Rookie
(Published on 5. February 2026, 02:56 by ThePedallingPianist)
This is my second response to Scojo's setting prompt for this week, for which juggler has invited setters to invent a new clue type, or at least new to the setter's knowledge. I was pleased with first submission, but it was rightly pointed out that its ruleset has been showcased at least once before.
Whilst I'm anxious about potentially making life harder for myself or others in the second stage of juggler's setting prompt, which will be announced this Saturday, I tried to invent a ruleset that is able to be expressed concisely whilst also being convoluted and contrived enough that it's more likely to be original. The puzzle itself should be fairly smooth, but apologies for making you internalise this bunglesome, brain-bending rule!
As well as being a Chess pun, the title somewhat cheekily references the tendency for some relatively rookie setters to try too hard to make their puzzle edgy and original by using awkwardly complicated rulesets such as this one... Don't worry, I'm mostly just referring to large swathes of my own catalogue! This piece of music also seems relevant...
Many thanks to juggler himself as well as DubiousMobius for testing.
Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply.
Each chess piece (CP) lies between two digits, one greater (G) and one smaller (S), with a difference (D). D, G and S are all different. Place the digit D in G cells a CP's move away from the S.
For example, in the image below, the King lies between a 3 (G) and a 1 (S), with a difference of 2 (D). Therefore, the digit 2 is placed in 3 cells a King's move away from the 1.
Whilst I'm anxious about potentially making life harder for myself or others in the second stage of juggler's setting prompt, which will be announced this Saturday, I tried to invent a ruleset that is able to be expressed concisely whilst also being convoluted and contrived enough that it's more likely to be original. The puzzle itself should be fairly smooth, but apologies for making you internalise this bunglesome, brain-bending rule!
As well as being a Chess pun, the title somewhat cheekily references the tendency for some relatively rookie setters to try too hard to make their puzzle edgy and original by using awkwardly complicated rulesets such as this one... Don't worry, I'm mostly just referring to large swathes of my own catalogue! This piece of music also seems relevant...
Many thanks to juggler himself as well as DubiousMobius for testing.
Normal 6x6 sudoku rules apply.
Each chess piece (CP) lies between two digits, one greater (G) and one smaller (S), with a difference (D). D, G and S are all different. Place the digit D in G cells a CP's move away from the S.
For example, in the image below, the King lies between a 3 (G) and a 1 (S), with a difference of 2 (D). Therefore, the digit 2 is placed in 3 cells a King's move away from the 1.
Solution code: Row 6 (bottom), left to right
Solved by juggler, joelagibbs, sehringdipity, emoney1374, vitaminz, Titan29, MSDOS, Crusader175, Dendr, Exigus, pep9, raveenmallawa, zeniko, fkib, Firebird, achim-t, dawidk, henryng, SKORP17, dzamie, Neumino, ... sodika, samuella, EFlatMinor, nyxie, Frutlop, ralphwaldo1, x3y2z1, teuthida, Jesper, SennyK, mse326, dorverbin, Gnubeutel, palpot, MathGuy_12, TallMango, BG03, jgarber, widjo, cowabunghole
Comments
on 6. February 2026, 22:03 by SennyK
Very nice and not hard at all to internalise, thank you, smooth puzzle!
on 5. February 2026, 19:27 by dawidk
I actually really like this constraint. Well done!
on 5. February 2026, 17:30 by Firebird
Very nice one!
on 5. February 2026, 13:17 by zeniko
That‘s a fresh rule requiring some brain-rewiring for adjusting to its quite far reaching consequences. Would you also dare to set a matching 9x9? In any case, thanks for sharing.
on 5. February 2026, 06:20 by vitaminz
Lovely starting knot to untangle. That DGS must all be different is quite the sneaky rule, don’t forget it!
