Amit, Download the Instruction Booklet. Go through the rules. If you have questions, please post here.

Why EverGreens?
--------------------
At LogicMastersIndia, we have many members who belong to I-love-Sudokus-But-Not-Puzzles group.
"EverGreens" is our attempt to introduce puzzles to them.
It has only the "basic" or "classic" type of puzzles. There will be many easy puzzles in this test.

There are also enough difficult puzzles to challenge the experienced puzzle solvers.

Hope everyone likes the test.

Are these all?
---------------
These are not all the basic / classic type of puzzles. There are definitely lot of other basic types.
It is not possible to cover all types in one test, given that we decided to have 2 puzzles per type. [ And also that we wanted to limit the test to 100 minutes or so. ]

So, may be we'll have EverGreens Part II - depending upon players' interest and response

Lin Minfang has done a great job translating the IB to Chinese. It can be accessed from sudokufans.org forum - http://www.sudokufans.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=72

The idea of putting the Answer Key box next to the puzzle instruction is very nice.

Keeping in trend with the Sudoku tests, we'll be publishing the results are soon as a player finishes the test. However, we need everyone's help here.

[red]Please stick to the answer format.[/red]

1. Don't enter 'blank spaces' or comma or any other special characters. The only exception is Battleships where you enter commas between the co-ordinates.
2. If you are expected to enter '5', don't enter 'FIVE'

The submission site is designed such that it will warn you when you are entering in a format that we don't expect.




While submitting, please make sure that you don't have any warnings in red color.
However, even if you have warnings, your submission will be successful, and eventually you might be awarded if you enter 'FIVE' for '5' after manual check.

It would be great if step-by-step solution of the newer variants are shown here. Puzzles like Battleship, Paint by number, minesweeper, as easy as abcd, kakuro can be left out as they are relatively known to the sudoku crowd as well.

I think this way we (those who belong to I-love-Sudokus-But-Not-Puzzles group) will be able to understand how to start the puzzles. As starting the puzzles is the most difficult part for us.

In fact, if we left out the above mentioned 5 puzzles, then there are 8 newer variants in this test. If the solution of 1 puzzle is posted everyday, then we would be able to finish this by 2nd July (well before when the test begins)

Are you thinking about something like this?

Step-by-Step solution to Loop Finder

That is exactly what I meant (infact even better). Thank you very much

@Deb
This is soo cool! :-)

Can't we do it like this.

Is it because we want to find out the no. of turns by the loop

Aditya, If we allow the red lines as you have shown, there will be 2 loops. (one small loop and another big loop)
That is not allowed. As per the instruction "Draw a single continuous loop that visits all dots. ....."

The answer key is "The number of turns made by the loop" - That has got nothing to do with what the solution should be. [ The answer key will never govern what the solution should be. Since we don't have mechanism to solve the puzzles online, we have to rely on answer keys like many other online puzzle contests]

Oh, thanks for clarification.

It didn't cross my mind, that in this scenario, two loops are formed.

Start	9 at R2C3 can't be black. If it is black R1C3 and R3C3 both will be white, but both are 9
Only one 9 possible in Row2 and Col3	Blacks don't touch each other
2 at R2C4 is white, else 9 at R2C3 will be closed. [ All the whites must be connected to each other orthogonally]. 2 at R2C5 becomes black	Blacks don't touch each other
4 at R1C1 and 7 at R3C1 has to be white, else 5 at R1C2 can't connect to other whites.	7 at R4C1 becomes black. 3 at R4C2 becomes white
3 at R4C5 becomes black. 5 At R5C5 becomes white.	5 At R5C3 becomes white.

This is really cool..........thanx a lot Deb
Can we have arrows now and then the Dominoes.........

I think it will nice to have the solutions of the actual puzzles after the test is completed.

yeah.that will be fine but i am not able to get the start in the arrows and dominoes in the IB

Domino solution steps attached.

Note that the examples for Domino and Arrows are actually little difficult.



Attachments
----------------
DominoExample.xlsx (36KB - 25 downloads)

thanx a lot Deb....u have made my life easy..........I cud do the Dominoes comfortably......still waiting for the starting clue for arrows

Neeraj,
The arrows example is tough and needs T&E.
We've replaced with an easier example. Download the updated IB. You should be able to solve it with ease.

thanx a lot

Notes about Puzzle Booklet

The Puzzle Booklet does not have the examples.
So, if you want to refer to the examples while solving, please keep a printed copy of the IB handy

The Puzzle Booklet has the instructions for puzzles, but it does not have the instructions for answer key.
Instruction for answer key is available in the IB and also in the website for submission

The puzzles are numbered for 01-25 in the Puzzle Booklet and also in the submission website. This will help you submit puzzles in any order you need.

The puzzles will be in green color - if that distracts you, please print in b/w printer :-)

More examples can be found at Rohan's blog - http://rohanrao.blogspot.com/2010/07/indian-puzzle-championship-jul...
Rohan has nicely organized it for the EverGreens.

It is little late, but still better than never.
Thanks Rohan!

Players can check their scores 100 minutes after they start the test.
As per a suggestion somewhere else in forum, players can see their own score - and not others.
If someone finds problems with their score, please report here.
Don't post answers - just post the Puzzle and your id.

After the Test is over, full results will be available.

I've no time to do this test, but I'll print it and do grids in the train !

Fred

Edited by Fred76 2010-07-03 4:19 PM