Asian Sudoku Championship 2025
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Evergreens - 31st Oct - 2nd Nov - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier56 posts • Page 1 of 3 • 1 2 3
@ 2015-10-31 2:47 PM (#19729 - in reply to #19690) (#19729) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2015-10-31 2:47 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? Too many medium difficult puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arrows
 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


@ 2015-10-31 9:28 PM (#19730 - in reply to #19690) (#19730) Top

kishy72



Posts: 419
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Country : India

kishy72 posted @ 2015-10-31 9:28 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Dominos
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Found this set really hard.I practised Hashi well before the test but found them too difficult and didn't gain much of an advantage on them.I completed all Hashis at close to 35 mins.Arrows too managed to stall me for quite some time.I found some comfort in dominoes where I managed to gain some quick points and which I never practised before the test....A very hard set .Would have preferred more easier puzzles.....
@ 2015-10-31 10:27 PM (#19731 - in reply to #19690) (#19731) Top

ghirsch



Posts: 102
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Country : United States

ghirsch posted @ 2015-10-31 10:27 PM

 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Anglers
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


This round felt far more difficult than previous ones. I did enjoy the puzzles that I solved though, and I thought the multi-anglers was very fun.

Can someone explain the theme to me though? What does "evergreen" mean?
@ 2015-10-31 11:10 PM (#19732 - in reply to #19731) (#19732) Top

vopani



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Country : India

vopani posted @ 2015-10-31 11:10 PM

ghirsch - 2015-10-31 10:27 PM

Can someone explain the theme to me though? What does "evergreen" mean?

They are just Classic puzzles that have been appearing in contests for a long time. We couldn't have too many standard puzzles in one test, so we split it across two (Classics and Evergreens).

Also, a tribute to two really nice tests during the birth of LMI: Evergreens and Evergreens2 :-)
@ 2015-10-31 11:48 PM (#19733 - in reply to #19690) (#19733) Top

peluri



Posts: 26
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Country : Finland

peluri posted @ 2015-10-31 11:48 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arrows
 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


@ 2015-11-01 12:50 AM (#19734 - in reply to #19690) (#19734) Top

bob



Posts: 59
2020
Country : United States

bob posted @ 2015-11-01 12:50 AM

 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Magnets
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Puzzles seemed unexpectedly hard this round. I used to subscribe to CrocoPuzzle and always did the magnet puzzles. I was quite stumped by the harder ones in this set. Even the Hashi puzzles seemed hard and I have quite a bit of experience with these. I barely had time to look at the easy domino puzzles and completely skipped an entire category (anglers). There is usually time to at least scan them.
@ 2015-11-01 7:00 AM (#19735 - in reply to #19690) (#19735) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
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Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2015-11-01 7:00 AM

Puzzles were nice but I believe they were tough. Lot of new tricks in lots of puzzles. I continued Solving even after the time was over and took around 25 min more to solve few more puzzles. Only left ones were Magents 9 pointer and Arrows 3rd one. Thanks to deb for pointing out the start for Arrows 3rd one.
Really lots and lots of new tricks to explore in this round. Performance wise I believe my bad run is continuing after my below par performance in Numbers Round. Hopefully will improve in upcoming rounds.
Thanks Amit for Fantastic Puzzles.

Would appreciate if anyone can tell the path for Magnets last one. (I could place only 3 magnets in the entire grid after lot of struggle) ?
@ 2015-11-01 7:02 AM (#19736 - in reply to #19690) (#19736) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2015-11-01 7:02 AM

 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Magnets
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2015-11-01 8:21 AM (#19737 - in reply to #19735) (#19737) Top

amitsowani




Posts: 349
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Country : India

amitsowani posted @ 2015-11-01 8:21 AM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 7:00 AM

Would appreciate if anyone can tell the path for Magnets last one. (I could place only 3 magnets in the entire grid after lot of struggle) ?


The fourth magnets puzzle uses minmax constraints.
Look at columns 3,4 and 5.

A column with few signs filled (2,2) is surrounded by two heavily filled columns (4,4) and (4,3).
This should give you a start
@ 2015-11-01 10:07 AM (#19738 - in reply to #19737) (#19738) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
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Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2015-11-01 10:07 AM

amitsowani - 2015-11-01 8:21 AM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 7:00 AM

Would appreciate if anyone can tell the path for Magnets last one. (I could place only 3 magnets in the entire grid after lot of struggle) ?


