WSPC 2019

Let's go to my usual playback of ... unusual week. Official website contains results in detail for WPC, so I mainly write about other things like my strategy.

WSC
Last year, I did quite well in day 1, positioned in 3rd place. I could not keep it with fatigue or something, but there I noticed that I have possibility to get better result. My original target this year was a podium position. My practice was on Sudoku Variants Series from Richard, and easy classics. Why EASY? Well, in puzzle competitions, I often use intuition/brute force, escaping from hard logic. If I use similar strategy in Sudoku contests, especially in hard classics, what I need is basic filling skill. Complicated theories are unnecessary in that case. Throughout the year, I felt my project is going well.

Round 1
Left: #2, 3, 5
Started from the end and go backward. All puzzles had similar points, so I wanted to see what is 35 points first. It went OK, but I made one trial and one error correction in 30s. Then I stuck on another 35, so gathered 25s. There are no hard logic in fact, I could have done better.

Round 2
Left: #1, 2
60, 65, 70, and then from higher ones. I have less trouble in heavy variants and my basic strategy is collecting them (which is same as previous years), but did not want to start from the highest; that has too much risk. And there are no types I fear so much. Not so bad round.

Round 3
Left: #2, 10
Here I did not want to tackle the tough 110. I felt uncomfortable to the Biggest Neighbours type when solving example. My strategy was starting from 75 and go forward, and if I had problem on the "cake " 65, just skip 110. One more reason for choosing this route was that total points of #1 to #5 is higher than 110. Actually I was not smooth on 65 and escaped from the cookie. I had no time to try one 30, which means that if I had solved 110 I had got 10 more points at least.... But this was a way to do with such a round.

Round 4
Left: #1
Gathered 50+ from the end of the booklet (not to be too complicated move), then from higher ones, finally control with the remaining time. Normal move with less trouble, and happy to pick up a cheap one in the very end.

Round 5
Left: #4
Error: #1
Again 50+ from the end. Later I made some trials in Diagonal, and in Alternation Stripes, which I solved in the end but was wrong. My only error in this WSC came because my first assumption (R6C9=6) was wrong in fact. A funny thing is that my solution contain only 6 incorrect cells! If I had noticed it maybe I had a chance to tweak, but the time was running out....

Round 6
Left: #1, 3, 8, 10
Clearly bad round. Here I solved 60s (Mathrax combinations first) and then 50s, but I was not fine in almost all puzzles, especially in #2. I even made risky guess on #9, but still could not get enough time for #10. I expected much better result in such complex rules, I should check the reason.

Round 7
Left: #4
From 55, 65, 80. This time I was OK on Biggest Neighbours, and Double Scattered was not so hard as feared. Somehow I made a trial on #1 Classic, but only there. And I skipped Disjoint Groups, which I am not so good at.

Round 8
I started in Negative Samurai alone. Simply difficult, and I had to erase two corner girds by mistake. Thankfully the connection of the other puzzles was resolved in good time, and Kota came for my help. Well, erasing much on team table is quite sad moment!

Sudoku GP Final
I could not join in due to many errors, here are just my impression from audience side. The format was slightly changed this year, and it got so long; maybe too much for a night event. This is partially because the Sudokus are on tough side. This can be resolved when using easy puzzles like in Puzzle Final (and conducting more games in one heat), but I am not sure which is better for players, when ignoring time duration. One more thing is that it was difficult to know what is happening. I felt we need more screen, for live camera, tournament table, time result, and maybe more.

In Tuesday morning, I saw that I was in 4th place, similar to last year. The significant difference was that I needed only 70 points to Tiit, who was in 1st. I even dreamed more, but first I had to check my day 2 condition, which was too bad in Prague.

Round 9
Less strategy, just a power game. We had to fix some troubles, but well submitted correctly.

Round 10
Feared round for sure. When playing in team, we want to solve multiple grids at the same time, so I constructed the parts every time we know which are adjacent, in order not to hide some grids. That led to inconvenience in writing, but I think it was better. One more, it was not good for solving one grid in multiple solvers. I think I have much better feeling if do it alone. About our performance, we took some time for correcting a grid, barely finished on time.

Round 11
Same strategy as yesterday, from 65, 70, 95. Smooth solving, and first individual finish this year! This time I was in better state, and I changed my target to the victory.

