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....