1 mark.
You remind me a hit of Deep Purple, which I played the guitar: "But I feel I'm growing older..."

"And the songs that I have sung..."

Hi Riad, some 'easy' questions (just to clarify):
11 OPTI-ROLLBALL: We can place a maximum of 3 triangles in the grid?
11 OPTI-ROLLBALL: The path cannot repeat in an infinite loop, so "M14W" is not allowed?
11 OPTI-ROLLBALL: You can enter the start cell again (at 90 degrees), so "K17Z" is 11.5 points?
12 PENTOMINOES AND LINES: We must place all 12 pentominoes in the grid (so placing only 11 is not valid)?
12 PENTOMINOES AND LINES: In every white region, it is possible to visit every cell with a single line. So a white region in the shape of a T-pentomino is not valid?
12 PENTOMINOES AND LINES: If a region has 2 possible loops (e.g. a white 4x3 rectangle), then it gets 'many many' points?

Hi James,
11. You can place a maximum of 3 triangles in the grid, but may be less, such as 2, 1 or 0.
The path cannot repeat in an infinite loop (“echo in the distance” will not help).
The start cell can be crossed again (at 90 degrees).
12. You must place all 12 pentominoes in the grid.
In every white region, it is possible to visit every cell with a single line. A white region in the shape of a T-pentomino is not valid.
If a region has 2 possible loops (e.g. a white 4x3 rectangle), then it gets 2 points. I should have been clearer to say about it in the text.

Argh. The goal in 12 is to *minimize* the total score!! Just spent many hours trying to maximize it...

To clarify about 12: if there is a loop passing through all cells in a region, the number of marks (or rather, penalty points) you get from that region is equal to the number of loops you have there; otherwise, it's the number of lines?

Edit: More questions.

For 10, the tiebreaker is the total number of letters used in all names?

For 7, a match head catches fire if any of the other cells sharing a side to it also catches fire?

For 5, half-dominoes may not occupy black cells even if the part covering the black cells are empty (no circles)?

Edited by chaotic_iak 2017-04-13 8:36 PM

12. Yes, number of loops/lines.
10. Maximize the number of names, using the least possible letters.
7. The head of the match lit from the flame in an adjacent cell (sharing a side).
5. The black cell should not be on half-domino.

It has been so much time to not attempt to solve Riad's puzzles. Yesterday I solved nine of them and I had quite fun. Thanks Riad, really I missed your style.

Thank you Serkan, I am very pleased and I'm glad to see you among the participants of April Contest!

For info. IUPAC has recently annouced the names (and symbols) of 4 new elements.

Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113,
Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115,
Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117, and
Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118.

the new complete periodic table is available from [url] https://www.iupac.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IUPAC_Periodic_... [/url]

May be useful for the next contest.


Edited by forcolin 2017-04-14 8:46 PM

For #4 (build a circular maze), which direction are the digits going? Are they read outside to inside?

Also for #9 (Fleet between the pentominoes), how does the answer key work? It says "- or + or FILNPSTUVWXY" -- is "-" for no ship and "+" for ship and the letters for pentominoes?

Also I think there is a typo? J isn't a pentomino but N is. Or is that a different naming system?

Edited by mstang 2017-04-17 3:24 AM

J is used in this contest.

They are read outside to inside.

Congratulations Riad. Excellent puzzles. Great fun!

Thank you Fernando!

Thank You, Riad! You have the usual, unusual puzzles - very interesting!
Good luck and new faery tasks!

?12. Esli sushchestvuet tol'ko odin put' obhoda belogo regiona (ne petlya!) - ehto dast tol'ko odno ochko?

#12. If there is only one way to bypass the white region (not loop!) - this will give only one point?

Da, Vladimir, 1 ochko. Spasibo za otzyv! Zavtra uzhe mne predstoit serjozno potruditsja i proverit vse optimajzy.

Hi Riad,
A great contest, as usual.
Just to be sure :
- For 8 Rollball :do WE choose the first direction of the ball, or this direction must be forced by the location of 3 walls around its initial position ? (I mean : is it admitted that less than 3 walls are around the initial position of the ball?)
For 11-Opti-Rollerball : can the ball finish scratched against a wall ?

Hi Puzlifouk (your real name is hidden and I cannot use it in Contests):
8. Around the starting positions may not be walls.
11. The ball cannot stay with diagonal walls - in this case the ball needs to keep moving.

OK, Riad, thanks.
If you want to use it in a next contest, my first name is Nicolas :)
So for the 8, you confirm we choose the first direction of the ball, between saveral which are possible.

Yes, you must choose the first direction for the ball to roll.

Meh!! I had to enter my submission for #10 twice because of the two merged names in the initial version of the submission form & things didn't realign properly... but never checked that I forgot to enter 1 for Henna!!! Grrr... really annoying, esp. since it seems my solution was one of the optimal ones (105/561).

Anyway, it's my fault. But please, can we in the future avoid puzzles where submitting a solution is such a complicated process that requires filling a form with 140 entries in a user interface that was never meant for it? (esp. as, with Firefox on Linux at least, pressing Tab now moves forward by two form fields instead of one, so I keep skipping entries in LMI submission forms -- usually it's easy to spot a gap but in this case I guess it was above my double-checking abilities).

Denis