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Location: India | Name of Test: Mean Minis
Author: Rakesh Rai
Dates: 8th to 13th May 2020
IB: Expected on or before 5th May |
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Location: India | |
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Posts: 15
Location: Romania | Hi, maybe a missed by mistake, but still I did not saw in instruction the duration of test. 90 minutes? |
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Posts: 54
Location: United States | Clarification: In "Sequence", the instructions say digits "along a line" will form an arithmetic sequence. Does this mean that they will be a sequence in order of appearance (as shown also in the answer) or could they be randomly located on the line as in Renban?
Edited by Timjamiller 2020-05-05 11:18 PM
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Location: India | BogdanG - 2020-05-05 10:30 PM
Hi, maybe a missed by mistake, but still I did not saw in instruction the duration of test. 90 minutes?
Probably missed. We shall add along with points later.
However, it is there (90 minutes) on the contest page. |
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Mean Minis (2020) Author
Posts: 774
Location: India | Timjamiller - 2020-05-05 11:14 PM
Clarification: In "Sequence", the instructions say digits "along a line" will form an arithmetic sequence. Does this mean that they will be a sequence in order of appearance (as shown also in the answer) or could they be randomly located on the line as in Renban?
They will be in sequence from one end to the other. |
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Posts: 54
Location: United States | I think that the X-sums in the IB has an alternate solution. Not sure if I can attach a screenshot, so I'll write out the alternate numbers:
846957
759864
597486
468795
975648
684579 |
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Location: India | (Updated) Instruction Booklet
An updated version of the IB is available (3:55 pm IST on 6th May) at the contest page.
Changes:
1) Duration of the contest added on Page 1
2) X Sums and Odd Even Count example grid corrected.
3) General Rules on Page 3 updated for the contest
Thanks BogdanG and Timjamiller!
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Posts: 54
Location: United States | I guess I have another clarification question for X-Sums. Can a clued row or column begin with a number that exceeds 6? If so, would the total be the same as though it were a 6? |
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Mean Minis (2020) Author
Posts: 774
Location: India | Timjamiller - 2020-05-06 1:10 AM
I guess I have another clarification question for X-Sums. Can a clued row or column begin with a number that exceeds 6? If so, would the total be the same as though it were a 6?
It cannot exceed 6. |
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Location: India | Puzzle Booklet (PB)
The password protected PB is now available for download at the contest page: http://logicmastersindia.com/2020/05S/
There is no separate feedback page for this test. Feedback, if any, can be directly entered in this thread.
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Location: India | |
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Classics & Regions (PR 2016/17) Author
Posts: 170
Location: Germany | Great contest, loved the concept, thanks Rakesh!
It was tough because I felt I rarely had time to really think about a puzzle (though maybe I should have?) and was constantly in experimental mode. Might have finished if I hadn't wasted time with being unsure/unaware of constant arithmetic sequences, but the Little Killer seemed impenetrable. I worked it out cleanly afterwards, and there's a fair path -- I imagine the same would be true of the various puzzles where I wasn't even close to finding that. |
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Posts: 5
Location: Canada | Alright, so before I discuss my solving experience, I should mention that I've made a habit of solving LMI sudoku competitions exclusively through the online interface. Sometimes I find myself questioning that decision, partly because I think I'm a bit faster on pencil and paper despite the extra time keying in solution codes, and partly because I worry that without specialized notation, individual puzzles might slip out of my grasp. (They generally don't, but they still have the potential to do so.)
This competition has me feeling very mixed emotions about that decision, because on one hand, there were several times when I found myself sorely missing such notational methods. But on the other hand, necessity is the mother of invention, and I wound up adopting an aggressive trial-and-error approach that would have been a total mess on paper -- I've never made so much use of the Reset button. I could never have gotten away with doing it on 9x9 grids, but in this particular scenario (6x6, incomplete number sets to work out) doing lots of guesswork paid off startlingly (disappointingly?) well at times. I might like to revisit some of the harder puzzles later and figure out how to actually solve them rather than just stumbling onto the right set of digits by making assumptions. The Kropki in particular fell pretty fast to "Let's just assume this square is also 7".
It felt like an accomplishment to finish the round, and yet it didn't feel like I'd truly earned the accomplishment. It's a strange feeling -- not necessarily unwelcome, because the experience was quite a thrill ride, but decidedly different than what I'm accustomed to. I enjoyed it, (EDIT: I also really loved the concept of the round), and I'd be okay with experiencing a round like this one again (ideally in a similar 'off-week/casual' setting), but if I ever find myself resorting to flat-out trial and error this much at a WSPC round I might wonder if I'm irrevocably past my prime. :-P
Setting aside the dirty, dirty feeling of guessing my way through so many puzzles in one session, I should mention that Sequence felt particularly overvalued -- I skipped past it at first because I thought I was a bit short on time to risk it, then came back later and quickly steamrolled through the full solution path in just over 3 minutes. Its difficulty is almost entirely contained in the "same digit repeated is an arithmetic progression" a-ha moment, which feels like the puzzling equivalent of a trick question; to its credit, the puzzle made eliminating all other options for that line incredibly efficient, so it was probably the best possible execution of that trick, but 9 points still felt like too great a reward for spotting it so quickly.
