The 2019 season starts off this weekend, with Dutch authors taking their traditional 1st round spot.
http://gp.worldpuzzle.org
WPF Sudoku GP
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Preliminary results for round 1 are out, top 3 UK are as follows:
31. Tom Collyer 576
62. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 456
64. Mark Goodliffe 452
http://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/preli ... ?sort=stat
I was about a minute away from finishing a last classic, but couldn't quite manage it. Look's like a strong showing to start things off!
31. Tom Collyer 576
62. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 456
64. Mark Goodliffe 452
http://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/preli ... ?sort=stat
I was about a minute away from finishing a last classic, but couldn't quite manage it. Look's like a strong showing to start things off!
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Top 3 UK Round 2 according to the preliminary results are:
45. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 491
96. Mark Goodliffe 382
101. Heather Golding 371
Only 12 all-correct finishers this time, compared to 28 for Round 1, so a step up in difficulty! And 19 solvers (including myself) who were able to solve everything except the Sum-Product Killer...
I'd left myself with about 20 minutes at the end to solve the Sum-Product Killer and the first Classic; made a lot of progress with the Killer, but after 15 minutes realised I had no way to finish it without breaking the constraint on at least one cage. It's a neat puzzle but not a variant I particularly enjoyed.
Did anyone else find that the points values didn't match (at all!) their solving times for the puzzles? I thought that the Braille was severely overvalued, the hardest Classic was severely undervalued, the Irregular was much harder than 43 points and some of the other mid-range puzzles weren't deserving of quite as many points as had been given them. Maybe it's just me, but normally my times don't vary *quite* this much from what I'd expect given the points.
45. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 491
96. Mark Goodliffe 382
101. Heather Golding 371
Only 12 all-correct finishers this time, compared to 28 for Round 1, so a step up in difficulty! And 19 solvers (including myself) who were able to solve everything except the Sum-Product Killer...
I'd left myself with about 20 minutes at the end to solve the Sum-Product Killer and the first Classic; made a lot of progress with the Killer, but after 15 minutes realised I had no way to finish it without breaking the constraint on at least one cage. It's a neat puzzle but not a variant I particularly enjoyed.
Did anyone else find that the points values didn't match (at all!) their solving times for the puzzles? I thought that the Braille was severely overvalued, the hardest Classic was severely undervalued, the Irregular was much harder than 43 points and some of the other mid-range puzzles weren't deserving of quite as many points as had been given them. Maybe it's just me, but normally my times don't vary *quite* this much from what I'd expect given the points.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
I knew Classic 5 was familiar to me! For those who have access, take a look at the final Classic from WSC 2017 Rd 5. Almost identical clue-layout, and the break-in step is the same as in that puzzle too, although less obvious here and not telegraphed as clearly.
In that puzzle, the crucial digits all fall on the main diagonal of givens, and here none of them do. They do, however, still have the following two properties:
1. They appear as givens three times, in three 3x3 boxes, of which no two are aligned either horizontally or vertically with each other
2. Among the three appearances as givens, two of them occur in corresponding cells of the 3x3 box.
With this clue layout, that is sufficient as a general rule to force a fishy friend to appear.
In that puzzle, the crucial digits all fall on the main diagonal of givens, and here none of them do. They do, however, still have the following two properties:
1. They appear as givens three times, in three 3x3 boxes, of which no two are aligned either horizontally or vertically with each other
2. Among the three appearances as givens, two of them occur in corresponding cells of the 3x3 box.
With this clue layout, that is sufficient as a general rule to force a fishy friend to appear.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
I had a go at this earlier today. I think I'd have been amongst those who got all but the sum-product killer out. The repeating numbers within cages wasn't particularly nice to see.
Re the hard classic - making a well placed guess to get going wasn't particularly difficult. I guess it's a matter of taste about these appearing in competition, but I can understand it not having more points than it did as ultimately I think it's possible to solve these puzzles very quickly. Would be interesting to see Mark give it a "Cracking the Cryptic" treatment potentially!
Re the hard classic - making a well placed guess to get going wasn't particularly difficult. I guess it's a matter of taste about these appearing in competition, but I can understand it not having more points than it did as ultimately I think it's possible to solve these puzzles very quickly. Would be interesting to see Mark give it a "Cracking the Cryptic" treatment potentially!
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Top 3 UK round 3:
35 Sam Cappleman-Lynes 516
45 Mark Goodliffe 483
49 Jeremy Kong 482
Jeremy Kong I think is a new name name for me, but a top 50 result is very creditable!
On a personal note, after I clicked go on this I had a good 15 minute battle with my printer and the wifi here before I even had anything in front of me to solve, and even then it seemed pot luck as to whether the codes were being submitted properly.
35 Sam Cappleman-Lynes 516
45 Mark Goodliffe 483
49 Jeremy Kong 482
Jeremy Kong I think is a new name name for me, but a top 50 result is very creditable!
