All 31 entries tagged Masyu

Friday Puzzles #136

So I’m afraid it’s only very tame offerings this week, especially compared to last week’s! It’s the usual mix of things to do, places to travel to and from and other projects to work on. On the other hand, I’ve not tried one of these for a while, and it’s nice to know I can still knock them up on demand. Even if it is rather easy. Happy Christmas, dearest reader, and enjoy!

#167 Masyu – rated easy

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 23 Dec 2011 00:01 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #127

So another Masyu again this week. I had wanted to send one of the tricks from last week to 11, but then all of a sudden it was 11pm last night and I wanted to sleep. I guess I’ll just wait until I’ve got a nice long stretch of time to myself, perhaps on a train or a plane or something. Anyway, more twisted symmetry. You’d almost think they were easy to put together! Enjoy.

#157 Masyu – rated easy

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 21 Oct 2011 13:30 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #126

Wow – an entry on time – what is the world coming to!?

Well somethings never change. It’d have been really great to have pulled off this masyu with perfect symmetry, but as it is I’ve had to add an extra pearl to take the solution count down from 2 to 1. Can’t have it all eh? Still, I think there’s more than enough here to keep you entertained, and you might even need to use a slight twist on an old masyu chestnut to get you going. Enjoy!

#156 Masyu – rated medium

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 14 Oct 2011 00:15 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #120

Apologies all, I was away on conference last Friday, and I’ve still not got around to putting up a puzzle. Hopefully you can expect last week’s puzzle up here later on today!

EDIT (Thursday): Well what a surprise, turns out I did have a semi-decent Masyu lying deep in the pile. For tomorrow’s puzzle I had planned to do a Suraromu again, but I’m not sure I will have time as I’ll be back on the road. Maybe expect something that next Monday, or else I guess it’ll be something a little more tame if I can get something done today. Enjoy!

#150 Masyu – rated easy

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 07 Sep 2011 10:20 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #114

So I’m going to dwell a little on the recent LMI puzzle test I put together. Whilst I had always meant to try and set the record straight after the last disastrous puzzle test I had authored for LMI, I only really started getting the impetus to put together a set of puzzles whilst idly sketching out this puzzle. I was very pleased with what was firstly a very pretty design, but also the very hard nature of the logic involved in solving it. There is definitely a solving theme, one slightly expanded upon from this entry – which is hardly surprising as this puzzle was written very soon after I’d done this one.

#142 Masyu – rated hard

Funnily enough, all the puzzles were near enough done in no more than 2-3 weeks after this, and actually what was causing the delays were all the boring bits associated with putting a puzzle test together – answer keys, formatting and so on.

Anyway, I was on the train coming back to Coventry with a couple of hours to kill on Monday, and I found myself putting together a few Masyu ideas. Ideas which I couldn’t quite perfect in terms of cool new tricks – but the upshot was this puzzle, which again looks nice and pretty, and actually solves in a rather pleasing (albeit not so challenging) way too. Enjoy!

#143 Masyu – rated easy

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 22 Jul 2011 00:00 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #111

So I completely forgot about this puzzle, which I wrote in a half an hour spell on the train on Friday. My apologies for its rather late appearance. Anyway, there isn’t so much to this puzzle, except for one little cute trick, which was enough to save this from the unpublished pile. Enjoy!

#139 Masyu – rated easy

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All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 03 Jul 2011 11:10 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #107

And so we’re back up to date with this entry. Unfortunately I’m running very low on inspiration for blurb text, I’ll let this Slitherlink puzzle speak for itself. Enjoy!

#134 Slitherlink – rated easy

Ah what the hell, seeing as I’ve got this lying around anyway, and this is apparently the only thing I do on my blog, why not another twisted-symmetry Masyu? You’ll note I’m sure, that this (along with the vast majority of my other recent Masyu offerings) indeed has the full twisted symmetry. Enjoy!

#135 Masyu – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 03 Jun 2011 11:16 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu Slitherlink |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #104

OK, no more instruction book fare from now on. So where else could I possibly turn to for inspiration? Hmmm. I’m beginning to wonder if my blog is quickly becoming the primary source of Masyu with twisted symmetry out there on the internet. Maybe – maybe not; I’d be interested in seeing any other sources that’s for sure.

I’ll confess that it’s getting harder to put these together to my own satisfaction, both in terms of aesthetics and indeed in the way they solve, but I do think that this doesn’t fare so badly in either metric. I hope you agree – enjoy!

#131 Masyu – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 13 May 2011 01:00 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #97

So something very curious happened this week. This puzzle appeared on nikoli.com.

My unquestionably loyal readers will doubtlessly recall this puzzle as featuring on this very blog back in July 2010:

You don’t need to know what a dihedral group is to recognise that these puzzles are relates by a reflection in the bottom-left/top-right diagonal. I don’t want to go into this too much on the blog – I have initiated a discussion here – but suffice to say I think this is a rather eye-opening coincidence (rather than malicious plagiarism) based on the fact that actually Masyu with twisted symmetry are very highly constrained, and the creative puzzle author might put down the initial diagonal pattern and then finish off the puzzle in exactly the same way as I did.

Anyway, I’m still a little unsure as to what to make of it all, so please feel free to leave a comment either here or in the forum thread.

And so to business. This week’s puzzle is inevitably a Masyu with twisted symmetry. The solve is nothing special, but I hope you’ll agree the design is at least a little striking. Enjoy!

#123 Masyu – rated easy

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

: 25 Mar 2011 02:15 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Friday Puzzles #95

#121 Masyu – rated hard

All puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11

P.S. you lose if you use uniqueness strategies. That is all.

: 11 Mar 2011 01:52 |  Tags: Friday Puzzles Masyu |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem