It's a good thing I didn't want to pay taxes on the grand prize, because my final time of 64 minutes is definitely not good enough. The final challenge consists of hard versions of all the earlier puzzle types except for the observation challenge, without any trivia or research. This means you actually need to be able to solve a chess puzzle, for example. For fun I noted my times after each puzzle:
Symbols (9x9 Soduku): 19 minutes
Restoration: 27 minutes
Curator: 47 minutes
Chess: 59 minutes
Jigsaw: 64 minutes
The soduku was challenging just because they weren't numbers, which made it harder to scan for the missing elements and hold that information in my head. When I got down to most of the grid solved except for the lower-right corner, I converted to numbers so I could "see" things better and that let me finish.
Restoration was easier than I expected. It took me 4 or 5 attempts before getting to a point where my gut said I had a solvable configuration, and then I just stopped and thought it through before making any more moves.
Curator KILLED me. I kept getting everything arranged and needing one more nail. Finally I got systematic about it and figured out the only 2 or 3 places the 3x3 painting could go given the other nails and paintings, and it quickly fell apart after that.
Chess was the one I was most worried about. I know the rules of the game but I'm not a chess player and don't do chess puzzles, so I had to slowly and methodically reason through the options ("In order to get a mate, I need to attack these squares. How can I do that in just two moves?"). If I'd gotten desperate I could have just cycled through the 64 possibilities as quickly as possible. That might have actually been faster. But I was nevertheless pleased with my solve time here.
The jigsaw was a nifty variation where the picture kept changing, making it harder to match up the pieces. The traditional approach of assembling the outer edge first still worked.
I'm guessing the winning time will be posted by a team approach, with a group of people collaborating on the Soduku, Curator, and Chess puzzles (I don't think more brains will help with Restoration or Jigsaw). It'll be interesting to hear what that winning time is.
Posted by Peter at May 19, 2006 01:28 PM"(I don't think more brains will help with Restoration or Jigsaw)."
I dunno—Restoration felt "solvable" to me, as if there were some straightforward algorithm or at least set of techniques that would solve any board. (The traditional "jump pegs to remove them" solitaire puzzle has such an algorithm I believe, and it seems pretty similar to Restoration.) A four-person team might have invested the time over the past month to find that algorithm.
Posted by: Stephen Beeman on May 21, 2006 05:50 PMMichael Kearney(Captain of the Haberdasher/Silly Hat Brigade) chiming in. Apparently, all the puzzles were the same for all the finalists. So, basically all the answers were available on the internet, and people started finishing in mere minutes. I'll have to ask Wei-Hwa about that if he comes to Paparazzi.
Posted by: Michael Kearney on May 22, 2006 12:19 PM