One Of The Best Logic Puzzles Ever

You can try this extraordinary Snake Egg puzzle by Murat Can Tonta here:

▶TRY OUR CLASSIC SUDOKU APP◀

▶TRY OUR SANDWICH SUDOKU APP◀
▶SUPPORT US + ACCESS EXCLUSIVE "CRACKING THE CRYPTIC" PUZZLES/VIDEOS◀

▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀

▶FOLLOW US◀
Twitter: #crypticcracking
@crypticcracking

▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). We are building a website which will allow you to enter your own sudoku puzzles into the software and this is coming soon!

▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the twelve-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[muratcantonta]

Hello, glad you covered this. Designing it was an interesting experience! I had set up the close endpoints with the 2 at first, then took a mental note to put a 5 elsewhere to force the 9 region. I knew that would exactly fit with a 10x10 grid to allow the logic on the bottom at 11:35. I wasn't planning for a minimalist puzzle at that point but I decided to first "solve" the bottom left if I can. That part needed some case distinctions (ruling out double 4s and an extra 2 or 9) but I thought it was tractable enough with a bit of experience and it came out uniquely without cluing. That was when I thought "This could just work!". Regions were forming nicely but the upper right seemed to have a lot of wiggle room still so I tried fitting the 5 in several different cells. I was very happy to eventually get it right. :) That 5 clue is the star of the show.


Also, I think Snake Egg initially had a slightly different rule set with areas 1 to N once and then one more region with an unknown size. I didn't want to deal with that at all!


If anyone's interested in talking more about puzzles, I can be reached at (edited, I check it more often) tontamuratcan (at) gmail.com. I hope you enjoyed this one. Cheers!

[KurtHugoSchneider]

At first this puzzle looked impossible but actually the path is so restricted and the solve wasn't that hard.. I'd love to see more puzzles like this

[jonydude]

Nothing better than “That’s impossible” 20 minutes later “done!” This puzzle makes me feel smart, but really it’s the setter who is smart

[AlphishCreature]

Simon around 21:00: "I can't believe that's possible. I mean, even though we've just done it. That is a work of art."
I felt similar about the highly thematic puzzles such as Robin Hood bow or the palindromic Christmas tree, and let's not forget about the all 1-s and 11-s Sudoku we got for 1/11.

It's impressive and ridiculous at the same time, how puzzle-setters keep limiting themselves to a specific set of givens - very often not giving any numbers at all - yet still let the other constraints get the puzzle uniquely solvable. It almost feels like witnessing some artist mistakenly enter the puzzles area, but then seeing their puzzles and realising they weren't mistaken in the slightest.

[andyh]

First time on your channel .. i paused when i saw the puzzle and rules to have a quick think myself... a quick think turned into 5 minutes of agony wondering where to start ( i used to love logic puzzles as a child but haven't dabbled for years) .. the second i solved the top left hand corner, i was giddy with excitement at the nature of the puzzle.. so satisfying to work through it step by step and see it magically appear..

[tone]

This is fascinating: 4 pieces of information on a 10-by-10 grid that manages to not only create a unique solution, but a satisfying (and not absurdly hard!) one to find.

[crazydaddy]

Logical "error" at 18:45... the snake isn't connected yet - so the square left of the 5 would have to be snake. Argument still holds true because that would mean the empty area would have to extend downward of the 5 thus connecting to the blue area you highlighted in a different way.

[Wouter]

Bloody hell, when I first looked at the puzzle I could not imagine that this could possibly have a unique solution. But then I tried it, and got the solution within 19 minutes. Once you get started, it really explains itself nicely. Awesome puzzle.

[bfishryuhayabusa]

A rare occasion where I managed to solve a puzzle in less time than the video! 15 minutes, for me. After the very beginning, I jumped over to the 5, and managed to get it from there. Wonderful!

[niksxr]

Simon, if you need a break from Sudoku but also need to publish, come back to these types. It's just amazing

[ShadowMark]

32:11 for me, first snake egg puzzle, I'm amazed this puzzle has a unique solution, incredible.

[FernTheRobot]

First time doing a snake egg puzzle. Took me about 10 minutes.
So elegant and so few pieces at the start!
It's really fun to see how it unfolds itself to the whole board from a corner!

[GlennBroadway]

Me (and all the other colour-blind subscribers): “he’s chosen blue for the numbered regions... please don’t choose grey for the snake, please don’t choose grey for the snake!”

[AgentMidnight]

Put this in the league of greatest logic puzzles of all time.

[DNXTMaster]

I honestly didn't think this would be possible for me but ended up solving it in 38min. I had never seen nor heard of this puzzle before, and as someone with almost no puzzle experience outside of sudoku and its variants, I feel like 38min was an accomplishment

[FourOneNineOneFourOne]

Beautiful puzzle. Something that was missed in the end 19:20 is that the whichever of those two squares of 7 is blue both of the two adjacent squares to the right must always be gray for snake to connect. A bit quicker solution this way but well done nonetheless!

[LazerWulf]

Simon, I have to say, more than I enjoy the puzzles, I enjoy watching YOUR enjoyment of the puzzles. Your face just lights up whenever you spot a trick that's "absolutely brilliant!", like a kid on Christmas Morning.

[Number_]

This is a really interesting demonstration of information compression. Using a simple set of rules, 100 pieces of information (the 10x10 grid) can be reduced to 4 pieces of information, losslessly!

[RandomBurfness]

23:00 exactly! What a beautiful puzzle!

EDIT: It should be noted this was my first Snake Egg puzzle, ever! I just discovered the necessary logic on the fly. What an incredible introduction to the genre of puzzle!

[timsullivan]

Thank you SO much for this lovely puzzle solve. Given the paucity of givens, truly astonishing how many deductions are supplied by the restrictions!