#106 - Serbian Puzzle Championship 2024/2025 puzzle collection

Last year, I was invited to write puzzles for the 2024 Serbian Puzzle Championships! 

It was my first time writing for this tournament, and I was briefed a structure where there would be 5 sets of puzzles: 1x Classics, 1x Variants, 1x Novelties, 1x Miniatures, 1x Longer Classics. It was never really clear to me whether I was supposed to write an entire set by myself or provide some puzzles for each set, so I ended up going for the latter. It turned out my submissions would all be in a single round (my own). Had I known, I probably would have opted for a different structure or maybe a common theme, but I think it ended up working quite well. Sticking to the categories meant the set has a nice variety to it. 

The tournament ultimately was postponed and didn't happen in 2024, but it finally took place at the end of last month. This is why a few of the puzzles are still themed around the number 24. I also believe it was a shared championships between Serbia and Croatia (or at least, plenty of Croatians participated). My congratulations go out to Nikola Zivanovic for winning the championships!

Rules are included in the penpa links for all puzzles.

Category 1: Classics

Puzzle 1 - Castle Wall - 45/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/23fcucdf

My design goal for this puzzle was mostly just an aesthetically pleasing grid and a smooth solve, nothing too fancy in here.

Puzzle 2 - Creek - 45/575 points 
https://tinyurl.com/25gguw5s

The same goes for this puzzle. This type of layout is quite common for Creek, I suppose because it tends to work very well in this genre.

Category 2: Variations

Puzzle 3 - Tapa (Line) - 25/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/2afxbeuk

Tapa (Line) and Tapa (Aqre) are always very well suited for very minimally clued grids while still offering plenty of logical variety. This puzzle is hopefully a good example of that.

Puzzle 4 - Sashigane (Knapp-Daneben) - 60/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/26tl7k4d

I wasn't sure if this variation would work out too well and the final puzzle is definitely a bit different from what I envisioned it would be when I started setting it, but I think there's definitely some potential in here. This puzzle ended up being solved by only one person (out of 28) during the championship.

Category 3: Novelties

Puzzle 5 - Wafusuma - 65/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/2839t694

Wafusuma is a fun twist on Fillomino that was just picking up steam when I was authoring these puzzles. I wrote a few of them at the time and thought it would be a fun type to include. The puzzle itself isn't too difficult, but did end up on the more valuable side.
 

Puzzle 6 - Aquapelago - 30/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/2994tuvk

One of my favorite puzzles of the set just because the theme worked out wonderfully. I was very surprised to learn this puzzle was only solved by two people during the contest, despite it being a low-pointer. Perhaps it's a case of going for high-pointers first or sticking to what you already know (although I'm really not sure - the most valuable puzzles had very few solves and the Wafusuma, the other novelty, had 6 solves). 

Category 4: Miniatures

Puzzle 7 - Pencils - 20/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/25hqo4wo

Not much to mention - it's just a small Pencils :) In my limited experience writing this genre, clue symmetry is usually very hard to go for, but it was perfectly doable on a small grid.

Puzzle 8 - Sukoro - 60/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/24ckofk5

I certainly wasn't expecting this puzzle to be worth this much - I had written a smaller version at first but discarded it for being too easy even for miniatures. Perhaps that would have been a better fit.

Puzzle 9 - Curve Data - 35/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/mu74vtvv (puzz.link)

The theme ended up being wrong on both counts! But hopefully the puzzle is still enjoyable :^)

Puzzle 10 - Tetrominous - 10/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/2xqu5u9x

Meant to be a very easy puzzle, as shown by the points value.

Category 5: Longer Classics

Puzzle 11 - Doppelblock - 80/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/2bsld2wp

This one wasn't necessarily meant to be hard, but it was meant to take a while to solve, so as to fill up the round in case it was too easily finishable. That ended up not being a problem, with the highest score being 390/575. I didn't really go for any theme while authoring. The puzzle ended up getting 4 solves.

Puzzle 12 - Equality - 100/575 points
https://tinyurl.com/22hamwop

Arguably not a "classic", but I interpreted the criteria for this category as non-variant, has been around for a while/appeared in contests before and takes a while to solve, in which case it certainly fits the bill. This is the puzzle I am most proud of - I think the solve path on this worked out really well. The puzzle was only solved by 2 participants during the contest.