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Comments on Puzzle #858: champion!
By Lucilla Schiaffino (guspilla)

peek at solution       solve puzzle
  version: 3    quality:   difficulty:   solvability: line & color logic only  

Puzzle Description:

po po poppo po poppo

#1: Jan Wolter (jan) on May 2, 2007

Well, there is a unique solution. I'm not all that sure that it can be arrived at without a lot of trial and error or pure guessing.
#2: Robert Kummerfeldt (rmkummerfeldt) on May 2, 2007 [HINT] [SPOILER]
After a couple restarts due to bad logic on my part, I found a logical solution that only requires minor "trial and error". The colored parts are simple. Then I "blanked out the rows and columns where I could - there are two areas of four rows left just below the blue (rows 8-16 from the top) where the columns with black 5's cannot be which narrows the space the rows of "3 3" can be to a 3-wide and a 7-wide area. Starting with the top 4-row area, if one of those 3s goes in the 3-wide part, then the rest of that section cannot be solved. This means the top "3 3" row has to go in the 7-wide area, and the rest of that four row section can be solved. The second 4-row area can be solved the same way (starting with the "3 3" row at the bottom of that 4-row area).

All that is left at this point is the bottom 10 rows. The last three columns can be solved using edge logic. In the next three columns, the 5's cannot touch the top row because this would cross two of the 3's on the right edge, and there is only a single "1" in the 6th column from the right. In the "3 1 1 3" row five from the bottom, this solves the "1 1 3" part of it. The "3 5" in column 11 from the right can be solved enough to give one point of the other 3 in that row. Blanking out the rest of the "3 1 1 3" row that the left 3 can't reach means all the columns with single 5's can be solved, which makes enough of the puzzle solvable to complete the puzzle.

These explanations always sound confusing when I type them, but if you take it one step at a time, it should make sense. I think it took me longer to type this explanation than it did to solve the puzzle (not counting the logical errors I made) This wraps up this edition of "paint-by-number 101".
#3: Martial (marso) on Nov 3, 2007 [HINT]
If you assume the black on the left is the beginning of a word, it becomes quite easy to add blacks and points. Very fast, you stop guessing and return to a logical solution (remember to save before...)
#4: Marie-Louise Ambrey (marz) on Jun 16, 2007
I like your logic Martial, that's my kind of logic.
#5: Rachel R (rachel) on Aug 16, 2007 [HINT]
It was easy to guess what the lettering at the bottom said, but I had to use Robert's hint for the other black part.
#6: Arduinna (arduinna) on Jan 25, 2008 [HINT] [SPOILER]
I solved it the way Robert did. Once you get to a place where it feels like there is no logical solution, there is only one place where most of the 5s can logically go. That said, I'm not overly fond of text puzzles.
#7: m2 (mercymercy) on Nov 17, 2008
easily solvable now
#8: Bionerd (nieboo) on Dec 4, 2008 [SPOILER]
po po poppo!

#9: Jota (Jota) on Dec 8, 2008
Guspilla would you compete in this week's WC ? (Forum #112)
#10: Byrdie (byrdie) on Aug 23, 2011 [HINT]
I don't know if this puzzle was redone or not but, between color and line logic this one solved straight away. Image is lacking, however.
#11: Bill Eisenmann (Bullet) on Oct 22, 2018 [HINT]
I'm not a deep lookahead kind of guy, but I had no problem solving this. The 14s go easily, then the blues on top follow just as easily. At that point you know pretty much what's happening, put in the red and green stripes, then fill in the words. Easy peasy that way.
#12: Andrew Schultz (blurglecruncheon) on Sep 22, 2022
Googling the solution text I was quite shocked to find it was a very familiar tune! It's kind of everywhere now, isn't it?
#13: Kristen Vognild (kristen) on Sep 22, 2022
Hmm, I hope Jack White got royalties for this. :)

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