Round 12
I chose skewed order: 2A, 2B, and go to 1A-C, then return to 2C. This is because 2A and 2B have higher points, but 2C is cheaper than 1C. In small size, trial works can be more effective, and I used that way in some puzzles here. I made a major trouble in 1B, so not a clean round but enough. I finished last year's round with small grids, maybe this is my strength? I often see such size in other puzzles....

Round 13
80, 90, 70 and then 60. I felt some risk on 90, but I had good reason to try the chance. It went quite smooth again, and before to start the next playoffs, I learnt that all my submissions were correct and I beat Kota at least.

Team Playoff
Again I was alone in 6x6. My opening was not smooth but without big problem, it came in Nonconsective, where I wrongly recalled the pattern. I noticed my fault only after Kota joined in. I thought I made critical error again..., but somehow we secured the title. Happy thing anyway.

World Cup Playoff
I had never taken care about this, only thinking about overall result. So this is a bonus stage for me, and here I changed my style to brute force side. Classic is not for me, expecially when competing with three Chinese. I used assumptions here, and thankfully solved it without too much disadvantage. I continued that way in the following puzzles, the only puzzle I solved logically was Anti Diagonal. I tried a case even in the final Rossini but I overlooked an easy step beforehand, and could not hit the solution here. Good punishment, but well performed.

Then I received individual victory. When I set my podium target last year, I also dreamed this as a long term target, but it soon came true! I know this is because Kota was not in his best and lost many points with errors, but at least I was there. Same as winning WPC first, I do not think I am the best at this moment, especially in Classis kinds (yes I have much chance to improve here), but I can say, I am proud of not giving up my ability.

WPC
Of course I aimed at everything, but I could not recover well, even after a rest day?

Round 1
The start round was good, even beyond expectation. I had to solve heavy ones from my standing, but the round is on word-side, I must have some disadvantage. My planned order was #2, 4, 8, 9 (high pointers with a practice), 1, 3, 5 (gathering cheap ones, but from higher), 6, 7. And I competed #5 Coded Fillomino in the last minute, which was pleasant. And I could skip Masterword (double letter is quite confusing) and Word Search (no way efficient).

Round 2
Began from #23, on which my team gave good advice. It was still tough and I had to guess on right half, but I earned some time here. Then from #14 to #22, I wanted to complete these but I feared #21 and 22, thus from easier ones. In fact I made a lot of guesswork there. And finally from #13 to #1, in sprint mode with some guesses again. Good round, until then, and my erroneous time began suddenly.

Round 3
Go backward from the end, the only exception was Creek + Slant, which I felt confusing and set it after #3. The actual solving on it was rather smooth, my main trouble was in #7. In checking minute, I noticed that I forgot a cell in Aquarium, and thought I saved 100+ points, but I had one more; a segment of Slant was switched. I am not sure why, this is rare mistake. So I saved 50+14*6=134, lost 65+14*4=121. It costed so much.

World Cup Round 1
Solved: #2, 5, 6, 9-11, 15-17
The worst round. I wondered how to motivate in this round, and I think this mind badly affected me, even in the following rounds. My plan was from #15 to 18 and then go backward, which was my usual strategy, but I could not tweak Compass. I heard from my team that it actually has multiple solutions (R4C3 and R6C3 can be changed), but I do not think this caused my trouble. Then I wasted time on #14, and was forced to gather cheap ones in hurry (from team, Shikaku is not unique in left hand). Too bad.

Round 4
Only one puzzle, sometimes which causes significant trouble. My largest problem was that mistakenly copied the same number in no mark position, C4 between Sudoku and Coral. Anyway finished, endurance.

Round 5
Original plan was, going backward about types, only changing Skyscrapers and Particle Zoo, and in each type staring from easy ones. I was not smooth in Skyscrapers and had to hurry a bit in the latter types, and then stuck on Lookouts. Skipped some of them, more in hurry, but I did not have enough time to sprint on Transporter and Compass. And I made easy errors in addition; bottom right of Candles, which can be fixed soon, and filling trouble in the highest Skyscrapers, 4 cells in non-connected part.

Round 6
Continued bad mode. Starting positions were, Nurikabe: Yuki, Tapa: me, Cross the Streams: Hideaki, Hydra: Kota. We had to return many times, one major trouble among them was my ignorance of Patch hole, I though no way to connect Tapa. And we made mistake while final adjusting in Hydra, 8 minutes bonus disappeared.

