason why I mentioned it so many times (Possibly because in most puzzles involving paths/loops, paths always consists of vertical/horizontal segments)

OK :). I have two more questions. In the aspirator sudoku, what do you mean when you say the aspirator sucks up cells? That is, how do the aspirator and the sucked cells change after the aspirator sucks them?

Nothing changes actually. Numbers in aspirator or sucked cells do NOT change.

It just means number in "the aspirator cell" is greater than numbers in all the "sucked cells". Also, all possible sucked cells in 8 directions are given. "Suction" stops when they hit the wall or a number >= the aspirator cell.

Thank you very much. All this was very useful. But, don't certain instructions seem misleading or far-fetched or is it just me?

None of the above.
These are 9 never seen variants, and we expected many more questions about the rules than what we have seen so far.

OK, then let me add to the question count. This is in the T crossword sudoku:"Place the given list of words into the grid (across or down) to form an interlocking crossword, so only the words in the list are formed and no others." "only the words in the list are formed": does it mean the relative positions of the digits in the word must be preserved? And if the word is "451" ,are both "451" and "154" valid?

I'm pretty sure that you cannot reverse the words, just like in regular word placing puzzles (and in particular T for Trees, the inspiration for this variant) you cannot reverse the words.

No, '154' is not valid. The numbers should be formed either across (left-to-right) or down (top-to-bottom) in the standard crossword-style.

Thank you.

This ""Suction" stops when they hit the wall or a number >= the aspirator cell." sentence is confusing for me.
So, as I understand, it starts sucking at some point and goes clockwise (anticlockwise) until it hits greater or equal numbers or the wall and then stops even if there would be more smaller numbers on the way? Do we have to figure out by ourselves in which way it must go and where it starts? Although the example is totally confusing to understand that sentence.

Also the quiestion about diagonal path. Can the path turn direction if it hits the wall?

Tiit

No, the path cannot turn if it hits a wall.


There is no clockwise/anticlockwise. You need to look in the 8 directions from the marked cell.

Check these two examples below. See if you understand:





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Aspirator_sample.png (36KB - 7 downloads)

Oh, ok. Big thanks. I think I got it now. I was looking totally in the wrong direction. These images are good for explanation.

Tiit

For me it's still unclear. So does the dice needs to be rolled exactly according to the numbers on the dice and the next number must be exactly adjacent digit of the dice according to where I roll it? Or does the next digit just needs to be any adjacent digit?

I hope my question is clear. Sorry, if it's a stupid question.

Tiit

Your statement "the dice needs to be rolled exactly according to the numbers on the dice and the next number must be exactly adjacent digit of the dice according to where I roll it" is CORRECT.

Try out these examples:






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Dice_sample.png (16KB - 7 downloads)

In rolling Dice Sudoku if the first letter is 6, then the adjacent letter should be

A. If on the same row can be 2,3,4,5 Except 1.

B . If the second letter was 4 then the row above must be 5.

Row below must be 2 if grayed.

Is it OK.

Correct.

Some more questions:

1. Podium: will each square be in at most one podium?
2. Dice: "One dice with numbers 1 to 6 is rolled along the grid". How far along the grid? Is this exactly one die, or could it be more than 1? For example, is it ever legal to have a 4 to the right of a 1, outside of the "path"? Could this be the entire path?
3. T: No other words must be formed - what does this mean?
4. Is the black and white sudoku a full example (not having tried it yet)?

Sometimes unclarities with rules are only evident when one attempts the puzzle. Will there be a location where we can ask rules questions in real-time?

Also, usually I only look at the IB once the test has started & sometimes have found that the Q&As are restricted...

Edited by RALehrer 2014-09-05 2:04 AM

2. I believe there will be a marked path of shaded squares, which will be your path; nothing is told about squares outside the path, and the path is not necessarily maximal (so the die can still be rolled outside the path and incidentally has the correct number). I'm not qualified to answer for the second, but if there are two separate paths then certainly there are two different dice.

3. Suppose you have two T's in adjacent boxes that are back-to-back, something like this:

..##..
######
..##..

Besides the horizontal 6-digit word and the two vertical 3-digit words, you also have two horizontal 2-digit words. If the word list doesn't specify any 2-digit words, you cannot have this formation, since you're making words not listed in the list.

Yes.

No

Well, you can always ask in this forum. The problem is the organizers or author or test solvers or other players may not be available to answer your questions at that point. There is no others location (e.g. real time chat or something like that) if you are thinking in that direction.

The forum is restricted because sometimes, after finishing the test players post too much information/feedback that shouldn't be read by players who have not taken the test. We will decide if we need to keep it unrestricted this time.

There will be exactly one path in the actual puzzle.

Thanks to all for the previous questions and especially for the answers. Some of these innovations will "survive" this contest, the other maybe not. Of course, there's plenty of room here for improvement. For example, in Aspirator Sudoku using the rays probably would be better than letters. Some names of sudokus are also subject to change. Diagonal Path Sudoku could be confusing name, but I didn't come up with a better title. We can call him Nikola's Sudoku .

Thanks to all for the answers!

To quote: "Well, you can always ask in this forum. The problem is the organizers or author or test solvers or other players may not be available to answer your questions at that point. There is no others location (e.g. real time chat or something like that) if you are thinking in that direction."

This would be a good solution, but if it is restricted, one wouldn't be able to read the reply.

"The forum is restricted because sometimes, after finishing the test players post too much information/feedback that shouldn't be read by players who have not taken the test. We will decide if we need to keep it unrestricted this time."

Two threads (one for rules Q&A, one for other postings) would solve this problem.

Edited by RALehrer 2014-09-05 1:08 PM

Can someone explain rules of Black and White Sudoku. I am not able to understand it. If there is one solved example for each type, it would have been helpful. The rules can be atleast deduced from the example. Some sentences are complicated.

The below line is confusing.

Somewhere in the grid one digit 1, two digits 2, three digits 3, four digits 4, five digits 5, six digits 6, seven digits 7, eight digits 8 and nine digits 9 are blackened.

There will be 45 shaded cells in the grid. In those 45 cells, you need to put nine 9s, eight 8s, seven 7s, ..., one 1.

(Alternatively, in the 36 white cells, you need to put eight 1s, seven 2s, six 3s, ...., one 8, and zero 9s)

Here you go:






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BlackAndWhite_sample.png (17KB - 11 downloads)