The fourth magnets puzzle uses minmax constraints.
Look at columns 3,4 and 5.

A column with few signs filled (2,2) is surrounded by two heavily filled columns (4,4) and (4,3).
This should give you a start


Thanks amit. But I guess you are explaining it for Magnets 8 pointer (3rd puzzle). That I already got. I am asking for last one (4th Puzzle - 9 pointer) ?
@ 2015-11-01 11:25 AM (#19739 - in reply to #19690) (#19739) Top

ghirsch



Posts: 102
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ghirsch posted @ 2015-11-01 11:25 AM

Regarding the booklet formatting, I somewhat prefer the bank in domino puzzles to be formatted as below (or flipped) rather than the way they were in this test. The disadvantage is that it takes up more space, but for me it makes it much easier to think about which dominoes I have already found and which I have left. I don't know what other people's opinions about this are though, so maybe this is just me.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Edited by ghirsch 2015-11-01 11:29 AM
@ 2015-11-01 2:37 PM (#19740 - in reply to #19738) (#19740) Top

amitsowani




Posts: 349
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Country : India

amitsowani posted @ 2015-11-01 2:37 PM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 10:07 AM

amitsowani - 2015-11-01 8:21 AM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 7:00 AM

Would appreciate if anyone can tell the path for Magnets last one. (I could place only 3 magnets in the entire grid after lot of struggle) ?


The fourth magnets puzzle uses minmax constraints.
Look at columns 3,4 and 5.

A column with few signs filled (2,2) is surrounded by two heavily filled columns (4,4) and (4,3).
This should give you a start


Thanks amit. But I guess you are explaining it for Magnets 8 pointer (3rd puzzle). That I already got. I am asking for last one (4th Puzzle - 9 pointer) ?



The fourth one is based on transfer of polarities across rows (transfer = number of unbalanced vertical magnets across the two rows).
Look at the number of vertical magnets required across rows 4 and 5, 5 and 6. Also look at columns 6 and 7.
@ 2015-11-01 3:11 PM (#19741 - in reply to #19690) (#19741) Top

Yuhei Kusui



Posts: 42
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Country : Japan

Yuhei Kusui posted @ 2015-11-01 3:11 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? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Magnets
 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


@ 2015-11-01 7:08 PM (#19742 - in reply to #19690) (#19742) Top

TiiT



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TiiT posted @ 2015-11-01 7:08 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Anglers
 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


@ 2015-11-01 7:44 PM (#19743 - in reply to #19690) (#19743) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2015-11-01 7:44 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? Too many medium difficult puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Hashi
 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


Thanks Amit for a challenging set of puzzles. Definitely harder than normal. (And this set was difficult to solve without paper.) Most puzzles would need some tricks and techniques - a good test from a learning perspective.

@ 2015-11-01 7:59 PM (#19744 - in reply to #19690) (#19744) Top

justinlam3



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Country : Hong Kong

justinlam3 posted @ 2015-11-01 7:59 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? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arrows
 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


@ 2015-11-01 8:48 PM (#19745 - in reply to #19690) (#19745) Top

Bram28



Posts: 35
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Country : The Netherlands

Bram28 posted @ 2015-11-01 8:48 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Anglers
 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


Got through most fairly quickly, but got completely stumped by the hard Hashi's and Magnets and ended up scoring no points in the last 15 minutes. Given the relative short test, and relative to the difficulty levels of the others, I thought those were a bit too hard. My favorite puzzle was Multiple Anglers: very nice!
@ 2015-11-01 10:45 PM (#19746 - in reply to #19690) (#19746) Top

rob



Posts: 170
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Country : Germany

rob posted @ 2015-11-01 10:45 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arrows
 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


Great test, thank you! It turns out I have some things to learn about Arrows, and also some things to practice -- I missed so many of the "obvious" deductions at first.

