Argh.
Which of the following words fits the best in the blank?
Words: on/in/at
Phrase: “Chaos ____ the sky” is a noun phrase.
Yes, even this blog’s title has a 2/3 chance of being grammatically incorrect. (I went with “at” because the acronym is a common word.)
On a very unrelated note, apparently some people found this blog by searching “antiderivative of tangent“. Should I write some more posts that might be hit by a random googler?
Counting Count the number of paths from S (start) to G (goal) that stays along the white roads. Paths cannot use the same road twice but may visit the same intersection twice. As an example, the pink path shows one valid path.
Expected difficulty Insane • Answer • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published
Puzzle 80: Hardcore Mode
Counting
Erm. You may use a calculator or a program. (If you managed to program the solution, then you deserve the answer. I’m not responsible if you miscalculate when you’re multiplying large numbers by hand.)
This is a rejected puzzle of a set born out of a stupid idea. Why did I even think of this? The good news is I have a free Brilliant.org problem idea, and I can practice my programming skills.
These chess problems require you to understand the rules of chess.
Expected difficulty Medium • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published
Stipulations Color the pieces so that there exists a game where this position is illegal due to FIDE Chess Law 5.2b (also known as Dead Reckoning), but legal otherwise.
Made from phone, so it’s hard to add comments, but it’s basically a really stupid problem. I might put the solution soon. And I’m expecting a cook here, that there exists other solutions I didn’t consider or something. But if there’s none then, well, good.
These chess problems require you to understand the rules of chess.
Expected difficulty Medium • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published
Stipulations a) On what square was the rook on f1 at the beginning of the game? b) What color and piece is on h2 (the black circle)? Mention all pieces that can be on that square. (Just so part a is well-defined, I assure you at least one piece works.)
So here’s another one, which I should say is the best piece I’ve ever composed to date. (Yes, if this is the best piece then you know how beginner I am in compositions.) I might post some problems that aren’t composed by me, but I find interesting nevertheless…
Expected difficulty Hard • For personal reasons, I decide not to release the answer/solution for this puzzle. Sorry 😦
Puzzle 79: Hidden Object
Nonogram
(click to enlarge)
These chess problems require you to understand the rules of chess. Assume White is on the bottom.
Expected difficulty Easy • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published
Stipulations a) Is the position legal? b) Move pawn f7 to g7; is the position legal?
EDIT: Puzzle edited on 7 February.
I call this Chess 0. 😛
Yes, with at least one positive feedback, I’m starting to post these. I’m also a relatively newcomer to the field, so my difficulty rating will be based on my current knowledge at the time of the posts. And don’t expect a lot of stuff, since constructing these is way harder than constructing the usual deductive logic puzzle content. Expect more retro chess problems (or perhaps helpmates and similar), those that don’t require thinking like chess players.
Also, I might consider adding a new difficulty rating “Introductory”, which should be self-explanatory. (Retro 0 is Introductory.)
This blog is partially known by its puzzle content. But it’s still my creation, so I still post content according to what I like.
Lately I’m interested in retrograde analysis; that is, analyzing chess positions and problems that require looking to the past. Say, can you figure out the last move (precisely; the piece, the squares moved from and to, the piece captured if any, and any other stuff) from this position?
I’m interested on knowing how many of you like this kind of content. If there’s nobody, I might post my problems only on Chess.com, or something…just see. 😛
‘Flappy Bird’ is an insanely irritating, difficult and frustrating game which combines a super-steep difficulty curve with bad, boring graphics and jerky movement.
— Huffington Post
When one doesn’t pay any attention to graphics and sets the difficulty high, it means it’s intended to be a hellishly difficult game. If you’re complaining about the graphics, you’re pointing your complaint at the wrong part of the game. (Compare with Super Hexagon.)
Now let me go back to my horrible 13-point high score…
Scrabble Example
Scrabble Put some letters into the grid. The words that can be read (a span of two or more letters, preceded and followed by either the edge of the grid or a blank space) must be listed on the right, and no other word can be formed. All letters must form a single connected region.
Expected difficulty Easy • Answer • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published
Puzzle 78: Totally Not An Approval
Scrabble
So Prasanna asked me to testsolve a Scrabble puzzle, with a word bank that resembles a sentence but has broken grammar. I suddenly got the idea for this word bank (which, Prasanna, has a perfect grammar, even if it uses a slang (v.intr. definition #4) 😛 ), and quickly whipped this puzzle in head. Turns out it’s unique, so why not. It’s actually Easy-Medium or something, as it’s not that trivial, but heck whatever.
Aftermath: Prasanna went hyper.
Also I went on to replace Puzzle 5; nobody noticed “the second path goes nowhere” and “the second path leads to freedom” are two contradictory statements?
Here we go again! To remind you, this is the original.
Chaos at the Sky 
