motris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} motris) wrote,@ 2008-04-11 09:44:00 |
|
WSC Preview
Still waiting for the official instruction booklet which will tell us about bonuses and timing but the preview of puzzle types already posted on wsc2008.com suggests the kind of championship we will see. I'm glad to finally see a sudoku relay round in the event, with the 7th (classics) round having that characteristic. There is a large round of "twins" puzzles which will hopefully have some good puzzles. I tend to dislike the "copy a solution from here to there" steps when they arise, and this seems to at least have one chance at that in the alphabetic substitution puzzle, but the others are a bit unusual, particularly the sum >8 and difference 1/8 twins. The rest of the rounds seem standard fare now for the third WSC - variants and classics spread around in reasonably long rounds where I tend to be in the top of the field consistently. I've solved basically all the types before so nothing really new to brainstorm this year compared with all the geometric variants last year that had "hidden" constraints you could prove by playing with the examples.
The team rounds seem somewhat "standard" still as team rounds go but may allow a little more teamwork than last year's. Part 9 has three puzzles split into pieces and, with three people, we will obviously each take one puzzle for the tiled sum/irregular/diagonal. I understand how you'd tile a diagonal sudoku and I guess a tiled irregular is probably just a normal jigsaw-like puzzle (play with the arrangement of pieces until you get a 9x9 square) but I'm curious to see how you tile a sum sudoku. The other team round is a weakest link round with a samurai puzzle but until I see the instructions, its not clear what the "entry" puzzle(s) will be to the team desk. Only three members of our group of four are on the team and the decision of who is on the team has not yet been made. We have a talented squad, so some on-site brainstorming will need to be done to make this decision.
The biggest apparent news in the championship is the presence of two titles for the individuals, with it seeming that without winning both, either title itself is somewhat diminished. This means I have a lot more to shoot for as I defend my title this year. I'm tired of the criticism that the WSC champion is good at variants and not classic puzzles. I won the US championship handily with just classics and I will hopefully do well in Goa as well.
If there is a theme to my championship thinking then, it is that I will be taking it to 11. With that in mind, here is a new Tablecloth Sudoku (the type created at WSC2) of the Spinal Tap variety (11 wide with 9x9 sudoku in the middle). All rows/columns will contain 1-9 and A,B and no digit/letter is repeated in the 3x3 bold regions in the center. The big shapes belong to multiple rows/columns. This is an easy example but it proves the larger size is possible.
Still waiting for the official instruction booklet which will tell us about bonuses and timing but the preview of puzzle types already posted on wsc2008.com suggests the kind of championship we will see. I'm glad to finally see a sudoku relay round in the event, with the 7th (classics) round having that characteristic. There is a large round of "twins" puzzles which will hopefully have some good puzzles. I tend to dislike the "copy a solution from here to there" steps when they arise, and this seems to at least have one chance at that in the alphabetic substitution puzzle, but the others are a bit unusual, particularly the sum >8 and difference 1/8 twins. The rest of the rounds seem standard fare now for the third WSC - variants and classics spread around in reasonably long rounds where I tend to be in the top of the field consistently. I've solved basically all the types before so nothing really new to brainstorm this year compared with all the geometric variants last year that had "hidden" constraints you could prove by playing with the examples.
The team rounds seem somewhat "standard" still as team rounds go but may allow a little more teamwork than last year's. Part 9 has three puzzles split into pieces and, with three people, we will obviously each take one puzzle for the tiled sum/irregular/diagonal. I understand how you'd tile a diagonal sudoku and I guess a tiled irregular is probably just a normal jigsaw-like puzzle (play with the arrangement of pieces until you get a 9x9 square) but I'm curious to see how you tile a sum sudoku. The other team round is a weakest link round with a samurai puzzle but until I see the instructions, its not clear what the "entry" puzzle(s) will be to the team desk. Only three members of our group of four are on the team and the decision of who is on the team has not yet been made. We have a talented squad, so some on-site brainstorming will need to be done to make this decision.
The biggest apparent news in the championship is the presence of two titles for the individuals, with it seeming that without winning both, either title itself is somewhat diminished. This means I have a lot more to shoot for as I defend my title this year. I'm tired of the criticism that the WSC champion is good at variants and not classic puzzles. I won the US championship handily with just classics and I will hopefully do well in Goa as well.
If there is a theme to my championship thinking then, it is that I will be taking it to 11. With that in mind, here is a new Tablecloth Sudoku (the type created at WSC2) of the Spinal Tap variety (11 wide with 9x9 sudoku in the middle). All rows/columns will contain 1-9 and A,B and no digit/letter is repeated in the 3x3 bold regions in the center. The big shapes belong to multiple rows/columns. This is an easy example but it proves the larger size is possible.
