Minor Pieces
(Published on 13. February 2024, 20:21 by gdc)
This is a follow-up puzzle to Chess Lines, which turned out to be much harder than I anticipated. Now I tried to tune down the difficulty by only using the "minor pieces" (♘ knights and ♗ bishops) and have clearer signposting for the opening.Tthanks to the CtC fan discord for testing. Hope you enjoy!
- Normal Sudoku rules apply.
- The blue cell in the middle contains an even digit.
- Adjacent digits on a line must form a valid chess move by the indicated piece on a 3x3 numpad.
- For example, a 1 on a knight (♘) line may only have the numbers 6 and 8 next to it so 6-1-8-1 would be valid. An example of a valid bishop (♗) line would be 1-9-5-3.
- Digits separated by a black dot are in a 1:2 ratio. Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. Not all dots are given.
Examples
Here are illustrations of the possible neighbors on a bishop (♗) and knight (♘) line. A 5 on a bishop (♗) line can connect to every other odd digit. 1 and 9 can also be next to each other on a bishop (♗) line since bishops (♗) can move multiple squares along a diagonal. A 2 on a bishop (♗) line can connect to 4 or 6. 5 can never be on a knight (♘) line and a knight (♘) always has exactly 2 possible neighbors on a line. A longer run for a knight (♘) line would be 1-8-3-4-9-2-7-6-1.
Solution code: Column 5, top to bottom (9 digits)
Comments
on 3. April 2024, 17:34 by Crusader175
Really enjoyed solving this!
on 16. February 2024, 20:12 by Caconym
I really enjoyed your first chess lines puzzle and this one was even better. Just beautiful.
on 16. February 2024, 13:32 by apiyo
wow gdc, that was fabulous! surprisingly approachable and cool logic given what looks like a tricky ruleset.
I did a video solve on my channel, including a hilariously overcomplicated last step that I realised later wasn't needed :P
https://youtu.be/Oyp3YFN5ysE?si=UHkdczPipcsQVyBj
on 15. February 2024, 12:23 by Franjo
I can only assume: at first I was staring at the grid understanding nothing at all. Then suddenly I had my „Aha!“-moment, and could follow the solution path which turned out very smooth. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful puzzle.
on 15. February 2024, 06:30 by AdarshN
I love the dawning realization that we've been given a lot more information than it might seem at first blush, and how smoothly everything flows once you figure out what *kind* of puzzle it is. Absolutely lovely!
on 14. February 2024, 23:53 by Snaques
This was an amazing puzzle.
The journey from "I don't even understand the rules" to the "this makes such a perfect sense" was just something you don't get too often.
Thank you gdc for setting this one!
on 14. February 2024, 21:17 by Fra314
Stunning puzzle, clever and beautifully constructed!
on 14. February 2024, 18:37 by madhupt
Very smooth and very approachable! Good fun to solve.
on 14. February 2024, 18:24 by yttrio
Quite "Schach"-ing just how well this rule set works :)
on 14. February 2024, 15:07 by harwiltz
Had an absolute blast solving this one. Love the ruleset!
on 14. February 2024, 14:06 by IAlreadyHaveAKey
This is a great introduction to a surprisingly interesting ruleset! will definitely be trying Chess Lines next!
on 14. February 2024, 04:57 by dingledork
Like @Jreg I was utterly stumped starting out, and I was really surprised by how constrained those lines are. And then I was really surprised at how obvious those constraints are if I think about them for a second. Nice puzzle, thanks @gdc!
on 13. February 2024, 22:11 by galium_odoratum
Definitely more approachable than your previous one, very satisfying and smooth to solve, again a brilliant construction!
on 13. February 2024, 22:02 by Jreg
This seemed so very confusing at the beginning but once I discovered the P-word thing (trying not to spoil but if you know you know), it was suddenly very straightforward and enjoyable.
on 13. February 2024, 21:45 by whitefox
Thank you for the puzzle and the example! This was my first sudoku with this rule and the example really helped me :)