Round 7
At first we solved one type 4 puzzles each. My part was Mathrax, and I made an error even here! It soon led to a contradiction in the main puzzles, so I was saved. After that I and Yuki mainly solved the main grid, Kota and Hideaki helped with hints. Bad move, but the result is good enough.

Round 8
Next day, but the same state. Planning was Twilights forward and then Classic backward. I was caught in the first BACA, had to restart Twilight Magnets, spent much on Twilight Cave. And in returning, erased Pentopia and Magnets (again!) and stopped while tweaking Slitherlink (this is not an error). And many errors again. Missed a cell in Tapa (yes I hurried), and both of Magnets was broken in the final steps.

Round 9
Not clean but small recovery. Just from the end, once skipped Crossword where I stuck on. And I had trouble in Magnets again!

Round 10
Original strategy was, #8, 7, 6, 4, and then try #5 or 9. Actually I had less progress on Square Dissection and tackled the thrilling Overlapping Squares. It is great construction and I love it in itself, but quite hard of course. I finished it in the very last seconds, no time for checking and waited for marking. It must be one of my best moves this year to submit correct solution, but on the other side I made  costly mistake again; wrong dissection of 10 cells in Pentominous.

World Cup Round 2
Change my mind after the first round. Same strategy from the end, just changing Masyu and Summon (Masyu is better to start), and this time successfully solved each puzzle. Caught on Underground a bit, but still reached finish.

Round 11
Began in Nanro for safety, but not smooth as a result. Then moved to 110s, bad work in all of three. Japanese Sums was hard to grasp, Fillomino too, and I made silly miscounting on easy Nurikabe. Final sprint was on better side, but I had to leave complex Sudoku.

Round 12
My order was, Fences, Equality, Diagonal Chains, Kirch + Heim, No Same Sums, Marbles and Pairing, from easy one in the same type. Basically I felt okay, especially in Diagonal Chains, some troubles are in Kirch + Heim 3 (overlooking), Marbles and Pairing (both are not so efficient for me, not for sprint). And again, very, very easy errors by misunderstanding of the grid. I could not stop it till the end. By the way, again from my team, Pairing 1 has another solution by simple connection.

Round 13
How crazy! The most important thing here is to avoid wrong deductions, but hard to keep it even taking care. This was our case too, but luckily escaped in small back steps.

Puzzle GP Final
I had to change my mind, concentrating on the tournament. As expected, it is enjoyable from player side. I had to choose two puzzles at once for saving time, but that was OK. Just did as I had planned, only for my sake (to be clear, I gave no information to Japanese team, to be fair, and never considered other games, just looked at my possible opponents). My choice was not so tricky, maybe easy to guess. Unknown Parade Sums is good to skip first, and my first game is good place to spend Skyscrapers; I feel good at this type thanks to Hausigel, but the possibility must decrease when competing with certain players. Next skip was no-reflection pentomino type. The next choice was important, if I won the game I could control almost all the selection. So I picked an ace, but still it was tight match. I was saved by lucky one second. Then kicked (relatively) risky Gaps, and chose (again relatively) risky Endpoints; even if I lost here, Tapa must be chosen next, and I have good chance to return the Championship match. There are no advantage to stay in winner's bracket, so I only needed to win two out of three types. I managed to correct a small trouble here, and successfully left Tapa for last. Well performed in the end of the disaster day.

Round 14
My lead was only 29 points, which means 2 minutes. Almost flat, and I simply had to do my best. But when I heard Philipp's finish, I was still in the Labyrinth of Jigsaw. Refreshed my brain and continued to get the right just in case of his error.

World Cup Round 3
Left: #3
To show my best. From the end, only changing the first puzzle to Kakuro. This time Magnets went well. Partiti was time-eater for me, but otherwise less trouble till the final sprint.

Team Playoff
I was in Knapp Daneben. Starting from Hashi, I reached same contradiction several times in the right half. And the next Lookouts was evil, I wonder how Matej did it. Kota helped me well and I managed to go to the team table. As planned, our order was Pentopia, Fillomino, Slitherlink and Pento Words, but we are not clean in all we tried. Sad lose again. Last Slitherlink was broken by my error, how many times I do that?