Edit: I think I should retract my judgement on the point distribution. I just went through my results, and things seem pretty even:

* hashi: 1.6 points/minute
* magnets: 1.4
* arrows: 0.6
* anglers: 1.6
* dominos: 1.8

The low arrows score is due to a bad performance, not due to difficulty. I did think I got through the magnets very cleanly and found the somewhat tricky deductions immediately, so that one might be a little undervalued. The dominos felt quite easy, but were low-valued accordingly.

Edited by rob 2015-11-01 11:03 PM
@ 2015-11-02 4:36 AM (#19752 - in reply to #19740) (#19752) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
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Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2015-11-02 4:36 AM

amitsowani - 2015-11-01 2:37 PM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 10:07 AM

amitsowani - 2015-11-01 8:21 AM

swaroop2011 - 2015-11-01 7:00 AM

Would appreciate if anyone can tell the path for Magnets last one. (I could place only 3 magnets in the entire grid after lot of struggle) ?


The fourth magnets puzzle uses minmax constraints.
Look at columns 3,4 and 5.

A column with few signs filled (2,2) is surrounded by two heavily filled columns (4,4) and (4,3).
This should give you a start


Thanks amit. But I guess you are explaining it for Magnets 8 pointer (3rd puzzle). That I already got. I am asking for last one (4th Puzzle - 9 pointer) ?



The fourth one is based on transfer of polarities across rows (transfer = number of unbalanced vertical magnets across the two rows).
Look at the number of vertical magnets required across rows 4 and 5, 5 and 6. Also look at columns 6 and 7.


Thanks. I did got those magnets. But found out what I was missing. Thanks.
@ 2015-11-02 11:31 AM (#19754 - in reply to #19690) (#19754) Top

auroux



Posts: 145
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auroux posted @ 2015-11-02 11:31 AM

Hmph. Assuming that one will be able to finish a PR round within 90 minutes is the wrong strategy. I never figured out how to do Arrows #3 and by the time I decided to move on it was too late to catch up.
@ 2015-11-02 11:35 AM (#19755 - in reply to #19690) (#19755) Top

auroux



Posts: 145
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Country : France

auroux posted @ 2015-11-02 11:35 AM

 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? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Magnets
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Arrows #3: I spent over 15 minutes on it and never found the solution or even a reasonable solve path.
Hashi #2 and #3 (4 and 5 points) took much longer than any of the Magnets puzzles (8 and 9 points).
I am not sure if the point values are aimed at beginners or at seasoned players; if the latter, then they are problematic (Magnets is easier than you seem to think it is), if the former then the overall difficulty of the round is problematic.

That said, it was still fun. Apart from Arrows #3.
@ 2015-11-02 12:37 PM (#19756 - in reply to #19690) (#19756) Top

Aruna



Posts: 1

Country : India

Aruna posted @ 2015-11-02 12:37 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? Too many medium difficult puzzles


@ 2015-11-02 12:48 PM (#19757 - in reply to #19755) (#19757) Top

ghirsch



Posts: 102
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Country : United States

ghirsch posted @ 2015-11-02 12:48 PM

auroux - 2015-11-01 12:35 PM

Arrows #3: I spent over 15 minutes on it and never found the solution or even a reasonable solve path.


If you're still looking for how to start it, I think the break-in is meant to be the 3 in the middle. There are only four possible arrows that can point to it (no diagonals), and you can quickly find that two horizontal arrows doesn't work, so you need to do two vertical arrows. From there I don't remember running into many difficulties.
@ 2015-11-02 2:05 PM (#19758 - in reply to #19755) (#19758) Top

amitsowani




Posts: 349
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Country : India

amitsowani posted @ 2015-11-02 2:05 PM

auroux - 2015-11-02 11:35 AM

Arrows #3: I spent over 15 minutes on it and never found the solution or even a reasonable solve path.
That said, it was still fun. Apart from Arrows #3.


For Arrows #3, the "3" in the center is the starting point.
@ 2015-11-02 2:32 PM (#19759 - in reply to #19690) (#19759) Top

kiwijam



Posts: 187
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kiwijam posted @ 2015-11-02 2:32 PM

I have learnt that I find it surprisingly difficult to (correctly) count the number of line corners in a row or column... :)
Thanks Amit!
Evergreens - 31st Oct - 2nd Nov - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier56 posts • Page 1 of 3 • 1 2 3
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