Kuromasu

Rules

Shade some cells so that all remaining cells are connected orthogonally and no two black cells share an edge. Each numbered cell indicates the total count of unshaded cells connected in line vertically and horizontally to the numberer cell including the cell itself.

(Rules and example from PGP IB)

Rule variations

• The rules of a puzzle in WPC 2015/Round 10 called Open Space was regular Kuromasu rules along with the condition of shaded cells not touching even diagonally.

History of the puzzle

First appeared on Nikoli volume 34 (1991). Invented by "Tea.M". Original name 黒マスはどこだ "Kuromasu wa doko da" means "where is black cell?" In Nikoli, the name was later contracted to 黒どこ "Kurodoko". Kuromasu, the first word of the name, means "black cell".

Appearances in the past WPCs

• WPC 2018/Round 1 by Jiři Hrdina
• WPC 2017/Round 7 by Prasanna Seshadri
• WPC 2015/Round 10 (Open Space) by Svetlozar Stefanov