UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Information and discussion on Puzzle Competitions
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

The UKPA are pleased to announce that the UK Puzzle Championship will take place over the weekend of 5th - 8th July, 2013.

The top three UK competitors will earn their places on the UK team for the World Puzzle Championships that will be held in China in October 2013.

The competition page will shortly be available.
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

The instruction booklet is now available at http://www.ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=32
Any queries please post here.
detuned
Posts: 2328
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 2:25 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by detuned »

Looks like the usual quality mix of new and old types - really looking forward to this!
For the latest UK puzzle news direct to your inbox, please consider joining the UK Puzzle Association's mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/g/ukpa-newsletter
tamz29
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed 01 Jun, 2011 1:51 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by tamz29 »

A little side note. The example for Spiral Battleships is credited to Serkan Yurekli.
I took it straight from the Akil Oyunlari magazine contest.
Best of luck to all competitors!
Joo M.Y
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat 02 Jul, 2011 11:52 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by Joo M.Y »

#24, Galaxies (40 Pts)

Answer Key fot Example Puzzle should be "6443344, 5533654", NOT "644334, 5533654".
Please check it.
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

Joo M.Y wrote:#24, Galaxies (40 Pts)

Answer Key fot Example Puzzle should be "6443344, 5533654", NOT "644334, 5533654".
Please check it.

You are right Joo M.Y Really sorry for my mistake on this.
kiwijam
Posts: 765
Joined: Wed 01 Jun, 2011 10:03 am

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by kiwijam »

I agree with Tom, looks like a great set of puzzles coming up.
For those that are interested, there's now a thread for discussing these puzzles (and a poll!) over at http://forum.ukpuzzles.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=875.
alberto
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun 09 Jan, 2011 4:38 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by alberto »

Hi,

I think there is a problem in the answer key of number 26 (pentominoes). There is a pentomino called "X", and will be surely used ("Place the 12 different..."); there is no difference from a blank or grey cell (indicated by a "X" too, as written in the booklet).
I'm right or I'm missing something?

Thanks

Alberto
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

alberto wrote:Hi,

I think there is a problem in the answer key of number 26 (pentominoes). There is a pentomino called "X", and will be surely used ("Place the 12 different..."); there is no difference from a blank or grey cell (indicated by a "X" too, as written in the booklet).
I'm right or I'm missing something?

Thanks

Alberto
Thanks for spotting this Alberto. I'd changed the notation for a blank or grey cell for consistency throughout the competition and forgot about the X pentomino. I will change the notation for blank or grey cells on this puzzle to a /. I will put this in bold on the competition booklet.
ajmoore
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 13 Sep, 2012 9:59 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by ajmoore »

Liane,

Thanks for all the work, great as always.

Looking through the booklet, I wondered whether my perspective as a less regular solver would be useful, given that we're always trying to attract newcomers - I'm thinking of myself less than a year ago. If I'm saying obvious or stupid stuff, feel free to ignore.

As about half of these puzzle types are new variants to me, and some totally new, I went through the book covering the example solution and trying to do it from scratch. As expected, some were trivial, some hard, some nice (lovely Nurikabe, Tom, and Pentominoes, Alan), but several had instruction sets not completely clear, to me at least.

#8 Rectangles with a Wall
Sentence 4: I presume "In addition, shade some cells ..." actually means "All remaining cells must be shaded ..." or there will be multiple trivial solutions.

#10 Magic Summer and #23 Summon
This one is just me being picky, but it wasn't immediately clear. "Numbers" could be qualified with "(comprising one or more consecutive digits)"

#12 Yosenabe
Again very picky, but it is not specified that circles are allowed to cover area sums.

#13 Weather Signs
Nice puzzle, which I'm looking forward to, although a pencil is not going to be a good enough tool I fear!
At first I thought that the whole of the black figures, including background, covered underlying shapes. I think it might be clearer to replace the last sentence with "All white areas are transparent so that, for example, a small black circle cannot cover a grey triangle."

#16 Corral
I'm sure I've seen Corral variants that don't permit 2x2 areas inside (and maybe even outside) the loop. Having said that, I think it's safe to leave it unsaid here where such areas are allowed.

#17&18 Slitherlink
Super-picky - the diagram given has vertex points not gridlines marked, but the instructions say gridlines.

# 22 Labyrinth
There may be a precise puzzling definition of the word "Labyrinth", but I don't know it and I assume some others won't. I would clearly assume no isolated areas, and after a few moments' thought based on the final instruction probably no 2x2 or larger "rooms" (although that isn't a given), but my interpretation would definitely allow forks in the path and dead ends (which would then of course fall foul of that final sentence). With the constraint of the path having to visit every cell it is probably forced as things stand, but it would have been much clearer to me without the final sentence, and replacing the first with:
"Create a labyrinth in the grid, comprising a single corridor no more than one cell wide with no alternative routes or dead ends, such that the route from start (S) to end (E) visits every cell once only."