Edited by ByronosaurusRex 2020-05-09 5:36 AM
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Location: India | Score page
A minor fix was applied to the score page.
It was showing additional bonus for some participants (who had not completed the set) earlier.
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Mean Minis (2020) Author
Posts: 774
Location: India | rob - 2020-05-09 1:07 AM
Great contest, loved the concept, thanks Rakesh!
It was tough because I felt I rarely had time to really think about a puzzle (though maybe I should have?) and was constantly in experimental mode. Might have finished if I hadn't wasted time with being unsure/unaware of constant arithmetic sequences, but the Little Killer seemed impenetrable. I worked it out cleanly afterwards, and there's a fair path -- I imagine the same would be true of the various puzzles where I wasn't even close to finding that. Thanks Rob! Constant arithmetic sequences would always be in the doubtful category, unless explicitly mentioned elsewhere. That is the reason the IB example had one sequence of 999.
I will share the (intended) starts for each puzzle later. |
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PR 2020 (MII and Regions) Author
Posts: 55
Location: India | Very nice contest Rakesh. I loved the path for each Sudoku i solved. I never looked at the IB and never realized about the Constant AP. Wasted a lot of time (more than 20 min) and at last realized that it should be broken????.
After the contest saw the IB.
Great test though.. |
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Posts: 59
Location: United States | Way, way, way too hard for a timed test in my opinion...but the few I solved seemed like nice puzzles. I try to avoid trial and error when possible but barely got started. Regular killer took almost 40 minutes. Fumbled with kropki about 15 minutes, got nowhere. Couldn't even begin little killer. Lost interest, walked away and made a cup of coffee...I'll save the rest for a rainy Saturday sometime. |
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Posts: 3
Location: Canada | It appears to me that there are 2 solutions to 09 Odd Even Count using the digits 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9. The corner circles are 3s and the interior circles are 7s. The two solutions would arise by swapping the 1s and 2s in columns three and six.
Have I missed something here? |
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2021 World Sudoku+Puzzle Convention Organizer
Posts: 1775
Location: India | romanm44 - 2020-05-10 12:41 AM
It appears to me that there are 2 solutions to 09 Odd Even Count using the digits 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9. The corner circles are 3s and the interior circles are 7s. The two solutions would arise by swapping the 1s and 2s in columns three and six.
Have I missed something here?
You may be missing the rule that all circles are marked, meaning that no digit can follow the count properties if it isn't in a circle. |
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Posts: 3
Location: Canada | Thanks Prasanna! I had forgotten thank requirement. That eliminates one of the solutions. |
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Posts: 139
Location: Estonia | I think it's a very cool competition. I really enjoyed ! But I also agree this guessing part many have mentioned here before me. |
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Posts: 225
Location: Thailand | Thanks for a nice change from the PRs and SMs, Rakesh.
I didn't pay attention to the IB's Sequences example and lost some time to figure out +0 is a valid arithmetic progression.
You could see a lot of clever intended paths - showing how meticulously these were made.
Unfortunately, as Byron noted, the 6x6 nature made this test prone to guessing for one to solve as many grids as possible in the 90 minutes.
Good fun nonetheless. Thanks again! |
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Mean Minis (2020) Author
Posts: 774
Location: India | ByronosaurusRex - 2020-05-09 5:33 AM
...I should mention that Sequence felt particularly overvalued -- I skipped past it at first because I thought I was a bit short on time to risk it, then came back later and quickly steamrolled through the full solution path in just over 3 minutes. Its difficulty is almost entirely contained in the "same digit repeated is an arithmetic progression" a-ha moment, which feels like the puzzling equivalent of a trick question; to its credit, the puzzle made eliminating all other options for that line incredibly efficient, so it was probably the best possible execution of that trick, but 9 points still felt like too great a reward for spotting it so quickly. For every high-pointer, there would be some participants who do it in a quicker than expected time. For sequence, based on the observations so far, participants have indeed taken some time before realizing that 3-3-3-3 sequence as a possibility. Since 1 and 2 are not possible on the longer line, 3456 seems a more natural sequence everyone would go for, and then reach a contradiction. I agree it is not a complex deduction but still takes time somewhere. |
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Posts: 1
Location: India | Password is sent by mail? |
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Mean Minis - LMI May Monthly Sudoku Test - 8th to 13th May 2020
