Sikaku Puzzle Magazine...

Just posted about my favourite puzzle being consecutive sudoku in the other forum then I saw this one...

I would love to have a magazine of sikaku puzzles if that is possible?

It is very hard to find them over here: literally you get one or two of them every now and then in a collection of logic puzzles and sudoku or Japanese type problems, but basically they are very hard to come by... maybe they take a long time to make or something but I find them good fun!

Stacey

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Hi Stacey

I'm new here too!

I haven't heard of sikaku, but I always like to find out about the different Japanese puzzle types... what exactly is it / how does it work? If it's easy enough to describe!

Angie

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Sikaku is also sometimes called shikaku and probably has other names two (I think it might be known as divide by box but that could be a different puzzle!)

The puzzle has a usually square grid, but certainly rectangular, and the aim is to divide the grid into smaller rectangles or squares. The puzzle has some numbers in it and mainly blank cells.

The number tells you how many cells of the puzzle are inside that rectangle, thus an 8 means that number is in a rectangle containing 8 cells. Each number can only appear in one rectangle. What you need to do therefore if work out the SHAPE of each rectangle, and in this way solve the puzzle.

Once you have determined the shape of all the rectangles, then you have solved the puzzle. Therefore you will usually have to look at the combinations of how different rectangles could fit together to successfully solve the sikaku puzzle.

In terms of creating a sikaku puzzle magazine we'll note it down as a possible one for the future - I don't think it will appear in the immediate future though as there are lots of ideas we'd like to get to first

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Yes that's right, I have seen it referred to as shikaku too. Which is the right one, is it sikaku or shikaku?

It is confusing as many of these puzzles seem to have many names don't they - I have seen it called I think rectangles, divide by box and also I believe it appears in a newspaper in the UK under the name of cell block or cell blocks!

Well whatever the name, here are some simple solving tips and strategies for sikaku / shikaku / divide by box / rectangles / cell block puzzles. Phew!

One useful strategy is to work out if a cell in the puzzle can only be 'reached' by one particular region. If that's the case, then you know the cell must belong to that region. This often constrains the possible shapes for a region and helps you place it.

Another simple strategy is to work out, of course, if there is only one possible shape for a region, and in that case you can place it fully. Also look at the implications of a particular shape: would it make another cell in the puzzle unreachable by any other region? If so, then that can't be the right shaped rectangle for said region.

Finally, if you know that, whatever the shape of rectangle a region is, there are some cells that will always appear in that region, then you can note down those cells are in that region. Again this can help constrain the shape of this particular region, and also it can reduce the options for other regions that also had possible rectangles that contained that cell.

Hope these simple tips are useful, they're enough to solve the ones in the Times I have found anyway!

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

I tend to see that one referred to as cell blocks, though as ever it can be quite confusing when a puzzle has so many different names: either publishers can't agree, or they give it their own name, or there is an English and a Japanese name as with the bridges / hashi debate in the other post!

I've not too many but the ones I've done in newspapers have all tended to be both quite small and also quite easy. I suppose that there are harder ones out there but presumably they are proportionately harder to create. The ones in the newspapers here typically only take a minute or two to solve each but that's about it... would be interesting to see some larger, if not harder, puzzles to see how they solve.

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Hi Gemma

Yes the ones that *are* published over here that I've seen are really easy, I think they are done by a simple computer program but the main reason is that they are all on such small grids - as I say the ones I've seen in the Times are typically something like 6x6 or 7x7 under that name of cell blocks you mentioned.

However when the grid is larger there are often more oftens and just with the bigger size of grid it can take longer to narrow down the options which makes them take a little longer and trickier to solve.

I think that overall compared to a lot of Japanese puzzle types sikaku aren't too hard however!

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Although we don't have a shikaku puzzles magazine yet, a strategy guide outlining the simple solving strategies required to tackle this enjoyable little logic puzzle has been added today:

http://www.puzzle-magazine.com/shikaku-strategy.php

For anyone who's just come across the puzzle for the first time and want to know the basics of how to solve them, this guide should be useful.

Re : Sikaku Puzzle Magazine

Now the strategy guides there, we just need the puzzle magazine now then