How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

I have always found the outside variations of sudoku to be a weakling in my sudoku repertoire.
This test served as a good practice to tackle them head on and gain some confidence.

Unfortunately, the higher valued skyscraper puzzle ended up being broken which cost me quite some points as well as time.I spotted the erroneous logic only at the very end with no time to rectify .

In spite of that, I found this to be an excellent test with some brillantly constructed puzzles.My favourites were the Next to 9(10) and the Outside Sudoku(9).I found the latter to be under-weighed for its difficulty.But then again,it might have to do with my own limitations
when it comes to solving these outside variants.

Overall an enjoyable test.Thanks a lot Rakesh! and I sincerely hope that you get the time to author tests more frequently in the future.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	representation could have been better
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Descriptive pairs and Distance aren't my favourite variants in the world, as they can be made cumbersome by not seeing the wood for the trees, and I certainly went into bookkeeping mode for the 9x9 outside. A bit like hitori I suppose, you either get the flow or you don't.

Nevertheless this was quite a fun test from an expert point of view, even if I didn;t quite get the flow of all the puzzles. Putting myself in a beginner's shoes, for this reason it was probably a little too challenging for my tastes.

When I use paint I was able to cross out the marked clues, but with online solving that was not possible, so got messed up. Good puzzles.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

fantastic puzzles..thanks!!

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

I can understand your problem. I have similarly messed up many times in other online contests and given up. Probably this is food for thought for us at LMI. We will see if there is a way to enable crossing out clues so that online solving experience is better for such variations.

Thanks Devarajan !!

Yes. There were some unexpected outages around the start of the contest. Really unfortunate.

Thanks Brian !!

Glad you enjoyed the test, Gaurav !!

Thanks Varun !! I see that you were able to complete the mini versions of the "new" variations but not the 9x9. Hopefully you will be able to finish the rest also.

Thanks for your comments, Neeraj !!

Glad that you enjoyed solving the puzzles, Purvi !! You almost got Descriptive Pairs 9x9 also correct. In addition to the suggestions from Prasanna and Neeraj earlier, I would also suggest you visit http://www.argio-logic.net/sudoku/sudoku.php , where a lot of variations are available for online solving everyday (including skyscraper sudoku).

I agree that identifying the place to start is often critical in these variations. And there were specific clues to help start the solving process in most puzzles. I am still not sure though if I correctly understood your comments.

Thanks Tom !!

Thanks for the kind comments, Swaroop!!

Thanks Kishore!!

I also hope so.

Interesting that between the two of you, four different variants are covered as favourites. Swaroop find Skyscraper tough (as he mentioned) and Kishore broke it while solving. So I understand why Skyscraper is missing from both.

The fourth edition of Sudoku Mahabharat - Outside Variations is over now.

333 participants, 116 from India
40 countries
39 centuries

Congratulations to Jakub, Kota and Tiit for taking the top three spots !!!
Congratulations to Amit, Kishore and Rajesh who finished in the top 3 amongst the SM-eligible participants !!!
Interestingly, 13 countries are represented in the Top 15 !!

Highest rated 9x9 puzzle: Descriptive Pairs - 8.64
Highest rated 6x6 puzzle: Descriptive Pairs - 8.01

Earliest correct submission: Timothy (27 seconds)
Latest correct submission: 89.59 (ssandy, ropeko, blublu)

A look at how the top two performed (based on their submission timings)






Attachments
----------------
jako.png (7KB - 2 downloads)

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

The eight classics were designed to be easy as many of the variations were new and would need more time for familiarity and solving. Outside and Skyscraper were more familiar for most of the solvers and may have been slightly undervalued. On the other hand, Distance, Descriptive Pairs and Next to 9 were relatively unfamiliar for most and may have been slightly overvalued in comparison to the difficulty. The 9x9s were found hard by many solvers - this could have been partly due to the unfamiliar variations.

Thanks to

- all 333 players for finding 90 minutes for the test.

- Yuhei, Kunal, Tiit, Shekhar, Matus, Sumet, Lorenzo, Kalsgaard, Rajesh, Jouni, Bram and N Sigler for your valuable post-test feedback.

- Rohan, Prasanna and Deb for conceptualization and suggestions.

Over to Prasanna for the next round in January 2015 (Math variations).

Thanks to Rakesh and LMI for this nice tournament !

I like the sudoku mahabharat: a bit "sprint-y", but still some puzzles of medium difficulty that experienced sudokers can enjoy.
Having a 6*6 and a 9*9 sudoku for each variant is a good idea (the proof is that I authored a tournament in 2011 with the same idea :p ).

When I saw the IB, I was happy to see the non-common variants "descriptive pairs" and "distance": "Descriptive pairs" was invented by an Indian player if I remember correctly, and I think it's an interesting idea, nice to see this one again. "Distance" was not a "fashion" variant since 2 years, and is a bit hard to tackle at the beginning, but it is also a nice variant in my opinion. The ones of the tournament were not so hard in my opinion, well suited for this test.

I'm very happy to enter the top5 of a LMI tournament again, it was long that it had not happened. I hope I'll start the next year in the same way I end this one.

Merry Christmas to LMI team and all LMI players !

Fred

Congratulations Fred !! Time for Top-3 now...

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Very nice work, Rakesh! I did not fare so well on this one, mainly because skyscrapers and distance variants both seem to give me difficulties. Nevertheless, the puzzles themselves were excellent.

Happy holidays to you and the LMI crew!

Dave

Thanks Dave and Vladimir, for sharing your feedback on the test.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

The Author's involvement in designing the IB esp the images, suggestion to enquirers, great puzzles , replies to post test comments need a special mention here. I rate the Author at the Top of the rest so for at the LMI in conducting a test. Good commitment , Great work, Keep it up Rakesh.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Too many pages / too large grids

Good observation, Devarajan. And thanks for your encouraging post !!