That's sad to know. Wish you a speedy recovery, Serkan!

Will the CTC still be 50 puzzles or just end on the normal date?

Comments on 2016-02-05's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-05 00:02:43
Completely missed the bottom right break-in. Nice puzzle

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-05 00:18:33
yeah same here. Took way more than required time.

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kishy72 commented at 2016-02-05 00:30:19
Realizing R7C9 cannot be shaded is vital here in this puzzle.Solving it multiple times later made me realize this. Hopeless :( . Great puzzle with good bite !

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hinowbye commented at 2016-02-05 01:35:57
The feeling when you press submit before noticing you havent shaded 1 Fatal block... +120 on the score!

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-05 10:27:27
Yes, it took a long time to see that R7C9 square. A good hidden entry point there!

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I hope Serkan's hand is better!

Comments on 2016-02-09's Tapa

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-09 00:08:52
A very nice puzzle. I got the start very quickly but got stuck in middle for 1 and half minute, then realize that what am I missing. Then it was quick. Very awesome puzzle.

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kishy72 commented at 2016-02-09 00:17:21
9:09 on 9th February.Speaking of coincidences! .A highly difficult puzzle.Had to guess in between the solve .Solved it with pure logic later.Good one!

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achan1058 commented at 2016-02-09 00:22:26
Missed the break-in for a while, but once I figured that out, it was relatively quick.

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swagatam commented at 2016-02-09 00:35:47
Really a hard one, but very nice puzzle.

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nilz commented at 2016-02-09 00:41:07
It's so frustrating when you guess, and come to a contradiction, then try the other option and find another contradiction, so you go back to the first option and find it was right all along and you just made a stupid mistake...

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-10 11:02:02
Much too hard for me. Over 20 minutes to finish it. At least I didn't resort to guessing this time. Why can't I solve these?

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rob commented at 2016-02-10 13:32:24
Nice one!

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Comments on 2016-02-10's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-10 00:08:46
Missed the path initially, took a guess, but then almost immediately managed to prove that guess by seeing what I missed. Really nice puzzle!

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achan1058 commented at 2016-02-10 00:59:04
I hate that penalty.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-10 02:32:30
I hate penalty too. Don't know why i keep doing stupid mistakes. Very nice puzzle, got it very fast with logical flow. Excellent puzzle. But put a dot at some place where it shouldn't be. damn. Could have have saved 180 seconds :( .

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-10 11:35:06
For me, this is the hardest one so far. Good grief this was hard. I had to guess just endlessly. CAN ANYONE HELP. I don't think I'm stupid but the entire center of this puzzle is just completely opaque to me. Is there a break in somewhere? Man, solving this was torture. Curses to this puzzle!

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rob commented at 2016-02-10 13:39:04
Didn't see the path here, a lot of "it just feels sort of right if things connect this way", thankfully mostly correct.

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rob commented at 2016-02-10 13:45:25
john_reid: There's a lot you can do around the edges. And then there's a central break-in which I missed: That 6 next to the 22 shares shaded cells with the 24 above, the 7 below, but must have a gap next to the 22, so it goes around the other side. From this point, things flow quite well.

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yureklis commented at 2016-02-10 14:17:15
I've showed nearly all steps, I hope that works for you john_reid Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz9JSOczh5gTdUJhNDJtSmd6TTg/view?us...

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Comments on 2016-02-11's Tapa

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-11 00:17:42
wow that was really a tough one. After 1 guess i realized the connectivity issue in the bottom from right part to left. Then it was easy flow.

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bskbri commented at 2016-02-11 01:36:16
113's are back :)

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MrLiang commented at 2016-02-11 10:19:39
113 trick me again -_-"

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-11 10:24:13
Would have been faster on this if I'd started from the right, where I think the connectivity starts getting forced. Starting from the left gives you markings but nothing to really grab onto.

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Comments on 2016-02-12's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-12 00:15:53
Made a false assumption on the 1-1-1-1 near the bottom right, which took a while to fix, but went nicely otherwise.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-12 00:20:03
This one no assumption. Went nicely entire time with little stopping for solving the right half. A nice puzzle again.

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MrLiang commented at 2016-02-12 09:33:12
my brain blocked by two 2-4 clue. :(

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rajeshk commented at 2016-02-12 18:35:56
Nice one. Did without any guess work.

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Recently I had an operation, in these days the time is not by my side, it flows very slowly, and I'm perceiving so much pain than I'd already have, I'm living a delusion :). Also I've figured how hard to able to write :). I have so much pain, but I hope that in next 10 days it will be better for me.

Thanks for asking

Comments on 2016-02-13's Tapa

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-13 00:06:45
Made a faulty assumption, had to restart, but really nice break-in with the 1111 forcing behaviour of the 112.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-13 00:09:20
aah got stuck on this one. I think i am missing some start here. will have to try again.

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-13 00:21:05
The start - the 1-1-1-1 in R7C4 forces the 1-1-2 below it to have its '2' around the 1-1-1-1-1 and so the 3-3 below the 1-1-2 can only have one of its '1's. This means R10R11C3 are shaded and their counterparts for the 3-3 clue, and I think it flows well from here.

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rob commented at 2016-02-13 00:32:29
Hah, damn, I made that deduction with that other 1111 next to the 12, but failed to see it near the 33. Weird.

