Borders & Beyond is now over. 205 players participated.

Congratulations to MellowMelon, motris, and deu for taking the top 3 places. Melon was on another level with these puzzles. I had targeted the top players requiring 100+ minutes and that was indeed the time taken by other top players. So Melon finishing it that fast, even for him is above expectations.

Among Indians, Swaroop did well after a few off-performances in the previous tests as he said, and leads the Indian scores for the first time. Amit takes the second spot and Rajesh, returning to participation after a 2 month break, takes 3rd.

I'd like to again thank my test solvers Bram and Murat. They've both authored LMI tests in the past and at times their experience really helped. There have been a few comments about the smaller puzzles being harder than expected, and to an extent I agree. I think the smaller ones usually had some little area of difficult logic in them which took time to see, whereas the bigger ones were mostly of a medium difficulty with steady solves. On a relative basis, I think the points distribution was pretty accurate.

About the puzzles themselves, I won't go into too much detail now. A solution booklet will be uploaded shortly in which I plan to write a bit about the ideas behind the puzzles too. I see that the big Regional Tapa is the highest rated so far. My personal favorite is the big Country Road simply because from an author's perspective it was nice to get that little feature working (for those who haven't figured it out yet, that'll be in the solution booklet too).

Thank you all for participating :) Its been quite a nice experience authoring an LMI test for the first time.

Nice puzzles, thanks! Felt like a challenging lot to me. I often reached contradictions after some unrealized logic error. I look forward to the solution booklet.

Really enjoyed this as well. Couldn't get very far on some of the puzzle types I had never seen before, but that didn't stop me from trying. :) One thing that confused me was the entry of "0" as the digit for a row with ten shaded cells. I redid the puzzle four or so times figuring that "10" can't possibly be a valid digit, but couldn't come up with an alternate solution, so I just guessed that maybe "0" was what was wanted. Is there some place that mentioned that possibility that I missed? Or did I solve the puzzle wrong and get lucky with the entry happening to match the actual right answer?

On the test page itself (http://logicmastersindia.com/M201209P/) it is mentioned in that white box. I apologize for not having placed that in the Instruction booklet. But for the future, I think you can make a note to look there too as thats where the last minute small clarifications usually get added. :)

Sure enough, failed to look there. Okay, I feel better now. :)

Hm, seems like I need some new glasses. When I started the test, somehow I was sure that it was not considered a monthly test and also couldnt find the "Opt out"-checkbox to not consider it for the puzzle rating. Dont know if I would have started it with that in mind, because I was not prepared at all and just had to fill some spare time. Anyway, all went good, so it doesnt matter.

Nice puzzles, and Im also looking forward to the solution booklet this time, because my solution of the big Akari seems to be non-unique. (Row 8, either column 9 or 10 contains a light bulb).

So as promised, there is now a solution booklet available. Personally I like to read about authors' views and all too, so for anyone who likes that, there is my own thoughts about each set of puzzles at the bottom of the page.

Download link.

View link.

That was a mistake on my part. I forgot to un-hide the "check box".

If you have solved it correctly, you will find that it needs to be placed in column 9 to illuminate R6C9. If that cell doesn't need to be illuminated, check if all other cells on that right side are illuminated.

Nevermind, found a region with two bulbs in my "solution".

Congrats Swaroop.

Thank you for some brilliant puzzles. The difficulty level is just perfect. I have been solving a puzzle a day for the last week, and I am now though the set. I enjoyed every single puzzle and was able to solve them after some tense analysis. Thank you!

Great, I'm glad you enjoyed them throughout the week of solving :)

Would it be possible for an admin to add the password for the Puzzle Booklet to the test page? Thanks!