WPC 2016

After a long break, I am gradually returning to the life with puzzle. Here is my late recap of Senec.



WSC
I was B-team this year, but at least I tried to optimize my score like last year. Thus I will play back shortly about it.

When I read the instruction, I found that maillot a pois was so attracting; due to my inability of Sudoku, hard ones are effective for me in nature. And I was out of pressure as an unofficial player. I targeted this prize.


Round 1
(Thankfully, I do not have to write down which I solved. See the statistics about that.)
Started from the mountains, of course, large ones next, and used the remaining time appropriately.

Round 2
Worse round for me as usual. Just solved in the order. I found an error in #2 but could not correct it.

Round 3
Again from mountains, in the appeared order, then the remainings in the order of points; this was my basic strategy this year, and the only exception here was the Classic.

Round 4
Started from top right, broke it, then began from bottom left, broke again, so just tried to get as much as possible.

Round 5
Basic strategy, and the last minutes were used for Pinocchio.

Round 6
Good joke. Here I chose preferable types among lower points, only from their names.

Round 7
I chose solving Classics. I avoided Fortress for fear, but it might have been a bad decision.

Round 8
My part was XV, Next to 9 and Twin Detector. We could not finish Consecutive, and made a 2-cell error in Kropki.

Round 9
My task was Killer Jigsaw, and I failed to solve it. Thus I did nothing in this round. Badly we made a 4-cell error in Kropki Jigsaw (again!).

Round 10
After I looked through the booklet, I found 3 "no solution" and 2 "multiple solutions"! So bad.

Round 11
Worst round for me. I made an 1-cell error in Combined 2, a 2-cell error in Concecutive. I lost a chance to the jersey, and the errors also costed me too many points in the final result.

Round 12
Just that I broke it.

Round 13
We could not find the Old Maid effectively, and we were on the intuitive side. It seems (from the letters) that I solved 2 or 3 pairs.

Round 14
I sat in front of the paper and solved Target Sum, No 10 and Tens Position Product. Sadly we made 2 errors.


As a whole, I feel I should do something with Classics. I was too bad at them.



WPC
I can recall more.


Round 1
Risky round. I wanted to avoid collapse. So I solved all the Scrabble, but it took much time than expected, and gave me less information than expected. I managed to fill in but that was all I could.

Round 2
Good theme. My strategy was that starting from the top page and skip some ineffective (lower Latin, for example) puzzles. I had big trouble, especially in Odd-Even Double Block and Tom Tom, but still I had more than 20 minutes when I started checking. I felt my solving style was on the risky side in this round, so I began careful checking, and... wow, I had not solved Tetroscope!

After I left the room, I saw Palmer's finish, thumb up each other. But he made an error, which reminded me of the London; it was also round 2.

Round 3
Began from Loop Kropki, and after Kakuro Kropki, I returned the top, but still left Hexa Kropki for the last. I could not finish filling the last few cells, so my regret was that I checked each puzzles too carefully.

Round 4
I was okay here. Solved Full Masyu first, in order to check the difficulty, and then from the top. Mostly smooth.

Round 5
My order was small Coins, Walls, Hidato types, Slovak Sums types, Domino types and Index Skyscrapers. My intention before the round was to solve all the Coins and Skyscrapers first, but changed my mind when I touched large Coins. Good choice as a result. Large Hexa Slovak Sums was the trouble for me, but even if it had been smooth, I doubt I could have finished this round.

Round 6
Loop, Tapa, looking at the clock, and then Skyscrapers. But I made an error in Loop; after tweaking, I looked over a segment from a black cell.

Round 7
Error in Maze View. I tried Wordsearch but got nothing.

Round 8
Many types are from Naoki Inaba, so we are relatively accustomed to them. I skipped Retro Pento at first. Math Kakuro was my obstacle.


PGP Final
The main difference from last 2 years was the first puzzle. I managed to save my position with a small margin. But still it was not safe for me; I filled a wrong digit in Kropki and had to change it later, and I could not think that there was a solution to Spiral Galaxies for a long while. Hideaki came near, but somehow I kept top in  the midpoint. It seems that I went ahead after that, though I could not recognize it. Or I just recalled a guy. When I reached the last puzzle, I thought I would be able to win, because Paint by Threes usually reflects spent time (unless I break it, of course). Andrey was my proctor, so I was glad to finish it safely.


Round 9
Started from Nurikabe, Anglers, and LITS: the puzzles I must solve, which include medium - high pointers and whose pages are easy to open. Then I looked at the clock, okay I can finish the round. Thus began from the top. I left 31 minutes, but 30 seems good, so used one more minute for checking.

My complaint to my performance is that I could not recognize 8 by 8 in Starbattle.

Round 10
Skipped Easy as ABC and Scrabble at first.

Bad experience for me. I broke Masyu, and the skipped two puzzles were solved after long tweaking. Not smooth at all.

Round 11
Tough round. After I gave up the 4th Railroads, I jumped into the Illiterate Loop. Troubles in large Oasis and Fences Switch were clearly unnecessary.

Round 12
Good theme. I should have prepared for this.

