Valiant Viper in the King's Garden (Chess Snake Sudoku)
(Published on 5. April 2022, 01:20 by Nordy)
A valiant viper has been spotted slithering through the King’s garden. Find the beast at once and bring me its head…and tail!
I have had the idea for this puzzle for a while now, but it didn't seem worth finishing until I solved and was inspired by kolot’s related puzzle (which deserves more attention if you like snakes and arithmetic). I am extremely happy with how this one turned out, and it has become my favorite solo-created snake puzzle. It is also far more approachable than it’s Chaos Construction cousins. Hope you enjoy!
Rules:
Normal Sudoku: Place the digits 1 to 9 in every row, column, and 3x3 box.
Snake:
- Draw a 1-cell wide snake that passes through all circles and no squares. The snake does not touch itself, not even diagonally. The two ends of the snake must be determined while solving.
Circles: Snake Knight Sums
- Every cell with a circle belongs to the snake and sees at least two other snake cells by knight’s move. A digit in a circle is the sum of all snake digits within a knight’s move of that circle.
Squares: Non-Snake King Sums
- Every cell with a square does not belong to the snake and sees at least two other non-snake cells by king’s move. A digit in a square is the sum of all non-snake digits within a king’s move of that square.
Here is an example of the rules interacting:
And here is the puzzle. Good luck!
Solution code: Row 2
Comments
on 3. July 2023, 03:18 by damasosos92
Very tricky one. There are some very hard spots, and after finding almost all the snake path the puzzle continues hiding its treasures. I had to restart after one spicy error with the snake, but in the end the solution came up. The most satisfying 3 hours of my week.
on 18. June 2022, 13:57 by Niverio
Phew. Not very difficult, but it kept me thinking "Oh no I made a mistake somewhere for sure" until the entire grid was filled. Very nice idea!
on 25. May 2022, 04:09 by thatkyle
Super fun and challenging puzzle with a unique combination of constraints leading to some very fun deductions. Highly recommended.
on 14. April 2022, 01:56 by Nordy
Puzzle name update to something...better
on 13. April 2022, 21:47 by thefallenrat
What a lovely puzzle! I had great fun in working the sums!
Note that this puzzle took me 115 minutes to complete while the CC one took me 125 minutes
on 12. April 2022, 23:57 by marcmees
very nice. thanks.
on 11. April 2022, 17:29 by henrypijames
One of the trickiest snake constructions I've ever done.
on 10. April 2022, 00:58 by Christounet
Phew ! Good one with a nice process of snake construction and nice interactions between the circles and squares ! Got stuck in the middle game, basically because i failed to spot an easy "only way these 3 digits could sum to 9", but i was satisfied with the puzzle as a whole anyway ! Thanks for setting.
on 8. April 2022, 17:23 by henrypijames
I'm a bit concerned by the unceasing proliferation of S's in snake puzzles. :D
on 8. April 2022, 09:55 by Tilberg
@Felis Timon: Vielleicht kommst du weiter, wenn du bedenkst, daß die Schlange ja irgendwo ANFANGEN und irgendwo ENDEN muß ...
on 6. April 2022, 11:10 by Elliott810
Fantastic puzzle with an original rule set! Take a bow and thanks:)
on 5. April 2022, 10:06 by kolot
It was a long journey with some beautiful logic throughout the solution path. The deductions came one after another very slowly and in a very satisfying way. This puzzle has a solid 5 stars difficulty for me.
on 5. April 2022, 07:08 by Nordy
Cleaned up text
