(no subject)
Week one of my three week sudoku training plan is well underway. The first week involves me solving lots of sudoku I would enjoy solving (ie hand-crafted, Japanese, and likely called Number Place) in the way I enjoy solving them (without guessing and fast). Week two will change the last half of the format, likely with me resolving extra copies of some of Tetsuya Nishio's number place books that I have puzzles in, but with guessing and therefore most often faster. Then, week three will feature puzzles I wouldn't enjoy solving (computer-generated ones of random quality and source - since we don't know who or what is making the puzzles this year) as well as more focus on the worst of all solving formats for me - on a large whiteboard surface without guessing and slowly transitioning to with guessing and much faster. Yes, while some part of me is fine with getting on stage with a tested underline method, I've still hesitated to use it when the world can see. This year, I'll prepare for anything. Its not like its a secret how the top sudoku solvers solve hard puzzles, and there are so few indicators of the potential difficulty of the final puzzle that not writing for 2 minutes, as last year, is not a good choice. I might even luck into two colors of marker, as in the past, which gives me no excuse not to try something wacky.
As an aside, I've recognized recently juno is my favorite nikoli author. This is likely due to his having written my favorite Nurikabes (my favorite Nikoli style) but also my favorite Masyu (a style that is so often boring, but where juno almost always comes up with a neat new trick and uses it everywhere in the grid). This week's Botsu Bako Masyu by aspirin was good - a really well-executed Masyu with an unusual technique certainly - but doing it on the same day as juno's hard masyu which had a much more artistically beautiful presentation with an equally enjoyable set of logical steps was just not a fair fight. Looking at all the Masyu in my problem list, for example, I've written six positive comments to remember a puzzle. 5 of the 6 are for juno's and none of his are unlabeled. So, mask the author's name and I've been awed each and every time over the last six months.
As an aside, I've recognized recently juno is my favorite nikoli author. This is likely due to his having written my favorite Nurikabes (my favorite Nikoli style) but also my favorite Masyu (a style that is so often boring, but where juno almost always comes up with a neat new trick and uses it everywhere in the grid). This week's Botsu Bako Masyu by aspirin was good - a really well-executed Masyu with an unusual technique certainly - but doing it on the same day as juno's hard masyu which had a much more artistically beautiful presentation with an equally enjoyable set of logical steps was just not a fair fight. Looking at all the Masyu in my problem list, for example, I've written six positive comments to remember a puzzle. 5 of the 6 are for juno's and none of his are unlabeled. So, mask the author's name and I've been awed each and every time over the last six months.