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
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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 !!

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

updated ranks - http://logicmastersindia.com/SM/2014-15-ranks.asp