All Sudokus and puzzles of the championship can be found here. I also provided some of the Sudokus and puzzles for that event. This post will contain all my Sudokus.
This is the first time I actually provided Sudokus to a championship. Before the start of the Daily League I didn't really regularly write Sudokus. I think I'm getting a bit better on judging difficulty. I provided 3 easier and 3 harder puzzles. I also wrote an examples for each puzzle type. Two of the examples were also included in the championship. I think from the point values of the puzzles, my judgements of difficulty were pretty accurate.
Puzzles can be found below.
Rules for Sudoku
1. Quadruple Sudoku (4 points)
I liked this layout of clues for an 8x8 grid. So tried to make it work. It's not too hard as a low amount of clues doesn't allow for too much freedom as you need to still have the clues interact to get a unique puzzle out.
Rules:
In this Sudoku, the digits in the grid indicate the digits that have to be placed in the 4 cells surrounding it.
2. Outside Sudoku (2 points + 9 points)
I generally try to avoid 3 digits for a single direction in Outside Sudoku. I like this clue pattern therefore. It's not a hard puzzle, but it wasn't meant to be. I find it somewhat hard to make a harder puzzle in this type.
Rules:
In this Sudoku, digits on the outside have to appear in that row or column in the first blackbordered region seen from that side.
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 2
Click to enlarge |
3. Consecutive Clone Sudoku (3 points + 14 points)
When I wrote this type for the Daily League it seemed to be well received. So I figured I'd write one for the championship too. I employed a CZ theme for the clues. I think this one is easier than the one I wrote for the daily league.
Rules:
In this Sudoku, digits in the same place in both grey figures have to be consecutive.
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 2
4. Hi-Lo Difference Sudoku (18 points)
This is the first time I wrote this variant. As it's a difference puzzle it always needs at least one clue inside the grid. So I went with a 1 through 9 diagonal, which I have employed in a number of my puzzles. It also leads to a simple opening with some of the clues. But after that it becomes a bit harder and it's important to find the right clues to use.
Rules:
In this Sudoku, digits on the outside indicate the difference between the highest and lowest digit in the first three cells seen from that direction.
5. X-Sums Sudoku (18 points)
I like this variant. I generally like sum variants. Adding the Jigsaw constraint helps reduce the number of clues needed too. I tried to use little clues, so the Sudoku bit also came into play more and it didn't turn into just a sum puzzle. I liked how it worked out.
Rules:
In this Sudoku, the numbers on the outside indicate the sum of the first X digits in that row or column from that side. X is always indicated by the first digit seen from that direction.
6. Distance Sudoku (20 points)
This is another variant I like. It's actually the first variant I wrote for the Daily League. At first I set out to make an easier puzzle than the one in the Daily League. But when I was done with the design, I'm not sure if that truly worked out. I just kept putting in things I thought were nice and often when I think something is nice, it also means it's tricky. I at first made an error in the clues, so my apologies to some of the testers for trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle.
Rules:
Numbers
on the outside indicate the distance between the 2 indicated digits in that row
or column. The order of the numbers is indicated and have to be placed left to
right or top to bottom.
Click to enlarge |
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