Reading again, I now feel I'm being too critical, so maybe best to ignore me. Tom - now is the time we need your database of definitive instructions, although it is probably a Sisyphean task with constant new variants.

AJ
PSite
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat 06 Nov, 2010 10:03 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by PSite »

ajmoore wrote:
#16 Corral
I'm sure I've seen Corral variants that don't permit 2x2 areas inside (and maybe even outside) the loop. Having said that, I think it's safe to leave it unsaid here where such areas are allowed.
I think I've seen Corrals like that only in Croco. That is the "new" version for me, as Nikoli's version, the one I've seen for more than a year or so now, doesn't have any 2x2 restrictions.

I'd like to answer your question on Yosenabe too, but I don't understand it clearly.
ajmoore
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu 13 Sep, 2012 9:59 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by ajmoore »

The numbers showing area sums take up a whole grey cell, and it wasn't clear with the example solution covered whether it was allowed to "move" circles onto those cells.

But of course like many of my other comments above, looking at the solution example with one brain cell switched on solves the problem.
detuned
Posts: 2328
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 2:25 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by detuned »

Corral/Cave is an absolute minefield when it comes to instructions. The trouble with newer puzzles isn't necessarily the new instructions, but trying to use instructions using language consistent with the instructions of more familiar puzzles. That's the thing with a lot of new ideas - they often have a lot in common with something that you've seen before, but that connection might not be immediately obvious...
For the latest UK puzzle news direct to your inbox, please consider joining the UK Puzzle Association's mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/g/ukpa-newsletter
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

ajmoore wrote:Liane,

Thanks for all the work, great as always.

Looking through the booklet, I wondered whether my perspective as a less regular solver would be useful, given that we're always trying to attract newcomers - I'm thinking of myself less than a year ago. If I'm saying obvious or stupid stuff, feel free to ignore.

As about half of these puzzle types are new variants to me, and some totally new, I went through the book covering the example solution and trying to do it from scratch. As expected, some were trivial, some hard, some nice (lovely Nurikabe, Tom, and Pentominoes, Alan), but several had instruction sets not completely clear, to me at least.

#8 Rectangles with a Wall
Sentence 4: I presume "In addition, shade some cells ..." actually means "All remaining cells must be shaded ..." or there will be multiple trivial solutions.

#10 Magic Summer and #23 Summon
This one is just me being picky, but it wasn't immediately clear. "Numbers" could be qualified with "(comprising one or more consecutive digits)"

#12 Yosenabe
Again very picky, but it is not specified that circles are allowed to cover area sums.

#13 Weather Signs
Nice puzzle, which I'm looking forward to, although a pencil is not going to be a good enough tool I fear!
At first I thought that the whole of the black figures, including background, covered underlying shapes. I think it might be clearer to replace the last sentence with "All white areas are transparent so that, for example, a small black circle cannot cover a grey triangle."

#16 Corral
I'm sure I've seen Corral variants that don't permit 2x2 areas inside (and maybe even outside) the loop. Having said that, I think it's safe to leave it unsaid here where such areas are allowed.

#17&18 Slitherlink
Super-picky - the diagram given has vertex points not gridlines marked, but the instructions say gridlines.

# 22 Labyrinth
There may be a precise puzzling definition of the word "Labyrinth", but I don't know it and I assume some others won't. I would clearly assume no isolated areas, and after a few moments' thought based on the final instruction probably no 2x2 or larger "rooms" (although that isn't a given), but my interpretation would definitely allow forks in the path and dead ends (which would then of course fall foul of that final sentence). With the constraint of the path having to visit every cell it is probably forced as things stand, but it would have been much clearer to me without the final sentence, and replacing the first with:
"Create a labyrinth in the grid, comprising a single corridor no more than one cell wide with no alternative routes or dead ends, such that the route from start (S) to end (E) visits every cell once only."

Reading again, I now feel I'm being too critical, so maybe best to ignore me. Tom - now is the time we need your database of definitive instructions, although it is probably a Sisyphean task with constant new variants.