Started in the order, and after Elastic Bands, skipped some puzzles at first. I am angry that I forgot "in the order" rule in Sandwich. Too much loss.

I do not prefer 2 by 2 rule in Numberlink. I felt Slash Pack was overvalued.

Round 13
Started from Hitori, and after Kakuro I returned to Skyscrapers. I tried Easy as ABCD but could not get it.

Round 14
Starting distribution was, Domino for Kota, Skyscrapers for Hideaki, Every Second Turn for me, and Taro was for free moving. After Every Second Turn, I went to Spiral Garaxies, Tapa, left side of Two Step Maze, Sum Numberlink. Then helped Yajilin, where Taro had some problem. The cause was that we divided Nurikabe into Nurikabe and Four Winds, so correction was not completed. I touched Shikaku, and left it for Hideaki together with the remaining Two Step Maze. I completed Star Pentomino and then noticed that Four Winds was required in bottom side. Our remaining time was used for tweaking Nurikabe, and it succeeded in the last minute.

We forgot to write down a segment in Four Winds, which is apparently my fault.

Round 15
Basic distribution was, circles for me, regions for Kota, numbers for Hideaki and letters for Taro. I took the remaining, but it should be the best one.

We soon noticed that the parity was broken, so we easily detect 2 grids. Giving them to Kota and Taro, Hideaki hit seems-correct Masyu, and he also started solving. I did the remaining matches, using Masyu again, then began my task. 1 grid out of 4 circles puzzles had been done by Taro, but I had to resolve a duality. Then I helped a Small Starbattle, and in the end Taro asked me to solve a Coded Nurikabe. It went well intuitively.


Croco Liga
A Polish team invited me, thankfully. Great amuse it was, thanks to the teammates. And with their invitation, now I am thinking about joining in Croco in the near future. Maybe soon.


Round 16
I think we wasted time in Double Block. It went well, except that. An interesting thing was in Akari; looking at 1-3 combination in the top left, Hikeaki and I soon prepared a sticker, Kota and Taro also indicated that place.

Round 17
First choices were, Fences and Table for Kota, In White for me, Japanese Sums for Hideaki and Scrabble for Taro. Here I was ineffective; After In White, I just struggled with Minesweeper and Tapa. Thankfully Taro solved 4.

Team Playoff
A: Taro, B: me, C: Hideaki and D: Kota.
I could not find any path of Nurikabe, even made an error. What was worse, I looked over  a pattern in Bosnian Snake, took a long stop again. All I could do after that was the tweaking of Double Back, with the help of Taro.

Completely my failure. So sorry to my team.

Individual Playoff
Me: chose Coded Nurikabe and trashed Scrabble.
1st position was necessary to realize this situation. I had decided my choice in Japan. The more importance was in avoiding Scrabble, which was the only thing I feared a big accident. The reason for Nurikabe was that it was the only type which saved me in London.

At this point, my prediction was, Ulrich would choose Kakuro and trash Loop, Palmer for Hidato and against Compass or Railroads.

In fact,
Ulrich chose Irregular Kakuro and trashed Railroads,
Palmer chose Hexa Hidato and trashed Compass,
Phillip chose Anglers and Loop 2 in 1 was left.

I got many questions to my choice after the final, but I still think it was correct. My performance was the only problem. I did not give up even after the Nurikabe, but Kakuro was way too easier than in the preliminary round, and I could not do well in Hidato on that condition. I just saved a podium place just by luck, or this meant two years had passed? And I again learnt the strength of Ulrich.


Thank you organizers for very, very well prepared week. Everything was smooth, and I especially liked the online scoreboard and the schedule on my nametag. I enjoyed puzzles so much, of course.

And thank you who are warm to me after the competition. To be honest, I was not confident to perform as a champion after Sofia, but at that time I could feel that I achieved something. Next year is starting now. I will be somehow better shape in Bangalore. See you again!

24HPC 2016

Like last year, we solved 24HPC on May 3-4. Recently I managed to have time to solve the remaining. I do not remember my strategies clearly, so here are just a few comments.
Scores are here. Note that my skipping round was my best result, with the suggestion from Kota.

Round 1
Nice theme. I do not understand if Strangely as ABC have logical path.

Round 2
2-cell error in the 2nd Missing Magnets: my last solved puzzle.
Good to solve some unfamiliar types. I should have solved Anti-Magnets.

Round 3
Just a peace. Rock Scissors Paper seems to be preferred in Japan.

Round 4
Suffered from irregular grids. Classic-first strategy was better.
I remember that I ignored the range 1~8 in Japanese Sums.

Round 5
I had to hurry in ABCtje, and that caused a minor error.
Logical Kropki is so comfortable.

Round 6
2-cell error in Minesweepers with Duds, and I found another error in Minesweepers. So my true score is 685.
The trouble was that I gave up Magnets on my half way.

Round 7
The rendering should be improved.
In my experience, Shikaku with so many even clues tend to be unique because of the restriction from parity, sometimes accidentally.

Round 8
High-pointers are my favorite. Maybe some of middle-pointers were harder for me.

