Amit I think what you are doing is great.... Sudokus are but a small part of the puzzle world. Lot of sudokists are not very good at puzzles and do not understand them completely... Im one of that majority.... This will help ppl like us to attempt puzzle competitions in the future .... Nice idea....

I agree with you Rishi... I personally dont like puzzles as much as sudokus, and I am not even good at them :(

So seems like Amit is gearing everyone to give a good shot at IPC 2010. Good news is more participants, bad news is more competition ;-)

The IB should be out by tonight. Meanwhile I will give a preview of some of the sudokus for which I have borrowed ideas from external sources.

Battleship Sudoku
Fill the grid also that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contain the digits 1 through 9. To solve the sudoku you will need to locate the position of the 10-ship fleet in the grid. The ships with size greater then 1 can be placed only in horizontal and vertical directions. The ships do not touch each other, not even diagonally. The numbers outside the grid indicate how many cells in that row or column contain parts of ships. The ship can not occupy the cells with given digits.
Example: http://motris.livejournal.com/79580.html

Digital Paint by Number Sudoku
Fill in the grid with digits from 1 to 9 so that each row, column and 3x3-box has exactly one of each digit. You also need to shade a few cells within the grid to find out a hidden figure. The numbers on the sides of the grid give the sum of the shaded cells in each shaded stretch in a certain row or column. The black regions are separated by at least one or more empty cells.
Example: http://motris.livejournal.com/23949.html

Easy as Sudoku
Fill the grid with the digits 1 to 6. Each row, column and 3x3-box has exactly one of each digit and 3 empty cells. The clues along the edges tell you which digit you can see from that direction
Example: http://www.sachsentext.de/en/endview_sudoku1.htm

Word Search Sudoku
Place the alphabets C,D,E,K,M,O,S,T and U in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3 X 3 box contains each alphabet at least once. You should be able to find the words given below the grid. These words can be placed horizontally, vertically, or diagonally - forward or backward.
Example: http://www.sachsentext.de/en/wortsuch_sudoku1.htm

The Instruction Booklet is available for download at the mock 16 test page.

Thanks to Deb for creating examples for 3 of the puzzles. (Minesweeper, Mastermind and Pirate Sudoku)
I also borrowed 3 puzzles from Ritesh's mock 6 (Sudokuro and Skyscraper Sudoku and the Classic Sudoku)

Unfortunately I couldnt create examples for some of the types for which I have provided links to external sources.

The Instruction Booklet also contains an Appendix (last 5 pages). This is mainly for participants who are new to logic puzzles apart from Sudoku. It is only to help you solve the Sudoku variants and they will not appear in the mock test.

Hope you have a fun mock test !!

Amit,

Couple of doubts with the IB.
1. Mastermind Sudoku - I thought the 5 digit code will be given. In the IB it is not.
2. The Dominos given in the appendix has no similarity with the 'Domino Sudoku'

@ Deb:
You are right about the Mastermind Sudoku, the code will be given in the puzzle. I forgot to enter it in the IB.

For the IB example the code is "28471"

I have not seen this puzzle type before an wanted to have a simple introductory puzzle. However in the future I think puzzle creators can choose to create puzzles without the code given, where identifying the code will be a part of the puzzle solving process.

The Dominos example is not similar to the Domino Sudoku, but that is the best introductory example I had. I have also created a separate example for Domino Sudoku which should make the rules of domino Sudoku pretty clear. More examples can be found in previous Japanese Number Place Championships.

thanx.....I wasted so much of time indentifying the code...........but the puzzle was one star when the code was known.

One request to organisers - please see that the grid lines are marked properly in the puzzle especially the region boundaries as in Sudokuro it was difficult to identify regions as the boundaries were not bold at places.

Grid lines will be marked properly in the puzzle pdf and also online flash

Amit,

Can you please tell me if in the minesweeper sudoku of IB, r9c3 shouldn't be coloured in grey? If not, can you tell me the solution, because I've done a mistake :( .

Thanks

Fred

Fred, I'd created this example, and here is the solution.

[ debmohanty edited - Corrected example after amnon pointed a mistake ]

I think you should swap r2c4-r2c5 and r8c4-r8c5, otherwise r8c3 should be grey, as Fred suggested.

For participants who are solving online in the flash format:
In puzzles like Easy as Sudoku and Minesweeper you can use an X do to identify a blank space or a mine respectively.

For participants solving by taking printouts, enter X in the solution instead of the blanks in your answer row/columns.

The puzzle booklet can be downloaded now.

does the case of the X matter ('X' vs. 'x')?

The case of the 'X' does not matter.

Hi,

Thanks for nice puzzles. But there must be a problem with Word Search Sudoku. After I started the mock test I took my printouts as usual and started to solve. When I opened the puzzle book pdf file I examined Word Search Sudoku and there exists only 3 given letters. One at R6C2, one at R5C5 and one at R4C8. I quickly got stuck and couldn't succeed. But when I was submitting my answers of solved ones I noticed that for this puzzle there exists 6 more givens in the flash format. I wish I had notified this earlier (when I notified this I had only 4-5 minutes to finish test) and dealt with it in flash format. Anyway thanks again for nicely designed sudokus:)

Regards,

Zafer

can i know my score? thanks.

375. in 3 Sudokus you have minor mistakes.
In Skyscraper and Domino 2 digits are swapped :-(

...:-(
what about Piratesudoku?

i was so careless......

@zhergan

Sorry about the error in Word Search sudoku.
I updated the Word Search Sudoku in the flash version after feedback from Rajesh that it is a little difficult to get a start in the puzzle, but forgot to update the same in the pdf version.

For all participants who are yet to particpate please take note of the update in the Word Search Sudoku Flash format.

Piratesudoku is also wrong. 3 digits are not matching with the expected answer.

can i know my score?

335