onigame (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} onigame) wrote,@ 2007-10-25 10:23:00 |
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Two Puzzles (Not) from the Philly Sudoku Championship
Amid some of the writeups of the Sudoku Championship, I thought it might be interesting to share a couple of puzzles you didn't quite see at the championship:
After that placement, you can use a lot of standard (sledgehammer) logic to get a grid that is about half-filled (specifically, 43 cells filled). At that point:
The version that actually made it to the competition had two more givens, which means that the second bit of logic isn't needed.
Amid some of the writeups of the Sudoku Championship, I thought it might be interesting to share a couple of puzzles you didn't quite see at the championship:
This puzzle was my attempt to push the envelope just a little bit at what can be done with theming Sudoku puzzles. There's a small intuitive leap to figure out what to do with the letters, presumably why it was rejected. After you get the leap, the puzzle isn't too hard; it would be about a medium.
This was my first draft of the Q puzzle, which Thomas mentions in glow(er)ing words on his journal entry. I really like the symmetries in this first draft; as you can see, not only are the placements near-symmetric, but many of the actual digit selections are symmetric as well. This puzzle was something like the last one I composed, and there are two bits of non-sledgehammer logic that you need to make progress.
After that placement, you can use a lot of standard (sledgehammer) logic to get a grid that is about half-filled (specifically, 43 cells filled). At that point:
The version that actually made it to the competition had two more givens, which means that the second bit of logic isn't needed.