World Cup Playoff
Good lottery by Tantan. Regardless of the result, I basically like this format of separating playoffs. More people get chance to be there. My semifinal was in tough group. First Pyramid was not so hard by using parity, but I could not calculate it correctly and erased much. And finally made a silly error; bottom right triangle contained two 9s! Soon corrected it, and next Domino Castle was solved by case distinction. Yajilin was solved by tweaking, and I recovered my disadvantage here. Slant was just large, and I hit 50% on Coral. Good to follow Kota, and that resulted in Japanese final. In the final, I had significant loss in the first Japanese Sums, I have to check it well. Then Battleships was by intuition, Heyawake was by two-degree assumption, I recovered some time but the next Galaxies was the critical. I overlooked a pattern of 2-shape, only considered S-shape. I managed to overtake Kota by intuitive Lasers, but could not touch Hideaki.

So, what was my problem. I had less problem in playoffs this year, I was surprisingly calm. One thing is that I lost 500+ points by errors, as if returning to London or Sofia. I spent too much energy in WSC, or did not fit German style well, I think both are true. The situation is very similar to WSC, the only difference is my position. Anyway Philipp made amazing job, congratulations on it.

Now I should look at the next season. As a coincidence, my father is working in Shanghai since this summer, I think I have good chance to invite him. I would like to find my next way to go.

24HPC 2019

As in 3 years ago, we gathered to solve puzzles on April 29th - 30th. 15 people joined in, so we set 2 places - thanks to Hideaki and Taro.
The following includes my results, top Japanese score and short comments.

Round 1 1000 (-5 minutes)
Spy Battleships is funny as usual, and I am glad to see interesting  Figure Doppelblock. Pyramids were done by a lot of trial

Round 2 875
Left: Minesweeper
Error: Suguru (1 cell)
Nice theme again. Most of the time was spent on Minesweeper, but in vain.

Round 3 1000 (-15 minutes)
There were some strange types. Halloween caused some counting troubles but still have good logic, and Knights in Pentarmour was rational as a result.

Round 4 1000 (-34 minutes)
Comfortable round. The rule of Nagareru is different from the original version - the path had to go straight on arrows - but I cannot say which rule fit better.

Round 5 855 (Japanese best: 1000 by Kota)
Left: Sudoku, Magnets Kropki, Scrabble Kropki
I erased Skyscrapers Kropki 3 times or so, and simply lost time to see some puzzles. Magnets Kropki has quite skewed moves.

Round 6 650 (Japanese best: 1000 by Kota)
Left: Spiral Galaxies 1
Error: Double Kakuro 1 (1 cell brank), 2 (1 cell wrong)
I spent much time on two Spiral Galaxies. And only 2 cell costed me 220 points!

Round 7 920 (-26 minutes, but with an error. Japanese best: 940 by Tomoya, also with an error)
Error: Ham Sandwich (1 additional ham - gluttony!)
Many unknown types, but luckily they caused less trouble. I am happy to resolve Instructionless rule.

Round 8 970
Left: Ayda Diagonal
1 more minute needed to finish. Main cause was probably the last combination grid. Liar Shikaku has 2 solutions.

Round 9 885
Left: Surplus Doubleblock, Cascade Snake
Error: Virtual Skyscrapers (error on marking circles)
Hard round, as easily expected. I do not know exactly but I heard that there are many puzzles with multiple solutions. Most of the rules are difficult to grasp, but some of them have good aspects.

Round 10 1000 (-14 minutes)
Crazy round, and I ran crazily. So I could not see the nice theme well during the round. I heard that Pentacles 6 has multiple solutions.

Round 11 630
Left: Odd Yajisan-Kazusan, Even Yajisan-Kazusan, Equality Nurikabe, Intersections Scrabble, Liar Fillomino, Perspective Skyscrapers, Nurikabe Mashup Quadrants
Error: Alcove Tapa
Quite tough round, and thus sleeping round for some players. One of my bad moves was that wasting on Odd Yajisan-Kazusan in the beginning. Puzzles are so cool, with some dual grids. Intersections Scrabble was the only one puzzle no Japanese solved throughout the all 14 rounds.

Round 12 830
Left: Hidato 2, Irregular Starbattle 1, 2, Japanese Sums 1, 2, LITS+ 2
Funny theme. Simply I lacked the power, or stuck on high Oasis and Pentominoes.

Round 13 790
Left: Domino Skyscrapers, Number Tables 2, Arrows 1, Diagonal Irregular Sudoku, Second Letter Seen
The round we purely lost to Nikola. Poker did not work for a while, and I feel I am not accustomed to Champions League type yet.

