Add blog post for newly-published Pentominous puzzle.

[cworth.org] / src / puzzles / pentominous-intuit-nix-fix.mdwn

diff --git a/src/puzzles/pentominous-intuit-nix-fix.mdwn b/src/puzzles/pentominous-intuit-nix-fix.mdwn
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..91700b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/puzzles/pentominous-intuit-nix-fix.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+[[!meta title="Pentominous: Intuit, Nix, Fix"]]
+
+[[!tag puzzles]]
+
+I just had [my third
+puzzle](http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2014/12/pentominous-carl-worth/)
+published at [GM Puzzles](http://www.gmpuzzles.com). Take a look.
+
+This puzzle is a Pentominous puzzle, a really fun style which I
+believe was invented by Grant Fikes, a prolific puzzle contributor to
+GM Puzzles. To solve the puzzle, you simply need to divide the 10x10
+grid into 20 pentominoes such that each of the given letters in the
+grid is contained by a pentomino of that shape, and that no two
+pentominoes of the same shape are touching.
+
+My puzzle today is a Monday-level difficulty, meaning it's not too
+tough. And I think this puzzle in particular is a great introduction
+to Pentominous. When I first started constructing logic puzzles, I had
+a hard time making good and fun puzzles at an introductory level. Part
+of the problem is that any puzzle I make is usually harder than I
+expect it will be, (I think that's common for many beginning puzzle
+designers), so I'd often force harder deductions in the puzzle
+thinking that that was a requirement to make the puzzle interesting.
+
+But this puzzle is probably the first time I made what I think it a
+really successful introductory puzzle. I've given this puzzle to a lot
+of people and people end up really liking the way the puzzle just sort
+of walks you through a series of forced pentomino placements. I've
+often heard feedback along the lines of, "Well, I still say that I
+can't do puzzles like this, but that one was actually a lot of fun,"
+and that's really rewarding to hear.
+
+So take a look if you're interested and let me know how it goes for
+you.
+
+Oh, and I should comment on the words I ended up including in the
+puzzle's presentation. First, it's really tempting to include words in
+Pentominous puzzles. Second, it's really hard to pull them off. As a
+case in point here is an [example
+puzzle](http://tspuzzles.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/9-pentominous/) by
+Tapio Saarinen where he started with 4 English words, but by the time
+he was done, only one remained as an actual word.
+
+For today's puzzle, I set myself up for a bigger challenge, because I
+wanted to get a meaningful phrase, (but I only have the letters
+FILNPTUVWXYZ to work with---quite limited). The phrase I chose,
+"Intuit, Nix, Fix" is specifically the strategy I don't recommend
+using to solve puzzles. That is, you can just make a guess (intuit),
+then work with the puzzle for a while until you encounter a
+contradiction, then cancel your guess and try again (nix, fix). I
+suppose "guess and check" would have been an easier way to say that,
+but you can't spell that with the twelve Pentomino letters.
+
+Anyway, a lot of people have been trained to use guess-and-check as a
+strategy because they've been solving puzzles generated randomly by
+computer programs, and many of these puzzles don't afford any other
+strategy. A huge benefit of solving good, hand-made puzzles like those
+published at gmpuzzles.com is that you don't need that
+strategy. Inside, there's a nice logical path from start to finish. So
+resist the temptation to guess, and go give this puzzle a try.
+
+Happy puzzling!