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i did clear the cache dis tym, but even that doesnt help man!!!... do something i seriously wanna try this level

From the database, I see that you've started Spring. So I hope the issue is resolved.

One request - In this forum, please write in proper English. Some of us are much older than what you might be thinking. I especially have lot of problems understanding this sms-like language.

Mind blowing.........great test..........
This new submission system is excellent.

We identify this little problem with Deb, that appears on each test including a killer sudoku.
If someone has an idea to improve the system for killer sudoku, you can speak we Deb, he'll be happy

Fred

Thank you, Neeraj !

A great set of puzzles.... after a long time something which made me think for a long time... A few of the puzzles were simply superb... great job Authors...

rishi

What can I say ? A big thank you for these kind comments.

=> Thomas : My bad about the dark green. I am the one who designed the puzzles and I couldn't access to a printer before the test, so I couldn't exactly figure out what the color would look like. I keep the remark in mind for future tests with colored puzzles.

=> Tom : We went through several doubts concerning the overall difficulty of the test ; before the start, I was a bit afraid that it could be "too easy" ; then I saw the first results and it appeared that, on the contrary, it was probably slightly too hard. So it is good to read that some top solvers have found it well estimated.

=> Rakesh, Neeraj, Rishi : I am really happy that you liked the test. It is always difficult, when you build puzzles according to a "theme", not to fall into the trap of sacrificing quality for aesthetic. But of course, that is what makes the construction of such puzzles interesting.

Yet a few hours before the complete results...

Ah - well that'd certainly be my advice to any would-be test creators. Your own puzzles are almost certainly harder to other people, and so any test you put together will be harder than you think it is :). (Unsurprisingly) if you'd taken my test times for the UKPA sudoku I'd have ended up significantly quicker than far better solvers than myself.

Besides, I think if you concentrate on making hard puzzles, rather than creative puzzles, you won't end up with anything particularly good. I believe the author has to have some fun too!

We applied a little different method for testing than usual, for this test, I'll explain that tomorrow if you want

I am well aware of that ; each time I organize a tournament, I take this fact into account... and every time I realize, once it is over, that I nonetheless underestimated the difficulty. Fortunately, we were six authors this time, so we had a more global vision (and yet, the test was a bit hard...). And I just see that Fred proposed to tell you some more tomorrow, so I am gonna shut up now.

Bastien, if you want to talk about that now, don't hesitate
I'm just a bit tired and my English is very poor, so that each message I post is a real effort. That's why I planned to speak more tomorrow

Fred

No, precisely I am also a bit tired so I welcomed with great joy your message. Right now I just need to get away from screen, grab some book and read until the test is over (I definitely won't be able to sleep till I know the final results, so...).

Ah, so you're not creating grids now ???

Thank you to the authors of these puzzles. This was a wonderful set -- I think it rates as highly as any I've ever played.

Are you suggesting that I may be addicted to puzzle creation ? Look, we have met several times by now, we begin to know each other. I ask you, during one of those times we met, did you ever see me, even once, creating puzzles ?

Rhetorical question, you don't have to answer.

Please, do not answer.


By the way, you just reminded me about an idea of a puzzle I had last night and forgot to put down on paper.

Thank you, Jason !

The test is over. You can view the results here

Congratulations to Thomas, Michael and Jason who take the places on the podium ! Thank you all for participating, I hope you had fun doing this test. We will post more detailed comments tomorrow, after a good night's sleep. (It was tiring to watch you playing )

Also thanks to LMI team and especially Deb for the great work he does for these tournaments. It's enormous !

Fred

Edited by Fred76 2011-03-28 6:00 AM

From the results I can see that Double sum Sudoku had the least number of solvers, and the lowest %correct answers. I find this a bit intriguing, as, in my opinion, this puzzle was fairly straightforward with well defined starting points (columns/rows marked with 'E'). In fact, this was probably one puzzle which was over-valued, and definitely easier than some of the other high-pointers.

All killers were very good.

Thanks to all authors for such a nice welcome to Spring ( i know we are 1 week late in welcoming, but we had some scheduling problems :-)

Very satisfying to see good Indian results as well, 3 positions in Top 20 (Rohan, Rishi and Rakesh - all Rs). Rohan did a mistake and lost the highest pointer sudoku (he mentioned that he wanted to write something about the test after it is over, may be about this).

Also good to know that the "Paper Submission Mode" is appreciated by all. We'll continue using it. In fact, I think we missed the trick by continuing the 'old method' for such a long time.

Thank you everyone for participating. Please leave any other feedback/suggestion you may have.

Yes, this was an issue which Fred and Rakesh pointed out during pretesting. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do.
Without spending significant effort, we thought we'll show the pencil marks in different color, but we dropped the idea in the end.

A small note about Paper Submission Mode
From the database, I found that as many as 6 players submitted same Sudoku using both modes. Fortunately for them, both the answers were correct.
But please remember that, it is not necessary and definitely a waste of time (and error-prone) to submit same Sudoku using both modes.

Well, I do know that some players don't read forum, and might make the same mistake next time :-)

Great test, as I predicted. Thanks to all authors! Please, repeat this before the start of each season.

Nikola

Great test indeed... my personal Favorites were the 0-8 Killer and the Inequality Killer.... The puzzles opened up beautifully and very logical....

made a complete mess of the last puzzle in the last 20 minutes... :(

Rishi

I made the mistake of trying to do this puzzle late at night and very tired - but it was the only chance I had. I really enjoyed the puzzles, but stopped after about one hour when I (after solving the first two) got almost to the end of the jigsaw wordoku and realised I had stuffed it up.

It is hard for me - with a four year old, the only time I get to work on things is late at night when she is asleep.

Loved the look of the test and will add them to the pile of puzzles to solve on the train.