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Google-Sponsored 2004 US Puzzle Championship

Posted by simoniker on from the very-puzzling dept.

kublai kahn writes "On the NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle segment this past weekend, Will Shortz mentioned the 2004 US Puzzle Championship, sponsored by Google. Registration closes on Thursday 17 June, and the competition is conducted online on Saturday 19 June. "The top two US contestants will be selected to join the US Team at the World Puzzle Championship in Opatija, Croatia. Prizes will be awards to the top US contestants." (This was mentioned on Slashdot last year as well.) I'll be away from my internet connection over the weekend, but perhaps others from the Slashdot crowd can compete. Check the practice test to see if it's your cup of tea."

7 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds fun . . . by randyest · · Score: 5, Informative

    . . . but the practice test page is down (./'ed already?) so here's a copy courtesy of the wayback machine (the last link is an index to several versions of that practice page.)

    Good luck all.

    --
    everything in moderation
  2. If you ever... by msl521 · · Score: 5, Informative

    > this past weekend, Will Shortz mentioned

    If you ever have the chance to hear Will Shortz speak in person, it is well worth it. If you have an interest in word puzzles, cross or otherwise, he is very interesting. Plus, he will usually play a game with the audience for a good amount of time.

    --
    The opinions expressed above are those off one side of my brain, the other side and my employer may not agree.
  3. Questions... by Mz6 · · Score: 5, Informative
    I managed to get a copy of the PDF file.. I have no way to mirror it and Google's cache isn't working of it so here's what I could grab. Anyways.. if you want to see the questions (minus pictures..)

    1. Battleships - 5 points; 5 point bonus
    Locate the position of the 10-ship fleet in the grid. The fleet is shown to the right of the grid: one 4-unit battleship, two 3-unit cruisers, three 2-unit destroyers, and four 1-unit submarines. Each segment of a ship occupies a single cell. Ships are oriented either horizontally or vertically, and they do not touch each other, not even diagonally. The numbers on the right and bottom edges of the grid reveal the total number of ship segments that appear in each respective row or column. (For solving purposes, ignore the letters above and the numbers left of the grid.)

    2. Pentomino Division - 5 points
    Divide each of the six shapes into two pieces so that each of the 12 Pentominoes (shown at right) is used exactly once. The Pentominoes can be rotated and/or reflected. Answer: Enter the letters pairs corresponding to each of the six original shapes.

    3. Dutch Segway - 5 points
    Which of the numbered drawings is an exact mirror image of the drawing in the upper left?

    4. Corral - 20 points; 5 point bonus
    Draw a single closed loop along the grid lines so that all the numbered squares are inside the loop. Additionally, each number equals the count of interior squares that are directly in line (horizontally or vertically) with that number's square, including the square itself. In the example, the square containing the 4 is directly in line with two squares above it and one square to its right. Including the square itself, the total count is four.

    5. Rotator Mosaic - 20 points
    Divide the grid (along the grid lines) into exactly 10 symmetric pieces (each appearing unchanged if rotated 180, including its shape and the pattern of any white or black disks).

    6. A to Z Crisscross - 25 points; 5 point bonus
    Place the 19 words into the grid in crisscross style (words appear either across or down, and all words formed in the grid appear in the word list), so that there are exactly 26 word intersections--each in one of the highlighted squares. Additionally, each of the letters from A to Z appears exactly once in the highlighted squares.

    --
    Hmmm.
  4. Solution to first puzzle... by Fooby · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why did this site melt under slashdotting in five minutes? From Netcraft:

    Windows 2000 Microsoft-IIS/5.0 14-Jun-2004 199.165.204.120 Micro Serve
    Hopefully they solve that one before the real contest starts.

  5. Just to save you one /.ed page by elhaf · · Score: 3, Informative

    The password is world.

    --
    Six score characters.
    Brevity being wit's soul
    I have enough space.
  6. Re:Hmmm by mhesseltine · · Score: 3, Informative
    Mensa can be a good organization to belong to. Even if you don't feel like associating with people, or getting involved in any way whatsoever, you get a discount on car insurance, amongst many others. Mensa partners with lots of different organizations.

    Being a member of Mensa has saved me more than $300 over the past three years (cost of being a member for 3 years is around $115 or so), so from a strictly economical standpoint, it pays off -- the publications and interaction are just icing on the cake.

    You know, you could have just gone to Geico and saved money on your car insurance.

    --
    Overrated / Underrated : Moderation :: Anonymous Coward : Posting
  7. Re:It's in CROATIA!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    WTF are you talking about!? Croatia is freaking amazing. It has islands riveled only by Greece and Turkey, good local beer, greenish/blue clear water, and it's cheap as hell. You can eat a steak dinner for about $5 US dollars. Not to mention the locals like to party (Sibenik).

    "What am I supposed to do for fun, cross the border and pick me up some romanian women???......"

    You have no idea, don't slam a country you know nothing about. Croatia is where all the Europeans go for vacation because it is awesome.