5 JANUARY 2008

Puzzles by
PUZZLECRAFT ANURAG SAHAY
ONLINE CONTEST

Pattern snake Sudoku-basins

Draw a snake 1-cell wide,by coloring each Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 9 such that all rows,
occupied cell with one of 3 colors alternatively, columns and outlined 3x3 regions have all the digits
following the pattern Red-green-blue-red-green... from 1 to 9.The “<” symbols are placed according to
In the grid,colors are represented by letters R,G,B. the locations of the basins(basins are drawn in the
Head of the snake must be red(R) and tail must grid),as illustrated by the example.Digit pointed by the
be blue(B).Hints(3 hints per row) outside indicate “<” symbol must be less than the digit on the other
the number of cells of each color occupied by side of the symbol.In one of the directions(starting
snake in corresponding row,in the order R,G and from inside the basin outwards),the insertion of
B.Snake cannot touch itself,not even diagonally. symbols is stopped when the way is blocked by
another basin, otherwise keep inserting until the edge
Answer key: Write the contents of the Bottomleft- of the grid.In each of other 2 directions(West and East
Topright main diagonal.Use R,G,or B for occupied cell in the example),exactly one symbol is placed.
and E for empty cell. Note : The “<” symbols are given in the example to let
the reader understand the rules. Those symbols will
not appear in the test.
Sudoku...by the side
Fill the grid following the rules evident from the 2 1 6 3 2 4 5
example.When finished,every row ,column and
3x3 region must contain all digits from 1 to 9. 5 5 2 4 3 6 1
6 2 6 4 1 5 2 3
Answer key: Enter the contents of the TL-BR diagonal
followed by the BL-TR diagonal.. 2 3 2 3 5 6 1 4
1 4 5 2 1 3 6
5 3 1 6 4 5 2
D+1 D-1
1 6 3 5 4 2
U+1 R+1 D+2 L-1 U+2 U-1 Answer Key: Write the contents of the 8th row from left
2 5 4 3 6 1 to right.
D+2 L+1 U-1
6 1 2 4 5 3
R+1 R-1
4 3 5 1 2 6
L-1
5 2 1 6 3 4 Classic Sudoku
R+1 U+1 Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 9 such that all
3 4 6 2 1 5 rows,columns and outlined 3x3 regions have all
the 9 digits.

Answer Key: Write the contents of the circled cells

from top to bottom and left to right.

Japanese Loop
Draw a single closed loop connecting the centres of
cells .Loop can move horizontally or vertically and
cannot visit any cell more than once.Hints outside
show the lengths of loop segments in corresponding
rows in order of their occurrence.

Answer Key: Write the areas of all the contiguous regions

of unvisited cells in increasing order.
 5 JANUARY 2008
Puzzles by
PUZZLECRAFT ANURAG SAHAY
ONLINE CONTEST

Dock the ships Candles

Place some candles of length 1,2 or 3 into the grid
Locate the 10-ship fleet into the grid without
horizontally or vertically.End-points of a candle
touching, not even diagonally.Numbers on the left
shall coincide with the centres of cells.Candles of
and top of the grid indicate how many cells in the
the same length cannot occupy cells which touch
corresponding row are occupied by ships.Symbol
by the side,though diagonally adjacent cells may
outside indicates that exactly one of the cells
contain candles of same length.Candle cannot
touching the edge of the grid in that row/column,
occupy grey cells.No white cell may remain empty.
is occupied by ship.In other rows/columns(not
Answer key: For each cell on the TL-BR diagonal write
pointed by symbol),any number of edge cells(0-9)
the length and orientation of the candle that occupies
may be occupied. it.For the example,the answer would be 1V3H2H1H.
Answer key: For each horizontal row from top to
bottom,write the number of different ships occupying
it.Answer may look like 111111111.

2 1 2 1

3 The Lawnmower man

1 Trace the route of the lawnmower man,which is
a single closed loop, not crossing itself.The loop
1 must visit exactly four cells(3 hexagons in the
1 second puzzle) around each house.Loop
cannot visit black cell.

Answer key:write the number of white cells inside

Cutshort Skyscrapers
Locate buildings of heights 1 to 5(1 to 6 in the
second puzzle and 1 to 7 in the third) into the
grid.Buildings in each row and column must be of
different heights.Numbers along the grey lines
must be consecutive and in
increasing/decreasing order.Hints outside indicate
how many buidings are visible in that direction.
the loop, followed by the number of white cells
outside the loop.
Royal Sudoku
Into each row,column and outlined region,place
five chess kings(represented by numbers 1 to
5) of different colours,one knight(N) and a
rook(R).No two Kings of the same colour can be
at conflict.Also,no two knights can be at conflict.

Answer key:Write the contents of the TL-BR Answer key: Enter the contents of both main
diagonal.Answer may look like 1111. diagonals,BL-TR first ,then TL-BR .Use “N” for
knight,and “R” for rook.Answer may look like
12345NR;232311N.

1 2 4 3
1 1 4 1 3 2
2 3 1 4
3 4 2 1