Thanks for a great contest and congratulations to Nikola! There are many good Sudokus combined with other logical puzzle. My favourite puzzles in this test are Japanese Sums (bottom), Pairs (both) and Tapa (bottom).

It is regrettable that I broke 6 puzzles and wasted a lot of time to fix them. Moreover, I could not send the correct solution of Skyscrapers (bottom) by 1 second. I filled 16 cells 45 seconds before the end of the test and sent one of 2 possible solutions. I continued solving and found that my "solution" was wrong and swapped two digits in the answer form. But, when I was moving my mouse to "Submit" button, contest has ended.

If "single digit typo" is allowed, I had the option to enter the same digit twice intentionally to earn points. In Japanese Number Place Championship, competitors are required to send 4 digits in shaded cells (see here). If carefully chosen by authors, I think 4 cells are enough to judge whether each competitor solved the puzzle or not. This will evidently decrease the possibility of typos, so this is my suggestion.

Edited by deu 2011-06-20 10:09 AM

Yes, judging "single digit typo" is indeed difficult, and that is precisely the reason why we haven't given any points to them in this test (and in earlier Sudoku tests).

Entering just 4 digits (instead of 2 rows/columns) indeed will be a great step forward to eliminate typos. However, the authors have to be extremely careful in marking the cells. I am not sure if we can do it all Sudoku tests, but if authors can confidently mark 4 cells, we can try it out.

Thanks, but I am still a little surprised that no one else managed to solve all puzzles. The surprise was the greater because I lost a lot of time on the big Japanese Sums. I took a number in a black box and added it to the sum in the third column. At that moment I thought: "Oh no, not again." Fortunately, I "saw" a picture of the heart and it helped me to quickly finish the puzzle.

Deb is well observed, it is possible that the June's sun and sudoku miniatures have a positive effects on my brain. However, I'll try not to wait June 2012th for the next victory.

Many thanks to the authors! I liked the puzzles very much, especially Pairs and Tapa.

Nikola

Thanks for the nice test! I did quite well for a Sudoku contest, but then I felt I spent more time on the non-Sudoku-logic than what staring at Sudokus usually involves for me. But maybe some of the puzzles would have been easier with better Sudoku skills? I wasted a lot of time first breaking the hard Pairs and then failing to finish the hard Skyscraper in time.

I particularly liked the Pairs and Tapa variations. The Tapa one is simple enough, and feels like a far more interesting variant in the spirit of even-odd-Sudoku. I'm glad I skipped the hard Domino – it took me hours to solve after the test.

Agreed - a lot of the sudoku I tend to write (well those which aren't at an easy level at any rate) often start off with a very narrow solving path to start off with, and then end with an almost inevitable solving flurry. Rows/columns suggested by me and my testers in the path have differed wildly! It's definitely a difficult problem, and one I can certainly appreciate given I tend to make more typos than most.

Having recovered from my birthday this weekend, I look forward to giving this test a go at some point this week!

Thank you very much for beautiful test! There were so many great puzzles. I appreciate these two puzzle makers, i hope that they are keeping to make.

I think LMI has been turning into a home for puzzle makers from all over the world!

Edited by yureklis 2011-06-20 6:36 PM

Hi everybody!
We are sorry for late response, but it is never too late to express our gratitude.
At first we want to thank Deb Mohanty and his team of co-workers. They always do some good work, when organizing such events and then it is too easy to make a good contest.
We want to appreciate the pre-solvers Blanka Lehotská, Pe?o Hudák a Honza Krtek Novotný. They have discovered some minor mistakes within the puzzles and their times were very close to the real difficulty of puzzles.
And finally we want to say big THANKS to all the contestants, who don´t hesitate start solving. We believe, that you liked the puzzles, because we tried to do our best, just to meet your expectations.
Big congratulation belongs to the best world competitors - Nikola (excelent performance!), Michael and Ulrich, best Indian competitors - Rohan, Thejal, Harmeet and we have to mention also the best Slovak contestants - Ivka, Matej and Martin.
Once again - thank you for the participation, let´s look forward to another great LMI montly tests.

Greetings by
Zuzka & Matúš