UKPA Hybrid Sudoku Contest

[david mcneill]

This is the discussion thread for the online UKPA Hybrid Sudoku contest to be held as follows:

Dates: Friday 28 February to Monday 2 March 2020
Duration: 90 minutes
Contest page: available from Friday 21 February

Please post any questions about the competition here.

David McNeill.

[david mcneill]

The instruction booklet is now posted at https://ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=56

[Feadoor]

The apparent link from the contest page to this thread is broken due to the usual issue with the ampersand in the URL.

[david mcneill]

Sam,

I have already reported this issue and expect it to be fixed shortly. Anyway, welcome to the discussion thread.

[Feadoor]

Thank you David

Onto an actual question about the contest. I assume that the Renban groups are the usual rule, where each shaded group must contain distinct consecutive digits? A pedantic reading of the IB would suggest that it is valid for a shaded group to contain e.g. the digits 1,1,2,2,3.

[david mcneill]

Your initial assumption is the correct one i.e each group of grey shaded cells must contain a set of distinct consecutive digits.

[david mcneill]

The contest has now started. Good luck to everyone planning to take part.

[glum]

I just created an account and downloaded the instruction booklet. I solved 3 out of the 4 example puzzles, I couldn't even break into the Killer and Clone, and each puzzle took me at least 30 minutes. I just want to check, it's not worth me even trying the actual contest is it?

[david mcneill]

Glum,

Please don't be. You may not win with those solving speeds but it's the taking part that counts. I would encourage you to persevere with the Killer/Clone example. Think Z pentomino. Sorry if that's too cryptic.

Good luck,

David.

[puzzlemad]

I just created an account and downloaded the instruction booklet. I solved 3 out of the 4 example puzzles, I couldn't even break into the Killer and Clone, and each puzzle took me at least 30 minutes. I just want to check, it's not worth me even trying the actual contest is it?

Sometimes competition puzzles can be easier than example puzzles. I am unable to comment specifically, but that can often be the case.

[GarethMoore]

That's a good point - and it's often particularly true for unusual puzzles. Instead of reusing an existing example, the author often won't have time to make the example work really cleanly. Not that I have even looked at the examples for this competition however - so I can't say if that applies here. And at other times examples can be misleadingly complex (or simple) because there's a particular trick in the competition puzzle which the author doesn't want to give away in the example.

[PuzzleScot]

Glum: your latest comment has been removed, and your account temporarily deactivated.

It is expressly forbidden to discuss anything regarding an ongoing contest.

[david mcneill]

The results of the UKPA Hybrid Sudoku Contest are now posted at https://ukpuzzles.org/contests.php?contestid=56

There were 91 puzzlers taking part. Thank you all for showing up. I hope you enjoyed it. 17 of you managed to solve all 8 puzzles in the allotted time. The statistics clearly show that puzzle 3 (Killer and Clone) was particularly tricky.

Special congratulations to the top 4 competitors (all from the continent of Asia) who completed the puzzles in under an hour. I was honoured to have such talented puzzle solvers trying my puzzles. And Kota was on a different planet - 38:32 is unreal.

[Feadoor]

Thank you for a lovely contest, David! I enjoyed all of the puzzles, but particularly #3 (Killer & Clone) and #5 (Little Killer & Thermo).

[puzzlemad]

And Kota was on a different planet - 38:32 is unreal.

You can certainly say that again. Well done Kota - it probably took me that long to answer a single puzzle!

Very well done to everyone who completed all the puzzles in the allotted time.

[detuned]

My guess of 40 minutes for the winning time wasn't too far off the mark.

I didn't enjoy killer-clone at all - I must have spent half an hour staring at it without getting a single number placed, which ended up being very frustrating because otherwise I was solving quite well. Turns out the trick wasn't that hard to see after all

The rest of the puzzles were great though - thanks David, and look forward to seeing more of the same at the UK Open!

[glum]

This was a real baptism of fire for me. I managed to complete just one puzzle within the time. I made mistakes on two of the others and have since gone back and completed them in a reasonable time. Thanks for the amazing set of puzzles David, but overall the difficulty level was beyond my ability. Maybe next time. 8(

[david mcneill]

Thanks Glenn. Glad you got a chance to try out the full set. Hope to see you climbing the leaderboards in the near future.