Word Connection

Rules

Put the given words into the grid (some letters are already put), and connect them in the given order by a line going through every remaining cell exactly once. Words can be put in any of eight directions, but they cannot touch each other, not even diagonally. Each line connects the last letter of a word and the first letter of the next word, and lines cannot cross each other.

(Rules and example from WPC 2015 IB)

History of the puzzle

Invented by Kazunori Saitoh (Japan) in 2001 under the name "A WEEK". First appeared as a submission to Internet Gekisakujuku, a contest where the best new puzzle type was decided from types submitted by readers of Puzzler magazine. As the name suggests the original puzzle used the names of days of the week as in the example in this article.

He later generalised the puzzle to arbitrary word sets in 2004. This version appeared in the 2004 Japanese Semifinals under the name "ワードつなぎ" (namely Word Connection in Japanese).

Appearances in the past WPCs

• WPC 2015/Round 4 by Kazunori Saitoh