Two games in one: Battleship and Sudoku. There are fewer Sudoku clues and added Battleship clues. Use both sources to solve both objectives. The battleships in the fleet are either horizontal or vertical and are totally non-adjacent to each other. The border numbers show the number of cells in a row or column that are contained on one or more battleships.
This variant stems from the 2007 Sudoku Championship Puzzle Instruction Book (in pdf format)
When your spiffy Computerized, Programmatic Sudoku Puzzle Generator is not available, consider the low-technology, self-involving, self-sufficient random number generator and cell locator tools. You need at least 17 starting numbers and symmetry is required only for the obsessive compulsive (or Virgo people). Don’t start with too many numbers, though, unless creating unsolvable puzzles is your goal.
A mapping of Geometric Shapes For Sudoku Purposes. Each n-gon shape contains the number of sides corresponding to its units digit.
I have been a long time Shogi (Japanese Chess) player. The problem is too few worthy opponents. This may be due to the fact that playing Shogi for any length of time fosters frequent sacrifices, which totally ruins you for regular chess.
Shogi is played on a 9 x 9 square board and your pieces are pointing away from you. Your opponent’s pieces are pointing toward you. One major feature that distinguishes Shogi from Western Chess is that pieces that you capture become yours to play again anywhere unoccupied on the board. (pawns only drop onto your non-pawn lanes.) As a result, there are no draws in Shogi.
It took me about a month to recognize the Japanese characters reliably, without referring to the names and pictures. Once you study the characters, they are quite dissimilar from each other and have unique identification areas. While western chess emulates middle-ages warfare, Shogi is more a metaphor for aerial warfare a la World War 1 (and perhaps 2).
Other resources for this game include shogi.net, shogi.com, the Ricoh Shogi Club and the Computer Shogi Association which tracks the World Computer Shogi Championships.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been swamped with extra curricular activities which has constrained my writing here. I hope to resume in May.
I am in debt to Theoni Pappas, whose Mathematics Calendar inspired this Sudoku variation. Her yearly wall calendars have the wonderful characteristic that each daily math problem shown has a solution that is that day’s number!
This is a derivative of Twin Sudoku with only digits in each starting puzzle. A Book of such puzzles, called Unico Sudoku by Luigi Poderico is offered on the Lulu website. The introduction is written in the style of “Borat” (Amusing, not insulting).
The original starting numbers for this puzzle are from Gordon Royle’s Sudoku Patterns (Strangely Familiar Family) Number 17. It is a 17 hint puzzle, but I added the 5 to represent all the digits using Sudoku Solver By Logic to verify where to place it.
Without instructions, I’m showing (by example) how to do these two interrelated and yet independent Sudoku puzzles. Thanks to Henry Kwok for the idea, although his example maps two sets of digits, which may be more difficult (confusing).
I’m always amused that I can’t always pronounce Sudoku properly all the time. I guess I need another year of practice. There is an upcoming book by Frank Longo called Word Search Sudoku (Mensa) to be published in April 2007.
I’m slowing catching up on the news: On February 3, 2007, The World Puzzle Championship announced the U.S. Sudoku Team Members for the 2007 World Sudoku Championship.
They are:
In the livejournal community called worldpuzzle, there are many details about the upcoming World Championship including instructions (a downloadable pdf file).
There are new kinds of puzzles depicted, which are different from those in 2006. I especially like the puzzle called Paint It Black, which is a blend of a Sudoku Puzzle and a Paint By Numbers Puzzle.
Two Color Sudoku Sites that I noticed are a Color Sudoku Journal Article and a Color Sudoku Solver in MS Excel.
The Journal of Chemical Education is publishing an article called “Chemistry of Art and Color Sudoku Puzzles” by Michael J. Welsh of the Department of Science and Mathematics, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL 60605
The abstract describes what may be a fascinating connection between chemistry and color. Unfortunately a paid subscription to the Journal ($45 for US Individual) is required for both the full text of the article and the 3 puzzles and solutions file shown in the article.
Quite free is the Color Sudoku Solver via Excel Spreadsheet by Erkki Hartikainen: downloadable xls file. This spreadsheet solver permits you to map the digits and colors in either direction.
One particularly handy feature is the ability to modify colors depending on your own eyes’ ability to distinguish contrasting colors. The color solver is based on a number Sudoku solver by David Ireland.