On a personal note, after I clicked go on this I had a good 15 minute battle with my printer and the wifi here before I even had anything in front of me to solve, and even then it seemed pot luck as to whether the codes were being submitted properly.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Round 4 is happening this weekend
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Preliminary results should be ignored for the time being, as the points values showing as being awarded for each puzzle are still the points values from GP 3.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Looks like the issue has been fixed for the preliminary results. Top 3 UK:
28. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 508
44. Tom Collyer 454
45. Mark Goodliffe 451
28. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 508
44. Tom Collyer 454
45. Mark Goodliffe 451
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Round 5 happening this weekend!
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Tough round I thought, and I didn't think I'd done particularly well:
42. Tom Collyer 457
51. Jeremy Kong 429
73. Mark Goodliffe 390
42. Tom Collyer 457
51. Jeremy Kong 429
73. Mark Goodliffe 390
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
For round 6, I did not get the hidden palindrome logic at all... perhaps I’m missing something obvious??
I’ll post the uk results up later
I’ll post the uk results up later
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
The main thing is to narrow down the cells that can/cannot be the removed cell along a palindrome line. Work out which cells are the possible "mirror" cells along a line based on which cell is removed, and narrow down the possibilities based on which pairs can't contain equal values. That becomes easier once you already have some values on the line, obviously!
To actually get started, the way I found was that, by normal Sudoku logic, R6C6 (edited to have the correct coordinates) is a 6, and since a 6 cannot go anywhere else along that line, the remaining cells on that line must be palindromic.
To actually get started, the way I found was that, by normal Sudoku logic, R6C6 (edited to have the correct coordinates) is a 6, and since a 6 cannot go anywhere else along that line, the remaining cells on that line must be palindromic.
Last edited by Feadoor on Wed 29 May, 2019 6:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Top 3 UK:
38. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 501
55. Tom Collyer 426
58. Jeremy Kong 416
38. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 501
55. Tom Collyer 426
58. Jeremy Kong 416
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
I was fixated in the top left for a while, made a speculative guess that didn’t work and was left stumped.Feadoor wrote: ↑Wed 29 May, 2019 3:53 pmThe main thing is to narrow down the cells that can/cannot be the removed cell along a palindrome line. Work out which cells are the possible "mirror" cells along a line based on which cell is removed, and narrow down the possibilities based on which pairs can't contain equal values. That becomes easier once you already have some values on the line, obviously!
To actually get started, the way I found was that, by normal Sudoku logic, R6C6 (edited to have the correct coordinates) is a 6, and since a 6 cannot go anywhere else along that line, the remaining cells on that line must be palindromic.
I’ve solved it now, it was still a bit fiddly after that and I can’t really see how the constraint would give you something nicer. I wouldn’t be too unhappy to never see that particular type again that’s for sure.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Round 7 happened at the weekend. Top 3 UK:
42. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 449
72. Tom Collyer 367
94. Matthew White 335
I thought that was a hard round, especially the Sum by X and Renban puzzles.
42. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 449
72. Tom Collyer 367
94. Matthew White 335
I thought that was a hard round, especially the Sum by X and Renban puzzles.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Since I've just done it for the puzzle GP, I'll list out the overall GP standings with 1 round yet to play:
37. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 2921 - 6 scoring rounds
49. Tom Collyer 2646 - 6 scoring rounds
63. Mark Goodliffe 2455 - 6 scoring rounds
66. Jeremy Kong 2394 - 6 scoring rounds
130. Matthew White 1786 - 6 scoring rounds
155. Ned Walker 1637 - 6 scoring rounds
182. Sam Boden 1507 - 6 scoring rounds
190. Howard Wilkinson 1470 - 6 scoring rounds
A bit more spread out for the Sudoku GP then. Beating the previous top UK ranking of 36th looks in reach for Sam, albeit he has a higher points total already in what I feel has been a pretty tough competition this time round. Breaking the 3000 point barrier would be an excellent achievement!
Tom has a low score of 366 to work out of his set of results - but this would still mean finishing the last round with bonus time to get close to Sam. Given the results so far, an improvement of 100-200 points on this seems more realistic, leaving him outside the (current) top 40.
Mark and Jeremy are pretty close together - I haven't checked for low scores, but both are looking at improvements between 150-250 points to start thinking about the top 50.
37. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 2921 - 6 scoring rounds
49. Tom Collyer 2646 - 6 scoring rounds
63. Mark Goodliffe 2455 - 6 scoring rounds
66. Jeremy Kong 2394 - 6 scoring rounds
130. Matthew White 1786 - 6 scoring rounds
155. Ned Walker 1637 - 6 scoring rounds
182. Sam Boden 1507 - 6 scoring rounds
190. Howard Wilkinson 1470 - 6 scoring rounds
A bit more spread out for the Sudoku GP then. Beating the previous top UK ranking of 36th looks in reach for Sam, albeit he has a higher points total already in what I feel has been a pretty tough competition this time round. Breaking the 3000 point barrier would be an excellent achievement!
Tom has a low score of 366 to work out of his set of results - but this would still mean finishing the last round with bonus time to get close to Sam. Given the results so far, an improvement of 100-200 points on this seems more realistic, leaving him outside the (current) top 40.