Round 9
Major error in cheap Countries.
Sudoku always reduce my time in such sets. Some types are still unfamiliar to me.

Round 10
Good difficulty this year.
I thought a spell as "Edison"; I have never heard the N is written/pronounced in Japanese.

Round 11
Tough round. My worst decision was that I tried Foursome and got nothing.

Round 12
Error in Banknotes. I could not finish the last steps of Skeleton.
Large Tapa LITS and Masyu Battleships are especially awesome.

Round 13
No problem, as usual.
I do not know if the logic I used in the small Kropki was intended path.

Round 14
Made a major error.
Belgian V-W Regions were interesting.

GP and JPC 2016

GP and Japanese qualifying has over. Here are my recaps.



First, about Puzzle GP. My feeling after the first round was that, point distribution was great as if it reflected on the testing time of someone, who may be little a bit bad at Latin types. So in the following rounds, I interpreted points in this way, and this went well in general. And I believe that points do not include typing period.

Though distributions in each round were good, the difficulty of the rounds varied so much, and it should have affected on the "Best 6" choice. I think it is almost impossible to make it uniform.


About Casual section: frankly, I was bored at too many Masterminds in the first half, but thankfully many other types appeared in the latter. I was able to enjoy it casually (, making many errors after the Competitive section).

My question goes to the structure of General section. It was easy to find that time bonus in the Competitive section was "double-counted". Somehow I won this section, but I do not know if this is valid.


In the end, about my result: it is good that I made only one Competitive error, which occurred in the first round. I was not perfect even when I won, but at least there were no major errors in these rounds. On the other hand, my troubles in Round 7 and 8 were clearly one puzzle each: Dominoes in Round 7 and Domino Construction in Round 8. I used surprising 30 minutes in the latter. I need to fix this tendency.

There is no information about the final yet. Now I just hope that I will be in good condition in Senec.



Next, about our national qualifying. This year, our first round was JPC, which included some Sudoku, and qualified players moved on to the selection contests of WPC and WSC. Major troubles were:
- Piece puzzle in JPC was completely same as the one in 2008. I did not know, and I did not expect this kind of trouble.
- Rendering error in WPC selection, which resulted in multiple answers. I found a solution with a wrong assumption.
- Instruction error in WPC selection, which was announced as free points for all players. I did not notice the announce and solved it.

Other than them, I have questions to the meaning of JPC. All contests were online, thus there was no need to reduce players. And I think JPC did not contain enough Sudoku, if this is used as a part of WSC selection.


Let's move on to the result. My ranks in selection contests were, 5th for WSC and 1st for WPC. I did my best even for WSC, but others did better. I am okay with this result. I will use WSC to get accustomed to the environment. So A-team for WSC is same as in London. I believe they will do well.

A-team for WPC is Hideaki, Kota, Taro and me. Taro will return! Everyone won some major world title. I am looking forward to compete with this teammates.


So, let's meet in Senec! Before that, now I am struggling with our puzzle book....

JZC 2016

Puzzle of JZC 2016, held in March, have been published as usual. This year, I prepared Round 7 with Takeya and Yuta. Our round was intended to be Assorted, but somehow it partially became dual round. I wonder how crazy I was to create Filloominoes.


BTW, though I have uploaded my solving video in PGP, there is nothing in Round 7. I failed to start recording. Sorry.
I feel I am not in good shape these days, but still, national qualifications are coming (first round on 16: tomorrow and final qualifying on 30). I hope fair and good contests, and also hope that I can get chances to try for titles in Senec.

Toketa? Selection

Here are some notes about my creations for Toketa? Selection.

I made 3 puzzles, which were distributed from the remaining pool (, avoiding some types).

Araf 1:

Prepared to match the harder one. I intended easy and logical path, and a bit of aesthetics as a spice. I was anxious when I got multiple "less than a minute with intuition" feedbacks, but it seems okay in the whole set.

Graffiti Snake 2:

Free creation. Intended first step is "the center cell must be white from topological reason". This is not required, and hard to figure out, but a rewarding back door, at least.

Max Arrow Castle Wall 1:

Again prepared after the second one, and again, my object was easy one. The path is narrow but simple, and you don't need to count more than 3!

I feared that the test was decided by intuitive ones, and there were some exchanges between practice and test. I think it was an acceptable level as a result. For me, the best way to do with intuitive puzzle is to be better at logical part and leave enough time to be intuitive (, or move on to whole-check mode).

Puzzle Video

GP 2016 has started. I have some random thoughts about Casual/Competitive sections and normalization, but it should be better to keep them until the end. Now I just want to say that I am wondering the meaning of "competitive solver".

Since last year, precisely since the week of UKSC and JNPC, I have recorded my solving in competitions. At first, this is because of interest to myself, but they tell me many things. For example, from this (taken from the latest GP round) I can learn how I made the error. Targeting 70 minutes was enough for me to change my safety-solving into hurry-solving, and to create unknown word.

I don't know this has any benefits to others, but here I try sharing this once.


By the way, Toketa? Selection is held in LMI now. I hope you enjoy the test. Maybe I will write something about my puzzle(s).