Oh yea, that's a good logic but I couldn't figure it out I guess I didn't get the logic of duplicates needing to replace each other. But still it would have been better and more clear if it would have been mentioned in the instructions that 2 rows (duplicates) need to be swapped, no? That's the reason why I didn't get this one solved
I have never encountered a sudoku like this before, so for me it wasn't obvious.

Well, a lot of solving skills depend on the solver's ability to figure out the implied restrictions in addition to the main lettered ones. The rules are just constraints on a puzzle, how they affect the solve is for the solver to see.

Figuring out the implied non-literal implications of rules is part of puzzling. For example, now, you'd think the sentence "Place 1-9 in every row, column and box" is enough to describe a classic, but I've come across beginners who still don't figure out for a while that that implies that a number can't repeat.

Well yea, you are probably right. Next time I encounter this linked classics sudoku I know better for sure ;)

After linked Classics, Odd Even Big Small was the least submitted/solved puzzles.

Here are few steps to get you started.

Here is the puzzle.



Step 0 :
Figure out that there are no Japanese characters and it must be part of solving to figure out the symbol-property relationship.

Step 1 :
Note 2 key cells : R7C3 and R7C6. Both of them cannot contain 1 or 4 or 6. Because of that R8C1 and R8C8 cannot be 1 or 4 or 6. A lot of deduction will use this.

Step 2 :
See the cells in Red. They all belong to one outlined region. Also note that all four of them must satisfy the property of SQUARE.

So clearly SQUARE cannot be Odd or Small (1 is given in the region)
It also cannot be Even because 4 does not go anywhere in the Red cells.
So SQUARE = Big (5678)
You also get R4C1=6 and some more 6s.



Step 3 :
Because R6C8=6, you get the 4SQUARES as Even (2468).


Some more deductions (you can first find the red ones, and then the blue ones)


Because of the circle at bottom of C7, we can say circle = Small (1234) and Star = Odd (1357)

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Are you going to participate in 3rd tournament of WPF GP?
Try to practice on DSM WPF Sudoku Grand Prix!

In our Daily League we are preparing for you these sudoku variants:
18.02.2013 - Between 1 and 9 (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
19.02.2013 - Equal Sudoku (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
20.02.2013 - Search Nine Sudoku (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
21.02.2013 - Arrow Sudoku (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
22.02.2013 - X-Sums Sudoku (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
23.02.2013 - Little Killer Killer Sudoku (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)
24.02.2013 - Skyscrapers (practice on DSM WPF Sudoku GP)

http://sudokucup.com/node/1901

Cumulative results after first 2 rounds available here - http://www.worldpuzzle.org/sudokugp/results/

For me the first round points are not added in the commulative result. Any idea how I can get it corrected?

rajeshk: Can you contact me via email please? Write your name and surname on my email at info@sudokucup.com. I was preparing all result lists of WPF GP.

Thanks Karel,
I have send you email.