Sudoku Variants Series (176) - Boxed Snake Sudoku
(Published on 11. April 2017, 00:00 by Richard)
Boxed Snake Sudoku
Inspiration for this type comes from Sudoku Cup 5.
Solve online in F-Puzzles or CtC-app (thx Nick Smirnov!)
Place the digits from 1 to 9 in every row, column and 3x3-block. There is a snake hidden in the grid with head and tail on the grey cells. The snake doesn't touch itself, not even diagonally. The snake goes through exactly four horizontally and/or vertically connected cells in each of the nine 3x3-boxes. The digits in the snake-cells per 3x3-box are in increasing order from head to tail.
Solution code: Row 5, followed by column 7.
Comments
on 14. August 2022, 07:50 by Richard
Added tag and links for online solving. Thx Nick!
on 3. September 2021, 20:36 by Nick Smirnov
f-puzzles:
https://f-puzzles.com/?id=yg355zxj
CTC App:
https://tinyurl.com/h6b7buzs
on 21. April 2017, 14:21 by Fred76
I'm sorry, I was very stupid to comment this way on this puzzle.
Of course, everything that matters here is to share good puzzles, and this one is very good.
Your work is admirable.
I look forward to meet you in the next DSM.
on 20. April 2017, 13:55 by Richard
It is not my goal to make the list of variants as long as possible just for making it as long as possible. Variants have to make sense.
I realise there is a scale with the classic sudoku on the left and cross-overs with totally different puzzle types on the right. My personal taste is that I don’t go too much to the right, since I think it is important that no thorough knowledge of another puzzle type is necessary to solve a sudoku. On the other hand: All variants have an intrinsic logic that adds to the puzzle fun; it gives the solver an intellectual challenge to find the intrinsic logic, realise the implications of that logic and arrange the digits from 1 to n in such a way that the grid can still be filled according to the normal sudoku rules.
In case of the boxed snake sudoku I can easily rewrite the rules in such a way that the snake-part is completely gone. While creating this puzzle, I thought more about thermometers of size 4 in each box in such a way that all thermometers form a chain in which the end of thermometer 1 is touching the bulb of thermometer 2 and so on. At least, no excessive snake-knowledge is necessary to solve this one.
What a sudoku is, is real arbitrary, and I don’t think it will be easy to make a proper definition.
Meanwhile, in SVS I am exploring all kinds of variants, while I am avoiding to drift to the right of the scale too much.
When creating sudokus for tournaments or a competition I tend to stay even more to the left of the scale.
on 15. April 2017, 09:47 by Fred76
@Richard: Sure, nothing wrong with that puzzle. My comment was not a critic.
I would just have been curious to see how many different variants you were able to create without entering in the field of hybridation.
With hybridation you have so many possibilities that I think you'll not have problem to get to 300-400 variants ;).
on 14. April 2017, 11:52 by Richard
@Fred: Sure, why not? There have been already a few 'cross-over-puzzles' before in SVS too.
In this case the snake adds to the sudoku, and vice versa. I like the concept a lot, and looking to the rating, most players agree with me.
on 13. April 2017, 15:36 by Fred76
You're already doing hybridation with non-sudoku puzzles before reaching 200 variants? :(
on 12. April 2017, 07:54 by ibag
Das hat mir besonders gut gefallen, schöne Konstruktion!
on 11. April 2017, 16:43 by r45
@flaemmchen: In "lockerer" Folge.
on 11. April 2017, 16:14 by flaemmchen
"Wachsen" die Schlangenfelder mit direkt aufeinander folgenden Ziffern oder in "lockerer" Folge?
