Latest updates (until 2024-10-21): CR255 CR256 CR247 CR257 CR258 CR259 CR260 CR195 CR261 CR262 CR262 CR263 CR264 CR265 CR266 CR267 CR268 CR269 CR270 CR271 CR272
Graphical overview. You can click the link to the Graphical Overview Page to see a graphical overview of all puzzles. |
This table is sorted by: Arity. Click on one of the following links to change the ordering field: Puzzle Name, Designer, Manufacturer, Year, Arity, No of pieces, Type of Pieces, Number of moves |
Puzzle-ID | Name | (example entry for explanation of fields) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image(s) of puzzle. Click on image or links for bigger image versions. |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Name of creator of puzzle design | Name/Company name of manufacturer | Year of first release | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
# of Levels (n) or n' [n], see note in Section 1.1 | special pieces only | of special pieces (m) | exact or asymptotic (Θ) function of n and m | counted/calculated | |
Remarks | Remarks about special features, similar puzzles. | ||||
References | Links to patents, Extremely Puzzling page, other web pages on this puzzle | ||||
Symbols: | §=counting moves of special pieces only; ‡=counting moves until first piece comes out | ||||
CR177 | Name | Bald Eagle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
1 [2] | 5 | ring+connector | Θ( m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the big foldable circle piece, which starts in the middle. It can traverse to the left or right end, both consisting of 5 ring+connector pairs. While there are two states for the big circle and each ring+connector pair (i.e. binary), the overall solution is linear. Each pair is traversed only once. The zig-zag chain of rings on the main loop looks like the structures used in others of Aaaron's n-ary puzzles. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR059 | Name | Chinese Rings 5 | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | ring | [2m+1/3] | 21 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR042, CR208. The pictures 2 and 3 show other versions with 5 rings. Reference [14] shows a 7 ring variant including solution. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], Reference Section [9] and [14] (pp. 100-102) | ||||
CR042 | Name | Chinese Rings 9 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | ring | [2m+1/3] | 341 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR059, CR208 | ||||
References | [1], Reference Section [9] | ||||
CR116 | Name | New Puzzle Rings 3 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | ring | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR117 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR117 | Name | New Puzzle Rings 5 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | ring | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR116 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR105 | Name | Trapeze | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 61 | ||
Remarks | extra rings for symmetry; third picture shows puzzle Dingo Trap, a variant with the rings separated and held by smaller loops; reference [14] shows this variant including building instructions and solution | ||||
References | [1], [2]; [3] (US Patent 4497489) Reference Section [7], [8], and [14] (p.109) | ||||
CR138 | Name | Unknown Disentanglement | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | loops | |||
Remarks | Choosing one of the sides, the consecutive loops on that side will act like a Chinese Rings puzzle. All other loops are not part of the solution. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR157 | Name | Extended Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Bob Easter | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | rings | Θ( 2m ) | |||
Remarks | Various extended Chinese Rings, based on the designs from the book given in the references section. These designs are e.g.: CR108, CR110, CR111 | ||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR082 | Name | Quatro | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Eric Johansson | Eureka 3D Puzzles | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | 7 | |
Remarks | One of the solutions (reference 2) acts like Chinese Rings, please see reference 3. There are also other solutions. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4] | ||||
CR072 | Name | Ferris Wheel | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean Carle | Eureka 3D Puzzles | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR144 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR101 | Name | Dragonfly | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | rings | 23 | ||
Remarks | extra rings for symmetry; second picture shows Airplane puzzle | ||||
References | [1]; Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR098 | Name | Fish | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | rings | 27 | ||
Remarks | The first picture shows the "Wicked Wire" version by Professorpuzzle. | ||||
References | [1]; Reference Section [7], [8], and [14] (p.153) | ||||
CR114 | Name | Football | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 21 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR110 | Name | Fortune | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 12 | rings | 993 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR112 | Name | Gourd | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | rings | 5 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR108 | Name | Happiness | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 13 | rings | 364 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR100 | Name | Lock | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 23 | ||
Remarks | extra ring for symmetry | ||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR102 | Name | Longevity | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | rings | 37 | ||
Remarks | extra rings for symmetry | ||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR111 | Name | Mandarin Duck | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 15 | rings | 3287 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR099 | Name | Maze | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 24 | ||
Remarks | The first picture shows "Rat Race" by Puzzlemaster | ||||
