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Bram28
Posts: 35
Country : The Netherlands | Bram28 posted @ 2014-12-23 7:29 PM | 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 | |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
 
Country : India | devarajand - 2014-12-22 10:04 PM
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. 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.
Good puzzles. Thanks Devarajan !!
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | Eykir - 2014-12-20 12:27 PM
Losing 20 minutes to the website going down a few times while solving online hurt so I didn't finish as many as I should have, especially with finishing Descriptive Pair 9x9 right after time expired. Yes. There were some unexpected outages around the start of the contest. Really unfortunate.
Beyond that, excellent test. Thanks Brian !! |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | gaurav.kjain - 2014-12-22 10:48 PM
fantastic puzzles..thanks!! Glad you enjoyed the test, Gaurav !!
rvarun - 2014-12-22 7:17 PM
Superb puzzles. Great work Rakesh. Other than Outside and Skyscrapers, other three types were new to me. I really enjoyed the test though could not try the 9x9 puzzles within time. I will definitely try the 9x9 puzzles during free time. 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.
neerajmehrotra - 2014-12-21 12:53 AM
Thanks Rakesh for excellent set of puzzles..... Thanks for your comments, Neeraj !!
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | purvishah - 2014-12-21 7:05 PM
Amazing puzzles.. Enjoyed solving them..
haven't understood the skyscrapper sudoku.. so couldn't attempt
I would really love to have a book of the different variants.. need more practice..
Just read about the beginner's contest..should try that i guess..
Anyway Thank you for this interesting round. 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 ). |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | detuned - 2014-12-22 9:44 PM
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. 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.
Nevertheless this was quite a fun test from an expert point of view... Thanks Tom !! |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | swaroop2011 - 2014-12-20 10:12 AM
Awesome Puzzles Rakesh,
My favourite were Descriptive Pair both and Distance Big.
Thanks Rakesh and LMI :) Thanks for the kind comments, Swaroop!!
kishy72 - 2014-12-22 7:57 PM
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)...Overall an enjoyable test. Thanks Kishore!!
Thanks a lot Rakesh! and I sincerely hope that you get the time to author tests more frequently in the future. 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. |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | 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 )
 (jako.png)Attachments ----------------  jako.png (7KB - 2 downloads) |
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Puzlifouk
Posts: 67
Country : France | | 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 | |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | 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). |
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Fred76
Posts: 337
Country : Switzerland | Fred76 posted @ 2014-12-24 7:26 PM 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 |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | Fred76 - 2014-12-24 7:26 PM
I'm very happy to enter the top5 of a LMI tournament again, it was long that it had not happened. Congratulations Fred !! Time for Top-3 now... |
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forsmarts
Posts: 33
Country : Belarus | | 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 | |
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davep
Posts: 43
Country : United States | davep posted @ 2014-12-26 6:29 PM 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 |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | Thanks Dave and Vladimir, for sharing your feedback on the test. |
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margareta456
Posts: 30
Country : Poland | | 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 | |
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devarajand
Posts: 114
Country : India | 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. |
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An LMI player
| An LMI player posted @ 2014-12-28 4:56 PM | 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 | |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | devarajand - 2014-12-28 3:51 AM
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. Good observation, Devarajan. And thanks for your encouraging post !!
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Renga
Posts: 3
Country : India | Renga posted @ 2015-01-07 7:42 PM | 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 | |
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Administrator
 
Country : India | |
@ 2014-12-23 7:29 PM (#17406 - in reply to #17272) (#17406) Top