Hexa Words
Rules[edit]
Place letters in the empty hexagonal cells, such that the six hexagonal cells around each grey cell must contain letters from one of the words from the given list. The letters can be in any order. All the hexagonal cells must be used.
(Rules and example from WPC 2017 IB)
History of the puzzle[edit]
Very similar puzzles have been (probably) independently invented multiple times.
2005 IPST had "Words in a Honey"[1], which is almost identical to this puzzle but has an additional rule that requires the letters to be filled in clockwise around the centre of hexagons. The puzzle was by Andrey Bogdanov (Russia). The same ruleset appears in the 2009 German Nationals under the name Kreuzwortwaben ("Crossword Honeycomb"), written by Roland Voigt (Germany).[2]
Matúš Demiger pointed out that this version is probably an invention of Zuzana Hromcová in a Slovak language publication. One puzzle from WPC 2014/Round 5 (an instructionless round) by David McNeill (N. Ireland) had very similar rules to this version. Instead of filling 6 cells, letters of the words had to be put in 7 cells including the centre cells.
In conclusion, the idea of this puzzle should most likely be attributed to David, with a twist added by Zuzana.
Appearances in the past WPCs[edit]
- WPC 2017/Round 23 by Amit Sowani
- WPC 2016/Round 12 by Matúš Demiger
- WPC 2014/Round 5 (7 cells version) by David McNeill