Just wanted to say thanks for this test. As a sudoku enthusiast, but definitely no expert, it was great to find a competition that I could actually have a good go at. I have participated in several of the previous competions in the past, just for the fun of having a go, but was beginning to find the puzzles far too hard on the whole and had stopped taking part. So it was a real pleasure to feel I could take join in again for a change. I am still pretty slow, but managed all four classics correctly and three of the four variants - just ran out of time on the last one.

The theory behind the partial points is that the error is so small that you've most probably solved the entire thing correctly but just mis-entered some digits somewhere. So yes, even if 2 out of the 4 have such minute errors, once you get the partial points, you will be allotted the bonus as you have theoretically solved everything correctly and have been penalized for the little error. (Again, things may be different for Monthly tests)

Just an idea.... Can "LMI Beginners' Puzzle Contests" be also organized along similar lines...

We started this first on the back of Times Sudoku Championship and decided to see how it goes. Now with the World Championship coming up soon and all that, the schedule is packed. We may think of something like that later on if this continues to be a success.

i lost time over re-solving Classic Sudoku - 1 3 times. The puzzle seems to be wrong. i couldnt complete it. however i did complete the Classic Sudoku - 2 successfully

100 + participants seem to have solved it, so I doubt the problem is with the puzzle. It is possible(and quite common, even among top solvers) that you are just making a wrong assumption somewhere repeatedly. Keep trying, and once the deadline is over, feel free to post where you are getting stuck. Another option is to send me a private message of where you are getting a contradiction.

I have to agree with gramar: most of the other contests are very hard to solve and in the end the fun factor just blows away. Thank you for this easy and solvable contest :)

i interchanged 2 digits by mistake..but i hav solved d entire sudoku correct !...how come i get 0 points???

Awarding of partial points has to be done manually, please give one of the organizers time to look into it, and if your case is similar to other cases where partial points were awarded, you will surely be awarded it too. That is why we have the "claim points" button, to alert us to such things, even though we try our best to monitor everyone.

Anyway, you have been awarded partial points. You can check now.

Can anyone post what is the final time by which beginners contest for the month aug (10th - 16th) will end ??

Check the beginners' contest page - if still unclear, let us know.

i have gone through the above link. However it is showing that this contest if for the period from 9thaug to 15th aug.
I just want to know is this sudoku contest still going on or has it over and if it has not got over then what is the final time by which i can participate today.

It should have been 10th to 16th.

In any case, it ends at 5:30AM IST tomorrow morning. See attachment







Attachments
----------------
timing.png (2KB - 3 downloads)

Beginners' Contest August is now over. With the new categorization, it looks like more people wanted to submit the answers and be competitive among fellow Beginners. Whether that be the reason or not, this month's contest saw a high ratio of people who solved at least one sudoku (293/332 Compared to 204/314). This is quite a pleasing stat as the main aim of these contests is that everyone should be able to solve something within the given competitive time.

As this test was categorized, here are the stats on each side -

Beginners - 164 participants and 136 of them solved at least one sudoku. 16 of them solved all 8 correctly.
Seasoners - 167 participants and 157 of them solved at least one sudoku. 96 of them solved all 8 correctly.

Now to the winners,

Congratulations to zyx (Thailand), Manuj (India) and PMarlin (USA) for being the top 3 Beginners.

Among the Seasoners, f4han (Malaysia), jaku111 (Czech Republic) and janoslaw (Poland) were the top 3.

Some of the winners from the Beginners Contest will get shifted to the Seasoner category after this as posted before. They can now try the LMI monthly tests and use the future Beginners' Contests as practice to continue their move towards the top, as they have excelled at the Beginner level. This means some of the other Beginners have a chance of winning the next edition.

Thank you all for participating!

When exact starts the LMI Seasoners`Sudoku Contest in September?

This is yet to be decided. It'll mostly be later on in the month, 3rd or 4th week. Watch this topic for announcements.

Edited by debmohanty 2012-09-04 9:53 PM

Does there will be 2 rounds, each of 100 minutes for September Sudoku Contest

Not really.The length was set to 100 minutes for our testing purpose. Sorry about the confusion.

can the soduku puzzles be solved offline

If I solve the sudoku puzzles within time for the beginners contest, do I get a rank or somethign?

I'm not exactly sure what 'offline' means.
You can either solve online using the flash interface
OR
you can print (the same set of sudokus) on paper and solve on paper, and then enter the rows marked by arrows.

Again, not sure what your question is about. What exactly are you expecting if you solve the sudokus within time?

See the previous scoring pages. You'll get "a rank" no matter how many you solve, as long as you participate. You'll get "a better rank" if you finish more sudokus/finish the same number faster. But on a side note, if you forget about the ranks, you invariably end up enjoying the test and giving a good performance too ;)