Kuromasu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Example of a Kuromasu
Associated solution

Kuromasu ( Japanese 黒 マ ス は ど こ だ kuromasu wa doko da ) is a puzzle published by the Japanese magazine Nikoli . Kuromasu means roughly "where are the black fields".

Kuromasu first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli 34 (June 1991).

regulate

Kuromasu is played on a rectangular grid of any size. Some squares are marked with numbers. At the beginning all the squares are white. The aim is to find all the black squares. The following rules apply:

  • Two black squares must not border one another over an edge
  • All white squares form a contiguous area
  • Squares with a number are always white
  • The number in a square indicates the number of white fields that can be reached horizontally and vertically from this square without going over a black field. The field with the number itself and all other fields with numbers are also counted.

Usually the solution is clearly determined by the given numbers.

Solution strategy

To solve a kuromasu, one tries to gradually color more and more fields black until the correct solution is ultimately found. It is often helpful to identify the fields that have to remain white, for example with a small black dot in the middle of the field.

One should start a kuromasu with particularly large or small numbers. Sometimes such large numbers are entered in a Kuromasu that all fields that can be reached vertically and horizontally from this number must remain white.

Since black fields are not allowed to adjoin one another over edges, these neighboring fields must remain white. The fact that all number fields must remain white often helps to decide in which direction the next black field must be.

Web links