Thomas Snyder (aka Dr. Sudoku) is a two-time World Sudoku Champion and five-time US Puzzle Champion, as well as the author of several books of puzzles. His puzzles are hand-crafted, 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 is a variation of the loop puzzle Slitherlink, inspired by a recent trip to the Great Wall of China.
I was in Beijing last week for the Beijing International Sudoku Tournament. As is (sadly) typical for me at these international tournaments, I finished a clear 1st in the general qualification over more than 50 puzzles and then came up slightly short in the playoffs which were much more of a sprint than the earlier rounds, and had a greater effect of variance since they were decided on many fewer sudoku. Still, it was a very fun trip and led to much puzzle inspiration.
This week's puzzle was the result of a lot of brainstorming of this question: "what kinds of puzzles can I make that feature a very very long wall?" I decided to take the standard form Slitherlink (also called Fences), and cut the loop so that the puzzle would just have one line. The small change leads to some fun new effects, and I hope you enjoy this challenge.
Rules: Draw a single line that never intersects itself, starting at some dot in the grid and ending at another dot. The line is made up of only vertical or horizontal line segments; numbers in a cell indicate how many of the 4 possible line segments surrounding that cell are occupied by the line.