Round 14 900 (-10 minutes, but with errors)
Error: Coralfinder (2 cells switch), Tapa (1 cell brank)
Collapse in the end again. I wonder how to change this tendency.... Puzzles were solved nicely, I especially like the last matchmaker.

I did not solve all rounds continuously last year, so I felt rather fresh. And I am seeking for a chance to go to Budapest again.

JZC 2019

JZC 2019 was held on March 9th, and its puzzles are shared here. I prepared Round 3 with Kota, and this is short English explanation of our round. The rules are from the book we published last year.

1, 8. Draw a line from 1, without crossing bold line.

2. Thermometers

3. Wordsearch

4. Minesweeper

5. Skyscrapers

7. Rekuto

9. Knight-step Wordsearch; a letter can be used by at most 1 word.

10. Cross Math

JZC 2018

A bit delayed from intention, finally here are the English instructions of my round in JZC 2018, which held in March. I prepared Round 2 with Serkan, and due to his suggestion, puzzles are chosen from previous JPC. One remark is that points distribution is somehow skewed; easy ones have more points, hard ones conversely. This was to avoid huge difference between top players and casual ones, and it went okay, with higher average score.

1. Number Tube
Connect the numbers starting from 1. Path must cross on all black dots, and not in the other places.

2. Lego Studio
Place some boxes of 2-cell size. Symbols outside the grid show how the first box is seen from there.

3. Area Battleships
Place the given fleets without touching, not even diagonally. Numbers show how many cells are occupied by fleets.

4. Number Letter Connection
Connect 1, 2, 3, ... and A, B, C, ... respectively.

5. Sum 15 Cross (for 15th JPC)
Kakuro, all clues are 15 (except 1-cell segments).

6. Adam and Eve
Place the 2 kinds of shapes. Same symbols do not share edges. All given clues must be used.

7. Polygon Division
Divide the grid along edges, into convex polygons. Each polygon contains a number, which corresponds to its shape.

8. Snake Line
Starting from each numbers, draw a line of that length. Circled numbers show how many of their surrounding cells (at most 4) are occupied by lines.

WSPC 2018

So let's start the recap of this year's WSPC. I have not been able to summarize well, thus these are short brief of the facts of the week, and some random thoughts.


WSC
A-team for the first time since 2015. My targets were team victory and individual play-off again.

Round 1
Left: #1, 2, 9, 10
Collected 25-35 points first. Not great of course, but good start from my usual?

Round 2
Left: Quadro, Windoku
Begun from Killer, then Irregular, Jigsaw Killer, Greater than and Killer. My basic strategy this year was to get high pointers, and in this round I prepared in easier similar one. I had less progress in the remaining 2 puzzles in the last minutes, so I gathered cheap ones. I wanted to avoid Greater than before to start, though.

Round 3
Left: WR Classics 2, Four pairs, Clockfaces
Started from big ones, except Clockfaces which I feared to break. It seems I started good day around here.

Round 4
Left: Arrows 2, Count different
Product last digit and Morse numbers went okay at the beginning, and decided to try Count the odd ones. I had not planned to solve the cheap Arrows, even doubted its size, but it was truly 15 points and suit for rushing in the end.

Round 5
2 minutes left.
Well, to be honest I do not have good feeling in Deficit and Surplus, and wanted to avoid significant accident here. But some lucky assumptions led me to the unexpected finish. In tactical side, I solved from Surplus (6x6), and then Deficit and Irregular at last.

Round 6
Left: Cave
Error: Odd even and killer
Started in Makodoku, and its not smooth solving brought the decision to leave Cave. Then I solved all the others and checked for 5 minutes or so, mainly in Classic rule. But 4-cell problem due to a miscalculation was overlooked. Only error of the day, but costed much.

Round 7
8 minutes left.
Just to say, I was happy to not breaking it. This round is that kind of things.

Round T1
Left: Count different
Our ordering was Keisui, me, Kota and Taro from A to D. Highest ones of each set were left for Kota, and otherwise solved from heavy ones. 2nd set was solved within first 50 minutes, thus I and Kota were free in the last 10 minutes, so maybe we could have chosen better way.

At the end of Monday, I was surprisingly in 3rd place, even with a big error. I dreamed great result at that time, but next day was not so good as expected. I felt so tired when I woke up on Tuesday, so I might spent too much in the opening day.

