UKPA Sudoku Championship 2012 (17th - 20th August)

[puzzlemad]

The instruction booklet for the UKSC for 2012 is now available on the online competitions section of the UKPA website at http://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=27 .
Any queries can be posted in this discussion thread.

[detuned]

I have a couple of presentational comments from what I've seen of the instructions.

Firstly I think it'd be clearer to have arrows with tails for the little killer, that is "->" rather than just ">". Having the tails gives you a visual prompt from which to extrapolate the implied diagonal lines you need to work with to solve the puzzle.
Secondly, the presentation for quad max that I've always seen has had big circles on the vertex of the 4 relevant cells with the arrow inside the circle. This seems like a slightly clearer presentation to me.
Thirdly, "Non-Consecutive Corner Sudoku" also goes by the name "Diagonally Non-Consecutive Sudoku", which is perhaps marginally clearer in conveying what the rules are.

Looks like an interesting and quirky mix of variants, thanks to everyone involved!

[GarethMoore]

Thirdly, "Non-Consecutive Corner Sudoku" also goes by the name "Diagonally Non-Consecutive Sudoku", which is perhaps marginally clearer in conveying what the rules are.

Oh, I hadn't come across the variation before so didn't know it had already been named differently elsewhere.

As you would expect the presentation won't be changed now that the instruction book has been published (and the puzzles are complete). I drew them the way I personally think looks clearer - less clutter is always better, in my opinion, so less lines/shapes is what I aimed for. Re the quad max in particular, I've solved a lot of my own quad max puzzles in this format and for my money it is clearer and easier to read - I find the other format confusing because it doesn't use the mathematically-standard inequality symbol. This presentation does, so I believe that for the average solver it is clearer. But that could just be me, and one of the test solvers made a similar comment on that puzzle already.

[Fred76]

Can we find other Quad max sudokus with this format?

Like Tom, I'm a bit disturbed with this one, just because I'm used to this format: http://wiki.logic-masters.de/index.php? ... _Sudoku/en which is more common for this variation, and is quite different (I don't say that one is better than the other, it's perhaps just a matter of habit).

Nice mix of variations, I look forward to this tournament, thank you for opening it to worldwide players.

Fred

[puzzlemad]

I am currently unable to find any other copies of puzzles in this format at the moment. When I test solved them I found the format to be fine, just remembering that the little arrow in the corner was pointing to the intersection of the four squares and that square that the arrow was in was the one with the highest digit. I possibly haven't come across as many of the other variation so that hasn't confused me.

Good luck to everyone who is taking part in this competition over the weekend. I hope that you all do well.

[tamz29]

1. Are the two main diagonal constraints present in Little Killer?
2. Can I see the solution for the IB's Multiple Sudoku?

[Fred76]

1. Are the two main diagonal constraints present in Little Killer?
2. Can I see the solution for the IB's Multiple Sudoku?

1. As it is not in the IB puzzle, and there is no mention about that in the rules, I think we can assume that there is no main diagonal constraint.
2. Solutions are in the last page of the IB

Fred

[GarethMoore]

Fred is correct on both counts.

[driv4r]

From instructions: "this will then provide a password to let you view and print the round"

So, I assume I need to have access to a printer to take part of the competition?

[PuzzleScot]

So, I assume I need to have access to a printer to take part of the competition?

This is standard practice, so basically, yes you do.
However, some people have managed without a printer and done quite well in the past. It is a severe handicap though!
I guess as an alternative, you could place transparencies over the screen, and use a dry-wipe marker...

[driv4r]

Hmm, in that case I think I better go somewhere where I can access the printer then... Would really like to take part of this one.

[detuned]

I think adobe reader now has tools that allow you to "annotate" pdf files with your mouse. At the very least, you can take screen captures and solve in paint. I remember having to do that with a USPC last year when I realised too late my printer was dry!

[driv4r]

Can't find this annotation function but I'm currently using Adobe Reader 8 (newer one didn't work properly, so uninstalled a couple of months ago). It's defo possible to save as a txt file but that won't help me much and using Paint would probably be much slower, so I think I'm gonna go for a public printer option instead, I know a place where I can print for 4p per page, so I guess it would cost me 28 pence as it has 7 pages as much as I understand.

[GarethMoore]

There are 7 pages in the competition PDF, yes.

[sf2l]

I do not know if it happened to me only but when I printed the example booklet the sudoku n. 13 Mystery Killer zero sudoku, the cages did not print apart from little bars where the cage crosses the lines of the grids, and the cage's corners. Could depend on my printer and/or on the browser (google chrome). Please make sure the competition file prints properly
stefano

[GarethMoore]

Stefano, sounds like your printer didn't handle the instruction to draw dashed lines. If you have trouble with the competition file then try right-clicking the download link and saving and then manually opening in Adobe Reader. You can also always (on Windows) zoom the puzzle you want in the document window and then press ALT+print-screen and then paste in word or similar and print.

In any case the competition file was exported with Adobe Acrobat with ancient backward compatibility settings so you should hopefully have no trouble. I've made these puzzles and compiled them that same way for years and thousands of people have printed them without any report of problems.

Also they're made the same way as all of the UKPA Open rounds earlier this year and there were exactly zero reports of problems there.

[detuned]

There are a couple more examples I've stumbled upon, courtesy of the blog on Gareth's very own website: http://www.garethmoore.co.uk/

With reference to the published instructions, Non-Consecutive Corner Sudoku goes by the name "Diagonal Non-Consecutive Sudoku" on the June 19th entry.

[driv4r]

What am I gonna do with the examples if I need to solve the competition sudoku???

[puzzlemad]

Please remember that whilst the competition is running, do not put any comments on the forum that may give hints etc. to other users. If you have an issue, please use the comments facility through the answer page or pm myself.

[puzzlemad]

driv4r - CHECK your email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[driv4r]

OK, I will

EDIT: Read it and replied, really don't get it though.

EDIT 2: Will go home to see if using my laptop and different software will make any difference (in terms of error occurring) or not

[joshuazucker]

Beautiful competition, thanks for the great puzzles! Just in case there might be an implicit very small spoiler, I'm not going to comment yet on which ones I found particularly enjoyable, but I look forward to discussing these puzzles once the exam is over!

[puzzlemad]

Beautiful competition, thanks for the great puzzles! Just in case there might be an implicit very small spoiler, I'm not going to comment yet on which ones I found particularly enjoyable, but I look forward to discussing these puzzles once the exam is over!

Thank you very much for your kind words regarding this competition and your understanding to wait unti the end of the competition before discussing the puzzles, this is very much appreciateted.

[detuned]

self-kick :/

[Nilz]

As others have said, there were some nice puzzles, thanks.
Is there any way to see the current results? Or do we have to be patient and wait til the end of the test?