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rajeshk commented at 2016-02-13 11:54:40
Thanks Prasanna for giving the logical break. I guessed to solve this one. However after reading your comment, I could solve it fully logically :)

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masonjason commented at 2016-02-13 19:13:57
I thought the interaction of the left-hand pair of (1, 1, 1, 1)s via the (2, 3) was beautiful

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-14 01:49:32
Well I was able to solve this with no guessing but unfortunately someone stopped by when I was in the middle of it and I ended up chatting for 45 minutes with them before I got back to the puzzle! It was a great puzzle though and I'm proud that I was able to work out that 1-1-1-1 and 1-1-2 interaction that Prasanna described and didn't have to resort to any guessing. Very satisfying!

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Comments on 2016-02-14's Tapa

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-14 02:29:18
Damn. Did one mistake, but luckily found it before submitting. Costed lot of time. Nice use of 1's and connectivity.

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rob commented at 2016-02-14 19:47:53
Fun! I like the lack of a heart theme.

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-15 23:11:07
Another great one!

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Is there an error in today's solution? I'm fairly sure I've solved it, but it's not letting me submit. Of course, it's possible I'm being an idiot, but I've triple-checked!

Hmm, it just let me submit 7 minutes later and I'm certain I didn't change anything- could you check my solve please and fix my time if you can see that I had the correct solution earlier (if this is possible)? Thanks.

The solution has been corrected. That is the reason your submission was accepted. I'm working on getting your (and Ivan's and some other players') timing correct.

Thanks Deb!

For scoring purpose, only players with CoTI <= 1 hour is considered. All DNFs are ignored.

For example, if you go to 14th Feb's in the score page, you should see a line at the top :

Results for 2016-02-14's puzzle / Num Players : 200 / Top 10% : 20 / Top 10% AVE : 102.1950 / PuPo : 10.1091 / MED : 275.5600
All 5 DNFs are ignored. All 3 players with CoTi > 3600 are ignored too.

Comments on 2016-02-15's Tapa

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Rohan Rao commented at 2016-02-15 00:03:45
That was fun! One of the best so far.

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Para commented at 2016-02-15 06:49:03
This one had a lot of similarities to January 24th.

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john_reid commented at 2016-02-15 23:21:10
Excellent!

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I know what you mean -- when I'm not well, it feels like the days last forever, and I just can't wait for the day I'm all better.

Hope that day is coming for you soon.


Edited by brecher92 2016-02-18 1:13 AM

Comments on 2016-02-16's Tapa

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achan1058 commented at 2016-02-16 00:13:01
Yet another 2 minutes...... I am really beginning to hate this penalty thing.

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I could not submit my solution (18th Feb) when I finished solving it (about 20 minutes before deadline). I tried again then some minutes later again but could submit only after a half hour.

Comments on 2016-02-17's Tapa

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debmohanty commented at 2016-02-17 00:59:13
Timing adjusted for anurag, chaotic_iak, litleboy, nilz, prasanna16391, TiiT

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prasanna16391 commented at 2016-02-17 01:01:16
Not sure how to rate this one. I re-solved it later with some very narrow connectivity logic, which was excellent and a lot of fun. But I just don't think that this was something most people would be able to see with a timer running, and with the big size its more of a lottery for someone who just intuitively solves for the middle being empty. .

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brecher92 commented at 2016-02-17 02:39:14
I still don't see the logic with the 1-1-3 on the left side. I'm looking at a few other people's solves and see that this was handled early on, but I don't see how.

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achan1058 commented at 2016-02-17 02:52:56
I do not understand this puzzle. The amount of guesses I have made is insane.

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achan1058 commented at 2016-02-17 02:57:55
By the way, how do you view other people's solve?

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detuned commented at 2016-02-17 03:50:30
absolutely brutal!

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brecher92 commented at 2016-02-17 03:51:37
achan, it's on the standings page -- click on "Others' solves"

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Para commented at 2016-02-17 04:31:45
Well, that was awful.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-17 06:49:41
very hard.

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swaroop2011 commented at 2016-02-17 06:50:16
half of the puzzle i could solve it logically. But later had to guess couple of times which didn't went my way.

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anderson commented at 2016-02-17 10:24:49
I guessed the 1-1-3 on the left side and got lucky because that guess propagated through the whole puzzle. Looking at it again, I'm having a lot of trouble completing it logically (i.e. not looking more than 2 steps ahead).

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MrLiang commented at 2016-02-17 11:19:53
Ahh!! brain block. It's look like "Puzzle Marathon" for me. :(

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tamz29 commented at 2016-02-17 15:47:36
Should've guessed earlier :/

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rob commented at 2016-02-17 17:18:02
I only figured out that left area towards the end, with some not-quite-rigorous solving before (though the middle area being empty was necessary due to uniqueness at some point). But it's possible to start there. The core restriction there is that the bottom right cell of the 113 can't be isolated, else it breaks the single 4 together with the 24 and the 33 below. Then you can deduce that the top left cell of the 113 has to escape upwards past the 14, and the top left corner can be resolved.

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gareth commented at 2016-02-18 00:16:34
Far too hard for a daily puzzle - I had to give up since I couldn't spend long enough on it, and come back the next day. If a puzzle is extremely hard without warning then it's unreasonable to expect people to magically have enough time set aside at the moment they discover this. It also takes away the fun of it, and means those who don't have other commitments have a definite advantage. ;)

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