Another plug for this “introduction to the barred grid” puzzle in Anax’s latest Puzzle Collection PDF. Good challenging stuff but I only needed Chambers two or three times, so mostly accessible vocab.
(And quicker for me than the “easy” Sudoku.)
(And quicker for me than the “easy” Sudoku.)
Today, for the first Saturday in at least a couple of months, I bought The Times – quite a change in layout and I was especially pleased to see the prize cryptic positioned where the 15×15 puzzle should always be. The Jumbo, too, lends itself very nicely to logical paper-folding.
I’ve approached Richard Browne with this Imperator puzzle, so it’s fingers crossed from hereon in; but it did strike me that the Samurai Sudoku puzzle is taking up space that might deserve something better.
Not that I particularly have anything against it, but the page already has three sudokus (and variants) and all of these puzzles are computer generated. So it doesn’t matter how enjoyable/satisfying they may be to solve – they lack the human touch that sets them below crosswords. And maybe the Samurai Sudoku might be better saved for those Bank Holiday puzzle collections.
OK, perhaps I’m preaching to the converted; I can’t imagine this blog is a prime stomping ground of sudoku fanatics. But I’m definitely not saying The Times should do away with sudoku – I just think there’s an opportunity within the new layout to introduce Imperator as (ideally) a non-prize puzzle which solvers can go online to see blogged and explained on the same day.
AND – if Imperator happens and it’s blogged here, I intend to actively contribute to that blog while it remains current.