Puzzle Contest Details

• This contest will consist of 3 puzzles.
• The puzzles will be posted on a Saturday February 2nd at noon Eastern US time, in an attempt to give all time zones somewhat equal footing.
• The contest will run for 1 week, with the deadline being the following Saturday (February 9th) at noon Eastern US time. I will post the winners and their answers that evening in place of my regular puzzle post.
• Answers will need to be submitted via email to bill.leighton1@gmail.com and must include the name you wish to be recognized by (Reddit username, Discord username, real name, etc.)

• Because there must be a way to sort the answers, submissions will be ranked in the following order:

1. Correctness - this seems obvious, but the best answer will be the most correct one. On a related note - make sure to check for typos (I can only judge what you wrote, not what you meant to write). You may want to submit your answers via the provided ptn.ninja links to avoid this. If the puzzle is a Tinue one, the shortest route to Tinue will be preferred.
2. Completeness - an answer that includes all responses by the opponent will be considered superior to one that omits one.
3. Time submitted - if there are identical answers, tiebreaks will go to the answers received earliest.

• Prizes will be custom capstones, based off of my tournament style created for USTA events. They are cold cast resin with a variety of metal powders used for coloring and heft. There are 4 pairs of these ready to be shipped to the winners. Here they are, in no particular order. The captions are so that winners can easily identify which prize they would prefer to receive.

Steampunk

Cyberpunk

Dragon

Owl

• 1st place will get 1st choice from the prize pool, 2nd place will get next choice, etc.
• I will contact the winners sometime soon after the contest ends, though not necessarily before their names and answers are posted on February 9th. This depends on my schedule that weekend and how quickly the person who finished ahead of you declares their preferred capstone set.
• Legal mumbo-jumbo:  This contest is for entertainment only. No purchase necessary. It is open to all residents of Earth (and beyond as long as they follow the aforementioned rules of the contest (shipping not included for extraterrestrial winners)). Any questions or complaints can be emailed directly to me and I will respond within a reasonable amount of time (and hopefully with a reasonable answer).
• Thank you and enjoy!!

Puzzle # Freakin' 99!! White to Play; Best Move

Hello, everyone!

Puzzle contest starts NEXT WEEK at noon! I will post all the details, including pictures of all prizes on Wednesday, if all goes according to plan.

Here's another non-Tinue puzzle to help stretch your brains. This is not a game I played, but one I saw while looking for a good Gaelet puzzle.

Like last week, there are two stages to this puzzle:  First, what is White's best move? And, second, is it good enough to pull out a win?

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST) and respond to answers Sunday morning. They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you guys so much! I hope you enjoy it!!

Puzzle #98: White to Play; Tinue Avoidance

Hello, Takkers!

2 weeks until the contest! Keep an eye out for another Reddit post highlighting a second set of custom capstone prizes!

As stated last week, I was looking for a puzzle from one of the other categories besides Tinue to post this week. In my search, I forced a couple games to go to flats, which I may use next week. But, I also played a game against one of the bots on playtak.com where I ended up with a nice Tinue Avoidance puzzle.

This puzzle has two stages to it. The first stage is to find a way to keep Black from completing their road (Tinue Avoidance). The second stage is to find a way to continue that branch and make White win (Tinue). So, it's a complete swing of the pendulum; something that makes Tak super exciting to play and watch!

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST) and respond to answers Sunday morning. They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

For those unfamiliar with the term, Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (Black, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (White) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!

Puzzle #97: Black to Play; Black to Tinue

Good evening, Takolytes!

This week's puzzle is from a game of mine last week against one of my favorite bots to mine for Tinues, Aaaarghbot. In the next few weeks I think I'll try to feature some of the other types of puzzles, to get people warmed up for my puzzle contest.

Speaking of which, I hope to post some pictures tomorrow afternoon/evening of some of the custom capstone prizes. They have been cast, and I plan to do some finishing work on them in the morning. Looks like I have enough to offer a pair for 1st-4th places, unless some unfortunate crafting event occurs.

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST) and respond to the answers on Sunday morning. They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

The type featured tonight is a Tinue puzzle. Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (White, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (Black) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

The best way to solve these puzzles is to find a move that forces your opponent into doing something. Then, you use that forced move to force another move, until you have won. Sometimes there are more ways than 1 to go about this. While I love seeing the different variations, usually the shortest path to a forced win is considered best. The following is a simple example to show how this works (you can use the arrow keys to step through the moves and the number keys to select which branch you are following):





Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!

Puzzle #96: White to Play; Multiple Tinues

Hello, Takkers!

I made a little progress on the puzzle contest prizes this week and will hopefully post some pictures next week sometime. I also got to play some Tak, though only a few games against bots in spare moments. The puzzle today is from one of those games.

Instead of a single Tinue, I found this board state interesting because of the number and variety of Tinues looming. See how many you can find!

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST). They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

The type featured tonight is a Tinue puzzle. Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (White, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (Black) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

The best way to solve these puzzles is to find a move that forces your opponent into doing something. Then, you use that forced move to force another move, until you have won. Sometimes there are more ways than 1 to go about this. While I love seeing the different variations, usually the shortest path to a forced win is considered best. The following is a simple example to show how this works (you can use the arrow keys to step through the moves and the number keys to select which branch you are following):




Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!