I recently got an email from the creator of a puzzle called Hexa-Trex.  As the name suggests the puzzle involves hexagons.  The hexagons are laid out in a pattern chosen by the puzzle designer and each has either a digit or an arithmetic operator inside.  The goal is to find a path through all of the hexagons exactly once to create a valid mathematical equation.  New puzzles are posted every couple of days and the range from very easy to quite challenging.  Enjoy.

Wei-Hwa Huang who wrote the puzzles for the first US Sudoku Championship has posted two puzzles on his blog that were not included in the competition.  The two puzzles were rejected, it seems, because they were a little bit too tricky.  Try them out and see what you think.

It’s funny how these things work…  This weekend, the World Sudoku Champion became the US Sudoku Champion.

Yahoo is promoting their new search engine with a crossword puzzle. The crossword is presented in conjunction with the New York Times and was written by Will Shortz and Fred Piscop. The puzzle is incorporated into Yahoo’s search so that if you get stuck and need a clue, it’s only a click and a Yahoo search away.

It’s a small puzzle (9×9 grid) and it’s not terribly difficult. Expert cruciverbalists probably won’t need the clues. It’s worth noting here that “clues” here actually give you the answer. The real motivation is to show how effective Yahoo search is. When you click to “get a clue”, you are shown how easy it is to use Yahoo search to come up with the answer. It’s actually worth trying on some of them just to see how well it works. Also, any letters that you enter immediately come up in red, allowing the puzzle to be solved by trial and error.

The puzzle has a Hawaiian theme and if you finish the puzzle, you are given the option to enter a drawing where you can win a trip for two to Hawaii. So, there may be more to gain here than a few minutes of fun.

I mentioned back in May that the first US Sudoku National Championship would be happening this October. Well, it’s happening this weekend. The event page mentions Will Shortz and Merl Reagle prominently (there is even a Q&A with Reagle), so I’m guessing that the event is trying to gain some publicity from the cruciverbalist corner. The site also mentions Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder who are, no doubt, the odds-on favorites to win the competition.

I’m currently lamenting the fact that I no longer live in Philly, or I would be there for it this weekend. Still, I’m curious to see what happens and if there will be any dark horse contenders.

Smart Kit has put up three picture puzzles.  These types of puzzles show a picture and ask a question that usually starts, “Have you ever seen…”  Then they ask you to find a tree in a pipe or something like that.  These are not hidden object puzzles and, in fact, I think the picture is there mainly for misdirection since the solution to the puzzles generally seem to involve wordplay.

I’ve found a new blog for puzzle lovers, and the name says it all: Solve One Puzzle A Day. As promised, the blog features a new puzzle or brainteaser every day. Most of the puzzle seem to be math related. Enjoy!

Ripple Effect is a nikoli puzzle that I read about a while back on su.doko.es.  The name gives you very little idea of what the puzzle is like, so here is a basic description.  The puzzle consists of a grid of any size divided into polyomino sections called rooms.  Each room must be filled with each of the digits from 1 to the number of squares in the room.  If a digit appears more than once in any row or column, they must be separated by a number of squares equal to the digit.

The nikoli page linked to by su.doku.es doesn’t have many examples of the puzzle, so I hunted around to find some puzzles to try out.  The first good set of puzzles that I found was here.

Enjoy!

Here’s a new puzzle. Enjoy!

pdf solution

Here’s a new puzzle. Enjoy!

pdf solution