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rhuMy NPL friend Tyler Hinman posted an interesting puzzle by Renfield on his blog. I got completely caught up in a variation on it, which I'll share here because I couldn't solve it and I'm interested in seeing if it can be solved.
You have a 7x7 grid which you must populate such that you can, by a king's tour, traverse the alphabet from A to Z.
In Renfield's version, you are allowed to use nonsense entries but they score 0; real words score their length minus two. Your goal is to get the highest score possible.
In my variant, you are not allowed to use nonsense entries (but you are allowed to use anything with dictionary nature, so for example common abbreviations like Hg, MLK, and VW are perfectly reasonable) and your goal is simply to get it all to fit in a 7x7 with complete interconnection.
Your goal is to have the lowest score possible: you get 5 points for each unchecked letter and 1 point for each "extra" letter beyond the 26.
My best effort so far, which does not even meet the minimum requirements, is:
It's got the one extra letter on top, so it doesn't fit in 7x7, and it does not have overall connectivity. Not to mention a few more questionable words than I'd like.
I know several of you out there can do better.
You have a 7x7 grid which you must populate such that you can, by a king's tour, traverse the alphabet from A to Z.
In Renfield's version, you are allowed to use nonsense entries but they score 0; real words score their length minus two. Your goal is to get the highest score possible.
In my variant, you are not allowed to use nonsense entries (but you are allowed to use anything with dictionary nature, so for example common abbreviations like Hg, MLK, and VW are perfectly reasonable) and your goal is simply to get it all to fit in a 7x7 with complete interconnection.
Your goal is to have the lowest score possible: you get 5 points for each unchecked letter and 1 point for each "extra" letter beyond the 26.
My best effort so far, which does not even meet the minimum requirements, is:
W
....VAX
..QUAY.
.PERT.Z
NODS.CE
ML..DAB
.K.HEF.
..JIG..
It's got the one extra letter on top, so it doesn't fit in 7x7, and it does not have overall connectivity. Not to mention a few more questionable words than I'd like.
I know several of you out there can do better.