Round 8
Solved: Ordering, Odd Even Sum
Start of disaster. The reason is clearly that I broke Different around, which I tried in third, in the almost ending. I could not correct it, and switched to Multiples but broke it several times with impatience. Even missed "Classic"!

Round 9
Left: GP Classics (both), Next to nine, Scattered irregular, X ray
Error: Fives
From the end, but skipped X ray without progress, and Duodoku tactically (it is quite confusing for me). I could not complete a Classic in the end, and later knew 7-cell trouble in Fives.

Round 10
Left: Half-mosaic, Quadruples, One-five-nine, 3D sudoku, Prague star
Error: One bug per line
Caught in the large Classic, but the biggest problem was the error again, this time 1-cell.

Round T2
Left: Just numbers, Ellipses
Started in the heavy set. Tough round, especially because I felt ill after the lunch. I suspect that I did few in these team rounds.

Round T3
Left: Classic, Irregular
Began from Differences here. We broke a Skyscrapers grid many times, and the remaining time was not enough to try another set.

Individual Playoff
Managed to keep 9th, at least. This year we were in the quiet room, good place to concentrate on. And more importantly, cameras and commentary were provided. In my opinion, playoffs are "not necessary" to decide the best. They are for audience, and thus should be attractive for them. I was not in the main hall at all, but it seems that the streaming was accepted positively.

Talking about my round, I had a chance to choose the last one, and selected Sudokuro. Easy decision when compared to Diagonal, and with point value. (By the way, in every round, it was interesting to see who banned Classic.) I broke the first Renban and lost ranking, recovered in Sudokuro but the round was over there.

Team Playoff
Ordering was me, Kota, Taro, Keisui, from the preference of types. I made many "this seems right" guesses, and they worked so well. I joined in the team table, and checked the placement of Fortress, which Kota had brought. A problem was that all of us completely forgot that the sheet should be placed in the corners, not in the center. It was quite lucky that the central grid denied all the sheets. Anyway, I found the placement, and left it to Kota. Then I searched other progress, but in vain, so helped completing Fortress. Keisui came with Renban sheet later, and we noticed that Renban and Arrows should be in bottom two. The placements were not confirmed, but we decided to try a well-work pattern, to get a chance of victory. It was correct, and Taro came while filling the two grids, then we finished Clockfaces and submitted. But we were once marked as wrong here. While rechecking, I found filling trouble in Renban, which I completed! We had to erase the corner, but my failure was not crucial in this round.


WPC
Of course I wanted all. There were many Latins this year, so I predicted to struggle with these.

Round 1
4 minutes left.
I had not expected to paint Shakashaka for visibility. Starting from 75-85 pointers, then Coral, and the others. I broke Coral and Hitori (!), but still enough to finish.

Round 2
Error: Scrabble (3 minutes left)
Skipped Scrabble, Overlapping squares (both) and Arrows first, and then tackled on Scrabble. Badly I forgot a rule at the last moment, and it became major error. It could have been corrected. First error of the day, costed 115 points.

Round 3
Error: Skyscrapers with mirrors 1 (10 minutes left)
From the last one, skipping Sky snail and Skyscrapers with parks: common but cheap ones. Intuitive work went well, but again the first puzzle of the booklet bothered me. 1 and 2 swapped completely. Second error of the day, costed 110 points.

Round 4
Left: Half domino triangular, Hexa skyscrapers 2, Antimagic hexagon, Antimagic hexagon with double cells, Slovak Sums 2, Boomerangs
Began on Triangular combo, after searching in the booklet. Quite hard it was. Better if I could have gotten some more cheap ones, like Boomerangs.

Round 5
Left: ABC no first 2, Semitransparent snake, Condensed domino (both), Irregular math sudoku (both)
Starting from the front page, I skipped the following types in the first visit; ABC untouchable, ABC no first, Snail - odd/even, Semitransparent snake, Reduced domino with sums, Condensed domino, Irregular math sudoku. It means cheap ones and some types I was afraid of. My troubles are in Inner coral, Reduced domino with sums 2, Numbers not touching. And I noticed the first logic of Numbered snake later, which should have been prepared.
By the way, I am curious to the signature of a marker, with Japanese letters. In my understanding, it says "Hana". Hi!

