Thorny issues [German Whisper Deconstruction]
(Published on 17. February 2023, 23:36 by Christounet)
Following up on my first deconstruction puzzle Dotted around, I wanted to make another one with a single constraint. I chose to try it with German Whispers, but as it is obviously not possible to do it "purely" without given digits, I added an extra rule that allowed me to create the illusion and introduce new logic. I hope solving the puzzle I came up with will be as enjoyable and fun as it was making it!
Thanks to ONeill for the test!
Rules :
- Normal sudoku deconstruction apply : Fill the grid with nine non-overlapping 3x3 square regions, such that each region contains the digits 1-9 once each and no digit repeats in any row or column. Cells outside regions do not contain digits.
- Normal German Whisper rule apply : On the green line, adjacent cells with digits must differ by at least 5. If one of two adjacent cells on the green line is outside the regions (empty), this rule does not apply.
- Central cell rule : Each 3x3 box must contain its "box number" in its central cell. For example, in a regular sudoku, R2C2 would be a 1, R5C2 would be a 4... See the example below.
Example for the "central cell rule" :
The puzzle :
Difficulty should be between 3 and 4/5, depending if you are familiar with deconstruction or not. There is a harder step in the midsolve that might be tricky to spot, so if you get stuck, contact me on Discord and I'll point you in the right direction. If you want to learn basic knowledge on 11×11 deconstruction, you can check out Zetamath's deconstruction puzzle, but it is some logic you can discover by yourself pretty easily, so it's up to you.
Enjoy ! And consider leaving a comment if you appreciate the puzzle !
You can check out my other puzzles here if you liked this one.
Solution code: Row 2, ignoring empty cells
Comments
on 17. July 2024, 21:31 by isajo4002
Tricky but fun. Loved the centre cell of each box rule and how it was integrated into the puzzle
on 17. July 2024, 21:31 by isajo4002
Tricky but fun. Loved the centre cell of each box rule and how it was integrated into the puzzle
on 29. June 2024, 21:01 by Piatato
Excellent puzzle!
on 28. April 2024, 02:10 by lmdemasi
Simply phenomenal. Wow.
on 18. November 2023, 15:23 by NRB
This was cracking, but very hard. Off to try Dots now!
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@NRB : Thanks for solving and glad you enjoyed. The dot puzzle should be a little easier in my opinion. If you like these deconstructions, do check the other ones I made, there's a good variety of constaints and difficulty. Enjoy !
on 2. May 2023, 12:57 by OldCaptainWZJ
Tried this after your thermo deconstruction puzzle. What a blast! I did find the midsolve being the most tricky part, but very clever still.
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@OldCaptainWZJ : Thanks for the lovely feedback. I'm glad you like this little serie of deconstructions. You should try the other ones as well :) "Dotted around" and "Count me in" are quite approchable. The other ones a bit more challenging.
on 9. April 2023, 19:51 by Fool on Hill
Challenging puzzle with clean and interesting logic. Glad I tried it.
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@Fool on Hill : And I'm glad you solved it :) Thanks.
on 9. April 2023, 15:12 by heliosfant
After your latest 11x11 I also tried this and I am blown away again. These 11x11 turned out to be my favorite sudokus. Thank you so much.
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@heliosfant : Thanks for the nice comment. If you are so much into 11x11 deconstruction, you should definitely try the others I have set, and also some harder ones by Jay Dyer, Jesper, Zetamath, tallcat... Some true masterpieces! You can find them under the "chaos construction” tag.
on 26. March 2023, 16:47 by Paquet Voleur
This was my first deconstruction puzzle if we except a nice but fairly straight forward 1-star entity which served me as a gentle introduction. Therefore I don't have much to compare with. But regardless, I enjoyed working on this quite a bit. I also truly appreciate the fact that so far with your puzzles, as someone pointed out elsewhere, one doesn't seem to have to rely on trial-and-error or parallel scenerios to get the solve, but rather on observation and stimulating logic. Many thanks for all the great puzzles and good fun!
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@Paquet Voleur : Have you solved this one to the end ? I did not see your name in the solvers list.
Thank you very much for the interest you have for my puzzles and the very thoughtful comments you write after each solve, that means a lot to me :) And indeed, I always try to limit the T&E to the minimum and very locally, to avoid the dreaded "bifurcation" feeling, but it is not always easy to determine that limit while setting. So I'm glad you feel that way about my puzzles !
Now, about deconstruction, if you liked this one, you might also like the 2 others I have set (the one with the dots is quite approchable I think), or some very good deconstruction puzzles by Jay Dyer, Jesper, Zetamath, purpl, the_cogito, jwsinclair...
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I solved it around a month ago, and since you always respond to comments I wrote elsewhere and actually to every single solver commenting, I thought it would be worth expressing my appreciation of this older solve of mine as well. Sorry for the confusion.
on 20. February 2023, 00:38 by sacklunch
Wow, what a fabulous puzzle. I painted myself into a corner twice and had to restart, but well worth the effort. Challenging and beautifully designed. Thank you for setting!
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@sacklunch : You're welcome ! Wonderful comments like yours are the reason I keep trying to make nice puzzles ! I guess the little traps that I put in this one added some satifaction and surprise to the solve, even if it meant breaking it once or twice eventually...
on 19. February 2023, 21:52 by Pibonacci
This was lovely, I broke it yesterday misapplying a deduction I made on the position of 5s but liked it enough that I started over from scratch today and was rewarded with a smooth solve.
I love the elegance of the center numbers both for during deconstruction deductions as well as for using them over giving random digits to disambiguate parity. I'm kinda over that in whispers or other variants where you effectively just drag along two switched solutions and find out at the end which one arbitrarily was correct; you found a great way to avoid that.
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@Pibonacci : Thanks for the very detailed comment on your solve and thoughts about my puzzle. This is very rewarding for me to have solvers share their impressions like that. Your comment confirms what I thought about that extra rule, which gave me and the solvers a way to think differently about usual deductions with GW (position of the 5s, 4s and 6s especially), and that GW could also be used very efficiently as a kind of negative constraint.
I think I'll keep exploring 11x11 deconstruction because it has a lot of potential for "standard constraints" rediscovery.
on 19. February 2023, 17:53 by wooferzfg
Really fun puzzle, thanks!
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@wooferzfg : Thanks, glad you had fun with it !
on 18. February 2023, 19:23 by Niverio
good fun :)
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@Niverio : Thanks, glad that was fun for you :)
on 18. February 2023, 18:27 by ONeill
Great puzzle once again! :)
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@ONeill : Thanks my friend !
on 18. February 2023, 15:41 by Snookerfan
Very nice and great fun! Thank you
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@Snookerfan : Thanks, glad you had fun solving the puzzle !
on 18. February 2023, 04:58 by KNT
very nice and approachable!
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@KNT : Thanks !
on 18. February 2023, 03:39 by Christounet
Modified ctc link and image (clue missing). Sorry to the early solvers...
on 18. February 2023, 00:12 by Christounet
Changed text