Mark and Jeremy are pretty close together - I haven't checked for low scores, but both are looking at improvements between 150-250 points to start thinking about the top 50.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
A second-worst round of 449 means I'd need to attain a new high score of 528 on Round 8 to break 3000 points. It's possible - I've had 3 scores of over 500 points already.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
What a horrible looking variant.
I can only hope the instruction booklet is a bluff and that the competition puzzle only has 2x2 regions. Even in that case I feel like you are stretching the idea of what makes a good sudoku variant pretty far. The fact this needs a 2nd attempt within the IB to explain what is going on does this variant no favours whatsoever in my eyes...
I can only hope the instruction booklet is a bluff and that the competition puzzle only has 2x2 regions. Even in that case I feel like you are stretching the idea of what makes a good sudoku variant pretty far. The fact this needs a 2nd attempt within the IB to explain what is going on does this variant no favours whatsoever in my eyes...
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Preliminary results for Round 8:
13. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 721.7
44. Tom Collyer 525
60. Jeremy Kong 435
Leaving the top 3 UK in the final standings as:
29. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 3193.7
50. Tom Collyer 2805
66. Jeremy Kong 2504
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I felt quite excited to press the "Claim Bonus" button for the first time in what was a very smooth round for me!
Tom made his estimated 150-200 points of improvement but still dropped by one place to 50th overall.
On the full international results, Tantan Dai comes in well over the 5400-point barrier, and 250 points clear of Kota Morinishi in second.
13. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 721.7
44. Tom Collyer 525
60. Jeremy Kong 435
Leaving the top 3 UK in the final standings as:
29. Sam Cappleman-Lynes 3193.7
50. Tom Collyer 2805
66. Jeremy Kong 2504
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I felt quite excited to press the "Claim Bonus" button for the first time in what was a very smooth round for me!
Tom made his estimated 150-200 points of improvement but still dropped by one place to 50th overall.
On the full international results, Tantan Dai comes in well over the 5400-point barrier, and 250 points clear of Kota Morinishi in second.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Nicely done Sam - by my reckoning 13th on a round and 29th for the series are both UK records. For the round in particular you’ve finished ahead of some seriously good solvers!
This round felt finishable, but the mix didn’t quite agree with me and I got bogged down on a couple of the variants (including the singularly awful symmetric product sums). I’m glad to sneak into the top 50 overall in what hadn’t been a stellar year in general... too many times it felt like I was starting at 9 or 10 on a Sunday evening which probably doesn’t translate to my sharpest ever solver.
This round felt finishable, but the mix didn’t quite agree with me and I got bogged down on a couple of the variants (including the singularly awful symmetric product sums). I’m glad to sneak into the top 50 overall in what hadn’t been a stellar year in general... too many times it felt like I was starting at 9 or 10 on a Sunday evening which probably doesn’t translate to my sharpest ever solver.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
I agree with you that the symmetric products sums is an awful variant, but its inclusion in this round was great for me. I must have looked in the right places very quickly because even though it was a 70+ pointer, I got it done in under 5 minutes.
I also found a sneaky deduction on the Odd-Even which turned a very tricky puzzle into something very easy. After some singles and the obvious 4/8 pairs over on the right-hand-side, there's a finned swordfish on the 5s which lets you place two of them, and it's all very easy singles from there. My past as a connoisseur of difficult solving techniques has finally paid off in the speedsolving world!
To have had a round where I solved about as well as I feel capable of, and still to be over 20 minutes slower than Kota, is equal parts impressive and disheartening...
I also found a sneaky deduction on the Odd-Even which turned a very tricky puzzle into something very easy. After some singles and the obvious 4/8 pairs over on the right-hand-side, there's a finned swordfish on the 5s which lets you place two of them, and it's all very easy singles from there. My past as a connoisseur of difficult solving techniques has finally paid off in the speedsolving world!
To have had a round where I solved about as well as I feel capable of, and still to be over 20 minutes slower than Kota, is equal parts impressive and disheartening...
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Well, put another way, you've finished ahead of two (multiple) world champions, numerous WSC play-off contenders, and also made two UK records - so don't be too disheartened 
At the very top there will always been insane times, but to maintain that consistently is something that only a handful of solvers manage. Kota/Tiit/Jakub O, and maybe this year Tantan are the only names I can think of that regularly trouble that 60 minute finishing time. What was interesting to me is that in what I thought was generally an easier round (if in nothing else other than fewer number of puzzles to solve), the #1 quickest solving time wasn't particularly faster than any of the other rounds.
At the very top there will always been insane times, but to maintain that consistently is something that only a handful of solvers manage. Kota/Tiit/Jakub O, and maybe this year Tantan are the only names I can think of that regularly trouble that 60 minute finishing time. What was interesting to me is that in what I thought was generally an easier round (if in nothing else other than fewer number of puzzles to solve), the #1 quickest solving time wasn't particularly faster than any of the other rounds.
Re: WPF Sudoku GP
Can someone remind me, I think there is a thread here containing the UK records and achievements?