World of Puzzles
Welcome to the new puzzle blog from Clarity Media, world of puzzles. Here you will be able to download and print off free puzzles to enjoy, as well as learning more about various different puzzle types and tips on how to solve them. In additionally you'll be able to find out about puzzle competitions and more from the world of puzzling. You can post your comments or thoughts on any article.
Buy Puzzle Books
Are you a fan of puzzles that it is hard to find in volume?
For instance - if crossword puzzles or standard sudoku are your thing then there are a plethora of titles out there that contain nothing but sudoku and crossword puzzles.
But what do you...
Added: 25 Jul 2012
Kids Educational Puzzles
One of the great things about puzzles is that they are fun. And there is a real sense of satisfaction that comes with solving a puzzle.
Therefore puzzles make a great educational tool, particularly where they help children to practice certain skills...
Added: 28 Jun 2012
Tips on Solving Word Ladder Puzzles
Word ladder puzzles - how do you go about solving them?
There are two distinct strategies that people tend to use. The first is to solve from top-to-bottom, whilst the other is to solve from bottom-to-top.
In truth, the best way to solve a...
Added: 12 Jun 2012
Solving Hanjie Puzzles
Hanjie Puzzles are rarely seen in publication, yet they tend to become something of an addiction for those who are bitten by the hanjie bug.
Hanjie is a type of logic puzzle, and it consists of a rectangular grid with various numbers around the...
Added: 10 Feb 2012
Arrow Sudoku Puzzles
Arrow Sudoku puzzles are an enjoyable sudoku variant that is rarely seen in print.
If you have done, then the chances are that you buy the i newspaper on Saturday, and if so you'll be familiar with the striking visual of this puzzle, as per the image...
Added: 11 Jan 2012
World Puzzle Championships
It may not be well known, but there is a World Puzzle Championship that takes place once a year.
And this year's competition has just been held in Eger in Hungary.
The World Puzzle Championship - or WPC - pits the wits of the best puzzlers...
Added: 14 Nov 2011
Human vs Computer Created Puzzles
Are computer created puzzles as good as ones made by humans? It is an interesting question that has been asked many times.
In order to answer it, it seems reasonable to come up with a test to see if a person can distinguish between the two - if a...
Added: 13 Jun 2011
The Knights Tour
The Knights Tour belongs to an interesting group of puzzles known as travelling puzzles.
Many of these puzzles follow the path of a chess piece around the board, or are inspired by that movement on a grid of a variety of shapes.
You may have...
Added: 13 Apr 2011
Free Sudoku Plus Puzzle
Sudoku Plus is a variant of sudoku that you might not have seen before.
The puzzle grid itself is the same as usual: a 9x9 grid that you must place 1 - 9 in once per region (row, column and 3x3 box).
However there are far fewer givens in the puzzle...
Added: 24 Mar 2011
Solving Wordwheel Puzzles
Wordwheel puzzles are a simple but fun word puzzle that tests your vocabulary skills to the max.
There are various variations on the standard wordwheel rules, but usually a wordwheel puzzle will require you to as a minimum find one word that uses all...
Added: 09 Feb 2011
Cracking Killer Sudoku
One of the best known sudoku variants is killer sudoku.
However, by its very name the puzzle can seem quite intimidating, as it does sound quite daunting!
The main difference between this puzzle and normal sudoku is that it is also a maths...
Added: 16 Jan 2011
Free Consecutive Sudoku
Happy New Year! We hope that all our visitors had a great Christmas and a good New Year.
As 2011 starts, here is a free consecutive sudoku puzzle for you to print (including the solution in case you get stuck or want to verify your solution).
To...
Added: 04 Jan 2011
Christmas Tree Mosaic Puzzle
Christmas is well and truly coming!
And what better way to celebrate than with a free puzzle that is Christmas themed?
Then look no further than our Christmas tree themed mosaic puzzle, the solution to which - as the name heavily hints at - is a...
Added: 22 Dec 2010
Wordladder puzzles
Wordladder puzzles are said to have been invented by Lewis Carroll, and are a fun little word puzzle with simple rules, but that can be quite hard to solve nonetheless.
The aim of a word ladder is to move down a ladder from a word at the top to a word...
Added: 16 Dec 2010
Puzzle Magazines
There are a huge number of puzzle magazines out there in the market.
When you go to your local newsagent or even supermarket, you will see a large range of puzzle magazines.
Predominantly these magazines will cover crosswords, wordsearch and...
Added: 08 Dec 2010
Creating Irregular Sudoku Puzzles
Have you ever wondered how irregular sudoku puzzles are created? Also known as jigsaw sudoku, these are a reasonably common variant of sudoku that replace the neat 3 x 3 boxes with regions of all sorts of different shapes (but all containing nine...
Added: 03 Dec 2010
Sudoku and Symmetry
Most sudoku puzzles that you see - although not all - contain symmetry.
Sepcifically, they tend to contain rotational symmetry such that if the puzzle is rotated 180 degrees it looks the same.
This is visually quite pleasing, and infact some...
Added: 01 Dec 2010
Writing a good program to create sudoku
One of the reasons why sudoku has been able to become so popular all over the world is because supply has been able to keep up with demand.
And the reason for that is because firstly the vast majority of sudoku seen in mainstream publications are...
Added: 30 Nov 2010
A Chess Puzzle
Chess is one of the oldest games that is still popular today. And it continues to go from strength to strength.
Whilst there are several rules to learn with regard to how the pieces can move, taking manoeuvres, castling, check and so on, this pales...
Added: 29 Nov 2010
Sudoku: Maths Puzzle or Logic Puzzle?
A question that comes up with some frequency is whether sudoku is a maths puzzle or a logic puzzle, and depending where you look, you can see it referenced as falling in both these genres.
Infact, sudoku is purely a logic puzzle.
The reason for...
Added: 26 Nov 2010
Solving Hard Futoshiki Puzzles
This article discusses 5 x 5 sized futoshiki which is the most commonly seen size of this puzzle type. However, the strategies can be applied to larger puzzle sizes by simply adjusting the numbers.
The first thing to say is that a good futoshiki...
Added: 25 Nov 2010
Creating your own Puzzle
Creating your own puzzle can be a very interesting and rewarding process, although as with any creative process it can also be frustrating.
Are there any guidelines when coming up with a new puzzle that will help to make it good, and therefore...
Added: 24 Nov 2010
Do brain training puzzles work?
In the last few years, there have been a couple of notable shifts in the puzzling world.
The first, of course, was the launch of sudoku in 2004 and the massive interest in sudoku in particular and puzzles in general that was caused as a result of that...
Added: 23 Nov 2010
Puzzle Competitions and World Puzzle Championships
There are various different puzzle competitions that take place around the world, and of course within many countries there are a large range of national contests.
Probably the most well-known nationally are crossword championships and scrabble...
Added: 22 Nov 2010
iDoku Solving Tips
iDoku is a variant of ordinary sudoku that appears in the new 'i' newspaper.
The aim of iDoku is to fill each row, column and 3x3 box in the puzzle such that 1 - 9 appear once only in each of them. In addition, there is a grey capital 'I' shape in...
Added: 19 Nov 2010