About the contest

• This is an online only puzzle contest with 16 Rassi Silai puzzles.
• A new Rassi Silai puzzle will be live in every 30 hours between 22nd Feb and 15th March.
• Cumulative points from each day's solving will determine the final scores.
• There will be a leaderboard for early-birds, apart from the official one. Details here.

About the Author

• All contest puzzles are authored by Prasanna Seshadri (prasanna16391)

Rassi Silai Rules

• Thread a rope in each region.
• A rope is a path that passes through all cells of the region, between two cells that are end-points.
• End-points do not touch each other, even diagonally, even across regions.
• Some bars are given within some regions; there cannot be a path between the two cells on both sides of the bar.
• Ignore any shaded regions - there cannot be a rope in a shaded region.

Penpa Interface

• Only the lines will be checked as part of solution checking.
• The endpoints do not need to be explicitly marked by circles.

Example Puzzle

Points to remember

• Rule 1 - In each region, all cells must be used by the path between endpoints. The image on the left is wrong because the top right cell isn't used by the path. The image on the left follows this rule correctly.
  
• Rule 2 - Regardless of regions, the "endpoints", i.e., cells where paths end, cannot touch each other, even diagonally. The first two images are wrong because they violate this rule, the last image follows this rule correctly.
  
• Rule 3 - Avoid passing through bars or shaded cells.
  

History of Rassi Silai

• Rassi Silai is a genre invented by Prasanna Seshadri for the Innovative Puzzles Round (Round 18) at WPC 2017.
• It came about during a group discussion of the organizing team that the other new puzzle type in the round, Candy Crush, was a bit complex and that there is a need for a simple idea, and that it'd also be nice to have something with an Indian name.
• Rassi Silai, roughly translated from Hindi to Rope Threading, was a simple genre that Prasanna came up with to address these concerns.
• Under the name Rope Threading, Rassi Silai has been published in the New York Times Puzzle Variety section, and has appeared in multiple Puzzle Ramayan rounds. It is gaining traction as a genre with simple rules and the possibility of interesting puzzles that have beginner friendly approaches.