Round 6
19 minutes left.
Began from Starwacky, I went to Nurikabe Tapa, two Galaxies, Kakuro domino, and then to the highest ones. I broke Nurikabe Tapa many many times, maybe with fatigue, and also erased Snail End View Untouchable twice, but on the other hand, made quite lucky guesses in Ships and fishermen, Gaps between battleships 2.

Puzzle GP Final
Audience might be impressed when I finished Tapa before the others started, but it was not good for me because it was way too easy to get more advantage there. Still I did ok till the 5th puzzle, but then I erased Pyramid Climbers once, Walls may times, and finally made a critical error while filling the last cells of Trid. I could not correct it soon and noticed Kota's finish, so decided to erase it too. Third error of the day, costed a victory.

Round 7
4 minutes left.
I started in Land and sea, and broke that cheap one! Later I had some trouble in Country road, but otherwise it was on smooth side. I left Every third turn path in the end, but it was not so crazy as feared.

Round 8
Left: Coded dissection
I was suffered from my starting puzzle, Pentominoes I, in the right side, and even skipped it once. I recovered it later and went my way, but the round ended when I learnt the start point of Coded dissection.

Round 9
Left: Numbered regions, Sandglass (both)
At first I copied Star from my notes, even without rotation or reflection. I heard that at least Germany and USA prepared the same, so this is just for avoiding disadvantage. I tried Numbered regions for a while in the middle of the round, but made less progress, so gathered points in the other puzzles. Better if I could solve one or two more.

Round 10
10 minutes left.
Started in Double nurikabe and Double shikaku. I had to erase Double latin square 2, my last puzzle, but the whole round was doable with trials and guesses.

Round 11
58 seconds left.... I spent too much time on the last Regional snake. First I skipped the cheap snake and three regional match types to avoid confusion. Regional fillomino was also confusing for me. Regional pentominoes was easily solved with assuming R4C8 (the cell finally for L) would have been painted, though I do not know the reason now.

Round 12
Left: ABC letter groups 1, ILX, Point to numbers 2
Skipped ABC letter groups, ILX (I could not have believed that it would match 35 points), Point to numbers, Worms (so confusing). I finished the round with rushing in ABC letter groups and Point to numbers, and the last one, Point to numbers 1, had multiple solutions due to a missing arrow, so it was lucky for me to leave it until then.

Round T1
4 minutes left.
After noticing the first step and filling some pentominoes, I was mainly looking for the snake, not watching Japanese sums at all. I think I was not effective here.

Round T2
15 minutes left.
We started by filling letters, and I continued this all the way, leaving Coral for the others. This time it went well.

Round 13
22 minutes left.
Started from Tapa with questionmarks, and returned to the first two in the end. We had prepared some patterns of 3x3 Coded arrows, but this time they were useless. Still, 0, 1, 2, 6 were almost obvious in that order, so I did it even without erasing a part.

Round T3
25 minutes left.
I went from County road +, and with the construction of the whole grid by Kota (he did it all, and I only solve each paper), I continued to Yajilin (tried many patterns), Snake, and ended in Battleships. We had to go backwards for a while, due to some wrong solving of so.

Individual Playoff
As far as I know, in the first round, Galaxies was not unique, Sky battleships was the same as the previous round, and Overlapping squares, which all the contestants had no trouble, was actually not unique, too. And Japanese sums in the final was missing for some reason. After the competition, I heard that Hideaki (one of the testsolvers) did not check the playoff puzzles, so I doubt there was inconsistency in points distribution. Maybe I should have expected this from the many troubles. In the puzzle choice, I purely wanted to reduce possibilities of accidents, with that I could lose one minute in every one puzzle. So I chose Nurikabe, 35 points. For ban, I feared Wrong Products (I did not think I was the best calculator in the final), Regional fillomino (I had trouble in its visual), Double coral (quite high points), but simply chose the heaviest, the most dangerous one at my glance. I messed up Nurikabe again (should I change next time?), broke Galaxies and tetrominoes, but it had no meanings, based on the final results. The last one was the cause. Still, in this video, at 2:27:06, I entered 12 correct numbers and had one more minute to save my rank, but probably I saw some illusion there.

