Thanks a lot to everyone!
Congratulations to James, Takuma and Paul!
Success in optimization problems in 2025 earned more points than ever. James had a very impressive victory. Only two participants managed to score points in all optimizations. Takuma, great result! Interestingly written in the two posts above. I wish Takuma success in organizing the optimization contest in Japan.
There were questions like: Why ban word overlapping in Hitori? I think through the answer format so that it is convenient for the organizers. A lot of parentheses can prevent Deb from forming grids with solutions. For clarity, it is better to place the parentheses sequentially. Thanks to the LMI team, Deb and Prasanna, and a special thanks to Kota for the long-term support!

Thanks Riad and well done James! Are there solutions available to the puzzles? I had a tough time with some of them and was hoping to work through them with the solutions.