UKPA Beginners Contests

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The UKPA are pleased to announce a series of beginners contests!

The aim of this series to introduce new solvers to the world of puzzle solving who might otherwise be put off or daunted by the longer and more difficult puzzle contests that the puzzling community already provides.

The format will be as follows:

There will be three puzzle types, and four of each these puzzle types to solve. The window of each contest will be open for a month. There will be no time limit on submissions during this window, however for those inclined to be competitive, results will be sorted by the time of the last submitted correct answer. At the end of the month results will be published, together with a list of all puzzles who submit correct answers to all 12 puzzles.

Each of the puzzles will be small, but not necessarily trivial to solve. New solvers are encouraged to be creative in finding techniques to solve the puzzles, and not to be put off if you can't solve everything in one go. There is plenty of time within the month to solve the puzzles!

The first contest will feature Nurikabe, Shikaku and Slitherlink.

UPDATE:

Contest page is here: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=26
Instructions with example puzzles is here: http://www.ukpuzzles.org/file_download. ... ebfc15e6fc

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bump!

[driv4r]

Might give this a try!

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I'd quite like to get a bandwagon rolling with this one - if everyone could spread this as far and wide as possible that would be great. For example, I think this would be very suitable for bright school kids in need of a challenge!

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Quick update: there was a small error with the answer key for shikaku no. 3, which has now been fixed!

[river222]

How do you know when you've got the correct solution for all the puzzles as I have completed all 12 puzzles but I'm not sure if the answer key is correct

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I think we are working on this one - the style of this contest is quite different from anything that the current software has had to handle!

[river222]

Do you know If I've got the correct answers?

[afcwarren]

Nice set of puzzles Tom. I enjoyed adding them to Croco for my lunch break!

Hopefully the uptake is high and if anyone reading this hasn't had a go yet, please do!

[warriorider]

Just like to say that I've really enjoyed doing these puzzle.
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

[Sindhuja Namburi]

In slitherlink puzzles 3.2 and 3.4 there is a mistake regarding 2in the last row in 3.2 and 0in the 2nd row of 3.4

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I'd encourage you to check your answers - we are confident there are no mistakes. I think the hope is to have some solutions and perhaps some discussion about the puzzles after the contest is over.

[Sindhuja Namburi]

These puzzles are nice but what kind of puzzles help to take challenge in World sudoku champion ship.

[PuzzleScot]

These puzzles are nice but what kind of puzzles help to take challenge in World sudoku champion ship.

You can find the type of puzzle you are looking for on our contests page (anything with 'Sudoku' in the title)
If you want more, check the Competitions forum for Sudoku contests. Most, if not all competitions featured there are of WSC standard. Once you are familiar with the type of variations you may find, you need to work on your speed! All the contenders at the WSC can solve all the sudoku (& variants) in the contest, but it is the fastest person who wins. Hope that helps.

[Sindhuja Namburi]

Can we solve the hardest sudoku with very few numbers with out using pencil and eraser , i mean with direct pen in less time

[puzzlemad]

Can we solve the hardest sudoku with very few numbers with out using pencil and eraser , i mean with direct pen in less time

I think that you are asking whether it is okay to use pen straight away as you solve a puzzle. With both the WSC and the WPC it is acceptable for answers to be submitted in pencil, therefore, there should be no difference to speed whether using pen or pencil.

[Sindhuja Namburi]

Nope I'm asking that for toughest sudoku i use pencil because i use trial and error method for the blocks with various chances
since if any where goes wrong we can use eraser but with pen once written can't be erased

[sknight]

Most of the hand-designed sudoku puzzles you see in competitions can be done without real trial and error, i would say.
Even the very hard ones.
That isn't to say that it isn't worth doing a little bit of candidate notation, particularly for marking pairs (like when
you know two particular cells are a 3 and a 5 but you're going to figure out which is which later on). Even the really
good solvers will jot down this sort of thing, and a lot of puzzles are designed so that this sort of information fills
in at the end.

I rarely "bifurcate" the puzzle ("OK, suppose this one is a 6..."), and even then only in situations where
1) I feel like I've hit a wall,
2) there are only two possibilities to choose from, and
3) choosing one or the other possible value will have a big ripple effect.
But it feels like something of a last resort to me. Note that #3 there means that I never bifurcate early in a puzzle,
but only after I've gotten a very good feel for most of what's going on in the puzzle.

Mind you, sudoku isn't a particular forte of mine, and the guys who are really good solve them all at least twice as fast as I do.
If you want to see what good solving looks like, you might watch the youtube videos of Thomas "motris" Snyder solving Sudoku.

[Sindhuja Namburi]

Thank u so much for your worthy answer

[anurag]

Looks like a good set of classics.I wonder if these samples were tested.I did not try them all yet, but atleast one of those does not solve uniquely in the last moments.

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They have been tested and they do all solve uniquely

[NikolaZ]

I think Anurag has right. Puzzle 1.3 goes to double solution in top right corner. Number 8 can be reached in two ways, but the solution key is the same. I noticed this during the solving and lost some time here.

Nikola

[sknight]

Oops. Nevermind. I had posted that I didn't see the second solution.
Now I do.

The eight can either go

[Reveal] Spoiler:

88888_
__8_8_
3___8_

pr

8888__
__888_
3___8_

[anurag]

I like 3.2 .Very pleasant

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Oops. Nevermind. I had posted that I didn't see the second solution.
Now I do.

You and me both - sorry!

The second booklet should be released later today, this time without such a formal competition structure...