Register Puzzles Solve Teams Statistics Rules Guide FAQ Archive

CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011 - Hints

5A. Latin Pipes II

  • Yes, fitting the pipe pieces is quite hard. Ignore the black intersection dots for the moment; they're useful only when you've solved all the pipe pieces.
  • Try annotating each boundary with a "x" (a pipe doesn't go through this boundary) or "-" (a pipe goes through this boundary) when you know what it must be. When traversing any given row, there will be exactly five "x"s encountered: two will surround a straight-line pipe, and two will surround the "." non-pipe. The same is true for each column.
  • The edges wrap (i.e. the top and bottom pieces of the same column must match, and the leftmost and rightmost pieces of the same row must match.) If you get stuck, you might be able to make some progress by trying to deduce the possible positions of the "." pieces. When you've finished, try colouring in. What does the picture look like?