Purpose

LMI has been running Beginners' Sudoku contests for a while now, and it has been quite a success, attracting some new players and giving them a platform to learn and improve in an easier environment. Following through on this success, we've decided to start "LMI Beginners' Puzzle Contests" - where our target participants are players who are new to puzzles in general but have an interest in logical puzzle solving.

General Structure

The general idea here is still in a trial phase. Basically, we want to keep it to common puzzle genres at an easier level of difficulty in general compared to a monthly test. Some features of the Beginners' Sudoku Contests will be used here as well :

Instant Grading

Instant Grading will be enabled in Beginners' contests. Upon submitting, you will immediately know if the submission is correct or not. Each wrong submission will be penalized by adding 1 minute to your submission time. There will not be any deduction of points.

Extended Time

To encourage players to solve and submit all Puzzles, players can submit Puzzles even after the initial test duration is over. However, puzzles submitted after the test duration will get only 50% of the points for the corresponding puzzle. Note that the timer will start from 00:00, running up.

What about top solvers?

As in the Beginners' Sudoku contests, divisions will be made based on LMI ratings, and also performance in the puzzle tests of the past, ensuring that top players can enjoy competition among themselves without taking focus away from the target participants. Players who have achieved either of the following by default are Seasoners and the rest have a choice to play as a Beginner :
1) Achieved a rating of 700 or above at any point in the past.
2) Currently achieved an LMI puzzle rating of 500 or above.
3) Achieved a rank of 25 or better in a monthly puzzle test.
Additionally, players can also be moved to Seasoners category from Beginners category based on performances. A player achieving a top 3 rank in the Beginners' category on three separate occasions will be moved to the Seasoners category.

Thanks for this great initiative. Looking forward to this test.

Will it be online solvable

No.

Why the puzzels cannot be put into a JAVA appleate

Hi,
Please do not discuss about the way the puzzles can be presented to the contestants. If there is a way, LMI would do that for sure.

Thanks,
Ravi

Great Idea!! looking forward to it :)

Edited by swaroop2011 2013-04-25 10:25 PM

There's certain time constraints and also a lack of expertise when it comes to develop an online interface for multiple puzzle genres. The Classic Tapa interface took a long time to get right in itself, and it'll be a while before such an interface can come in for other puzzles. Until then, we're sorry, and please do enjoy the puzzle solving experience on paper.

I am not able to see the results. It brings me back to the contest page.

Sorry Matus, it is not ready. Will take a while before its ready. You are ranked 3rd now with Prasanna16391 and EoHeongMat finishing in around 50 minutes.

Thank you.

Hi Matus,
Thanks for your participation.
Before the score page gets ready you can give your feedback on the contest. :D

Regards,
Ravi

Thank you Ravi, I enjoy your contest a lot. I am glad, that you prepare also some harder puzzles, which were really tricky. The design of your puzzles is great, you did a good job. For me, the hardest puzzle was H, but I can explain why, maybe I missed something during solving :)
The only negative from my view is the lenght of the contest. I am not sure, if beginners are patient enough to solve such a huge number of puzzles. In my opinion 10 puzzles within 45 minutes will be ideal. But it is just my view, other solvers may have different feelings.

Matus

I am very happy that you enjoyed and liked the contest. Thanks!
H, yes it is difficult, the 4 Black circles in the bottom, that pattern I found when solving a Nikoli Masyu (not sure if they intentionally put that pattern or just a coincidence). Whatever is the case that patten can be used to make the puzzle slightly tricky.
As we mentioned this is still a trail phase for the Beginners' Puzzle contests, we gave a lot of thought about the competition format. The initial discussions included 20 + 1 puzzles but the number was too high and reduced it to 16 + 1. I tried my best to make 4 easy, 8 medium and 4 hard puzzles along with one 20 X 20 grid. Anyway depending on this competition feedback LMI will do its best for the next contest.

Regards,
Ravi

I had a blast with this one. It was one of the few times I've felt like I actually had a chance (albeit a small one) to claim a time bonus. H gave me trouble, as did O; the rest of the smaller ones seemed to flow pretty well, and didn't hang me up too long. I will admit to using uniqueness logic at a couple of points, and I'd have preferred to find the purely logical path, but hey, clock's ticking! :)

The bigger one definitely had me stumped for longer than I would have liked, and my ten or so minutes remaining wasn't nearly enough for me to solve it. Unfortunately, I had to do a little trial and error to figure that one out; I may try to revisit it later to see what I missed, but I just couldn't find a good way to start linking up the edge bits that came in easily, or to even really get started in the middle. Making a couple of well placed assumptions, I eventually massaged it into shape, but I want to figure out how that one ticks.

Great fun, regardless; I've never felt Masyu was a very strong category for me, but this assortment of puzzles (and preparing for them) have really helped me feel like I've got a stronger grasp of it now. Right up until a variant gets thrown at me next time. ;)

Thanks Ravi!
I REALLY enjoyed this comtest.

This is the first time to solve completely on LMI.

Edited by totoron8655 2013-04-26 10:51 PM

Hi Ono san,
I am really glad that you enjoyed my contest. Thanks for your participation.
You get to complete a whole set at LMI, It never happened to me ;(

Regards,
Ravi

Edited by macherlakumar 2013-04-27 7:33 AM

H, I have already mentioned so regarding O, it starts with very easy steps, only the top right 2 black circles are crucial to finish it.
Using uniqueness logic, in my opinion it is not a bad idea, I do use it sometimes, but that would be my last option.
some people may be good at one puzzle type so contests like this are perfect way to show their skills
Thanks for your particiaption.

Regards,
Ravi

It was a great contest. Few puzzles where very tricky and i did took time there. Did some mistake while solving the big one but fortunately found the mistake immediately.
For the first time ever i was able to grab the bonus. Thanks for the great puzzles. Njoyed a lot :) .

Happy to hear that you enjoyed the contest
Yes few puzzles are tricky else there won't be any fun, right ?
Thanks for your participation.

Regards,
Ravi

Edited by macherlakumar 2013-04-27 4:24 PM

With my competitive hat on, I really ought to have been at least 10 minutes quicker... I tripped myself up on A E and H - stupidly the thing with H was not the nice configuration with 4 black circles, which is the sort of thing I also save for harder puzzles (actually, you only need 2 black circles and white to set up that trick).

I didn't solve the big puzzle remotely cleanly - I'll have to try solving again to see if there was a more pleasing solution. Was the idea to fiddle around with the loop section from the middle-left to top-left and work from there?

I think of the set, M was my favourite - although the standard overall was pretty good! If I was really nitpicking I'd say maybe some of the puzzles were a little tough for a beginner, but otherwise a really fun race against the clock!