AJ
Hi Aj,
Thanks for the comments. Pulling a competition together like this is a huge task on top of working (more than) full time, then juggling the rest of the time trying to get kids here, there and everywhere etc. hence, I hope you will forgive any minor "nit-picky" issues. Also, I don't have any specialist computer packages so am extremely greatful to all the fantastic puzzle authors for sending me their puzzles in whatever format.
#8 - Yes you are correct, we missed this when checking it should be all remaining cells.
#10, #12, #23 - agree that this could be made explicit, however, the examples do clearly identify the points.
#13 - I have solved several of these previously quite happily with just a pencil (well maybe a rubber as well!). I can see what you mean with the wording. Basically, any of the "white" areas in any of the figures are transparent so would show up anything that is underneath whereas the black areas obliterate anything underneath them.
#16 - Name of puzzle here creates a lot of debate. Also, as Thomas Snyder pointed out in his blog a couple of years ago "Corral is probably my favorite logic puzzle type that I don't see enough of. And one I consistently mispronounce even though it is distinct from Coral which is a different kind of shading puzzle that also forms coral-shaped things. I guess drawing the loop would make one set of answers look more like Corrals, but still." The other puzzle that I'm thinking of here at the moment is the one that has numbers outside the grid (similar to a paint it black) puzzle - that one regularly turns up on Croco and doesn't allow 2x2 shaded areas and as Prasanna says, there is also a new variant there now.
#17&18 - These puzzles have come through without any instructions and I've taken the instructions from a previous competition and missed that.
#22 - These puzzles came through without any instructions and I found the given instruction on Puzzler Media's Puzzler Encyclopedia.
greenhorn
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri 05 Nov, 2010 4:43 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by greenhorn »

PSite wrote:
I think I've seen Corrals like that only in Croco. That is the "new" version for me, as Nikoli's version, the one I've seen for more than a year or so now, doesn't have any 2x2 restrictions.

I'd like to answer your question on Yosenabe too, but I don't understand it clearly.
I agree with Tom. The instuctions and names of these puzzle types are really confusing. But for me the Cave puzzles (Hohlen at Croco) are the "true" ones. They are common in older Slovak or Hungarian competitions.
gareth
Posts: 1431
Joined: Thu 24 Jun, 2010 9:27 pm
Contact:

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by gareth »

Just had a look at this. The true/false snake example has an alternative solution which dispenses with the bend at the top-left, unless I'm missing a rule?
sknight
Posts: 141
Joined: Mon 01 Nov, 2010 8:46 pm

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by sknight »

GarethMoore wrote:Just had a look at this. The true/false snake example has an alternative solution which dispenses with the bend at the top-left, unless I'm missing a rule?
Remember, shaded in clues must be FALSE, and if you cut out the bend at top left, the 2 at the bottom becomes true.
gareth
Posts: 1431
Joined: Thu 24 Jun, 2010 9:27 pm
Contact:

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by gareth »

sknight wrote:Remember, shaded in clues must be FALSE, and if you cut out the bend at top left, the 2 at the bottom becomes true.
Ah, yes, thank you - I was counting that shaded square itself as part of the count! Duh.
Nashman88
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri 05 Jul, 2013 6:39 am

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by Nashman88 »

Should the puzzle file be up by now? I can't see it up...
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

Nashman88 wrote:Should the puzzle file be up by now? I can't see it up...
Please bear with us - it should be up within the next hour prior to official start time.
PuzzleScot
Site Admin
Posts: 2778
Joined: Fri 18 Jun, 2010 10:45 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by PuzzleScot »

Nashman88 wrote:Should the puzzle file be up by now? I can't see it up...
My fault. It's there now.
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

The contest has now started. A friendly reminder: it's not permitted to discuss - either here or anywhere else - anything to do with the championship puzzles until the competition is over. Thank you for your cooperation!
puzzlemad
Posts: 1137
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 10:20 pm
Location: Oldham

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by puzzlemad »

It has been pointed out that there are a couple of rogue arrows on puzzle #14 Snake. Please ignore the arrows when submitting your answer. The answer should be the number of turns in each row followed by the number of turns in each column. Apologies for this.
PuzzleScot
Site Admin
Posts: 2778
Joined: Fri 18 Jun, 2010 10:45 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by PuzzleScot »

Some early solvers reported experiencing an sql error on submission. Apologies to anyone affected.
Firstly, the problem is fixed. (There was a reference to a non-existent field in a redundant table)
Secondly, this did not affect the acceptance of any answer keys.

At this point, I would like to remind competitors that full points are only automatically awarded if the answer key matches the expected key exactly.
Any answer key formatting issues will be dealt with manually periodically throughout the contest.

As usual, feel free to leave a comment for Liane or myself via the results page after you have finished, should you wish to raise our attention on any matter.

If any other technical issues arise with the site, or our hosting company, email your answers to Liane or myself BEFORE your time is up.
detuned
Posts: 2328
Joined: Mon 21 Jun, 2010 2:25 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: UKPA Puzzle Championship 2013

Post by detuned »

Lovely set of puzzles, I enjoyed that a lot. Thanks to the authors and organisers :)
For the latest UK puzzle news direct to your inbox, please consider joining the UK Puzzle Association's mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/g/ukpa-newsletter
Post Reply