Team Playoff
I sat on Coral. One set was obvious to determine, and I tried the other grid by trial. One of my mistakes was that I mixed the marking of given Xs and deduced Xs. I submitted both grids, before Germany started, but once marked as wrong. And while correcting, I - somehow - overpainted a given X. And in fact this was because I used wrong matching. So at this moment I broke all the efforts of my team, only by myself. Then I helped Takuya with Japanese sums, and went to team table, but of course there was no way. At the last moment, I doubted some wrong sheets, soon Takuya went to checking and brought the correct one (and noticed that it was my failure), but time run out then. My last error of the week, costed even a successive podium place.

So, what is the problem. In Senec I thought it was mental problem. But I think this year I was okay at this point, maybe too calm. In technical side, I know I still have some clear weak points, like calculation, Latin, casual, so just continue improving. And how about physical aspects. My teammates pointed it out, and this is also what I thought even before I had left Japan. Actually I was in bad state throughout the week, so if I managed to get physically better (but how? - at least it would be different from pure puzzles), I would improve all the performance. But I am not sure its efficiency to the playoffs. I am still searching for the directions.

Anyway the next season is coming. It is a pity that we will miss a great champion from competing side, but Ulrich would challenge us from another side, it must be another amuse. I would like to find my way beforehand.

24HPC 2018

So here are my results and comments for 24HPC this year.

Round 1 1000 (-14 minutes)
Spent much time on the 2nd Curve Data. Are there logical paths for Different Neighbours?

Round 2 938
Left: Kiss Wordsearch (partially)
I wasted much time by assuming Scrabble as Pentominous. It was not completely in vain, though. Spy Battleships is nice as usual.

Round 3 850
Left: Ripple Effect, Kropki
I expected something easier, but it turned out to be cruel. My favorite is Triplits.

Round 4 1000 (-40 minutes)
Fortress Sudoku has multiple solutions.

Round 5 840
Left: Word Search, Hidden Words, Mastermind, Sudoku, Sudoku Mastermind
Good theme as usual, and quite challenging. Maybe I should have been more intuitive from the beginning.

Round 6 525
Left: Start With 1, Roleplay, Seek and Scrabble, Islands and Capitals, Largest Number Sudoku, Cipher Cave, Fusion
Hard as last year. I assumed the rule of Worm Web differently. I spent too much time on Fusion, without reading no-touch rule.

Round 7 1000 (-6 minutes)
Stable as usual. I found a uncompleted error while checking. :P

Round 8 825
Left: Coral Finder Starbattle, Error: Compass Starbattle (dividing error in top-right)
Interesting theme. Easy as ABC Starbattle was tough for me.

Round 9 1000 (-6 minutes)
The large Tomtom caused trouble to me, but I managed to finish in the end. Yajilin-Shapes includes some funny tricks.

Round 10 1000 (-3 minutes)
Easier than expected. I could not expect puzzle difficulty from the point distribution.

Round 11 845
Left: Atomic Attraction (both), Error: Morra Path (not completed a line), Skyblocks (filling error in a grid)
Full of errors. Positional Minesweeper is not unique, and it costed much time.

Round 12 835
Left: Triangular Minesweeper (both), Slasher (large), Error: Easy as ABC (1st, filling trouble)
Continuing easy errors. Badly I forgot a logic in Slasher. Triangular Minesweeper should have been solved.

Round 13 1000 (-6 minutes)
Expected theme from the instruction. Meandering Words was tough, and I got it so carefully in the end.

Round 14 1000 (-38 minutes)
Stable. Corrected some strange errors. Falling Letters is nicely becoming classics.

I took more than a week to complete, but still tough contest it was.

Topics of 2018

No update for a while. Here is a short summary of this year.

・I joined in Asia Sudoku Championship in Korea again. 2nd place was beyond my expectation.

・Unfortunately, I caught flu in Korea, and it affected on the 1st round of Puzzle GP. Thus I had a bad start, but I managed to come back to my pace later. This year, contest duration returned to 90 minutes, and I think this benefited me. Sometimes I wondered where are the classics.

・JZC 2018 was held in March as usual. This year I prepared a round with Serkan. I would like to introduce our round, but probably after WSPC!

・I could not participate in 24HPC this year, nor could we gather in Japan. I solved it alone recently (not in one day), so I will make some comments in another post.

・I and Kota published a puzzle book in Japan. 3 chapters out of 10 use Japanese letters, but 2 of which can be solved without Japanese knowledge (more enjoyable if you know). And instructions are obvious for accustomed puzzlers. Check it out if you are interested in.