Thomas Snyder (aka Dr. Sudoku) is a two-time World Sudoku Champion and five-time U.S. Puzzle Champion, as well as the author of several books of puzzles. His puzzles are handcrafted, with artistic themes, serving as a kind of "cure for the common sudoku." Each week he posts a new puzzle on his blog, The Art of Puzzles. This week's prescription consists of a second dose of Tapa, a cell-shading puzzle with an almost perfect mix of local and global constraints.
Two weeks ago, I created a new Tapa variation, "Make Room for Tapa," in advance of that weekend's Tapa Variations Contest. Well, the variation was a popular idea and will now be appearing in this weekend's TVC VII, the third of four this year. If you are curious about Tapa puzzles, check out that test (whether you choose to solve on the clock or simply print out the puzzles to solve later).
I've written two more "Make Room for Tapa" puzzles to serve as a warm-up for the competition. Enjoy!
Rules
Shade some cells black to form a continuous wall.
There cannot be a 2x2 square of cells that are all shaded.
Numbers in cells indicate the length of connected black cell groups in the neighboring cells; if there is more than one number in a cell, then there must be at least one white cell between each of the indicated black cell groups.
Cells with numbers cannot be a part of the wall.
The grid is also divided into regions by bold lines; exactly five cells must be shaded black in each region.