References | [1]; Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR106 | Name | Nine Twists | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR107 | Name | Pagoda | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | rings | 397 | ||
Remarks | The third picture shows the simpler variant "Tree Puzzle" by Puzzlemaster | ||||
References | [1]; Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR113 | Name | Pear | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | rings | 62 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR109 | Name | Phoenix | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 16 | rings | 502 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR104 | Name | Teapot | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 22 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR103 | Name | Wheel | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ruan Liuqi | Ingenious Rings | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | rings | 24 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | Reference Section [7] and [8] | ||||
CR029 | Name | Left-Right Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jan Sturm | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | ring | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR169 | Name | Binary Ladder Disentanglement | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | ring | |||
Remarks | Name unknown; this version is of early 1990s or shortly before. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR144 | Name | Tricky Frame | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Philos | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR072 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR145 | Name | Tricky Mouse | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Philos | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR032 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR208 | Name | Catacombs / Chinese Rings 12 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Puzzlemaster.ca | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 12 | ring | [2m+1/3] | 2730 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR042, CR059 | ||||
References | [1], Reference Section [9] | ||||
CR031 | Name | Computer Puzzler No 2 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Tenyo | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2] (US Patent 1091709), [3] | ||||
CR034 | Name | Computer Puzzler No 5 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Tenyo | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | |||
Remarks | was No 3 earlier; Variants: CR003, CR013, CR024, CR045, CR081, CR122 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR151 | Name | Oh Sh*t! Puzzle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Woodenworks | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Variants: CR032, CR145 | ||||
References | |||||
CR020 | Name | Hexadecimal Puzzle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Binary Arts | 1970 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | switch | Θ( 2m ) | 170§ | |
Remarks | Binary and 170 move sequence for setting 1110; Variants: CR040, CR066 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 3637216), [2], [3] | ||||
CR022 | Name | SpinOut | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Binary Arts | 1970 / 2006 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | disc | [2m+1/3] § | 85 § | |
Remarks | Version with elephants and reset shortcut, green/red/orange. There exists an unintended shortcut solution with 49 moves (see Jaaps's page below). Variants: CR026, CR050 | ||||
References | Variation on [1] (US Patent 3637215), [2], [3], [4], [5] | ||||
CR050 | Name | SpinOut | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
William Keister | Binary Arts | 1970 / 1987 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | disc | [2m+1/3] § | 85 § | |
Remarks | There exists an unintended shortcut solution with 49 moves (see Jaaps's page below). The second picture shows an unknown mini variant with rule scales in cm and inch, and inscription "PAT NO 23596" on the back side; Variants: CR022, CR026 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 3637215), [2], [3], [4], [5] | ||||
CR026 | Name | SpinOut | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | ThinkFun | 1970 / 2001 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | disc | [2m+1/3] § | 85 § | |
Remarks | reset shortcut. There exists an unintended shortcut solution with 49 moves (see Jaaps's page below); Variants: CR022, CR050 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 3637215), [2], [3], [4] | ||||
CR057 | Name | The Brain | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Marvin H. Allison, Jr. | Mag-Nif | 1973 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | switch | [2m+1/3] | 170 | |
Remarks | Pictures 2, 3, and 4, and reference 2 show the newer version | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4] | ||||
CR054 | Name | Computer Loops | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Mag-Nif | 1975 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | ring | [2m+1/3] | 170 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR015 | Name | Electro 2 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Gabor Vizelyi | Tenyo | 1981 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | loop | 25 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] , [2] US Patent 4391445, [3] | ||||
CR056 | Name | CUBI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 1985 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | 2m—1 | 32 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR048, CR162 | ||||
References | |||||
CR096 | Name | The Cat | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Binary Arts | 1985 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 2 | rings | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR097 | Name | The Horse | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Binary Arts | 1985 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | rings | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR118 | Name | Grydlock | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Robert Hilchie | Robert Hilchie | 1993 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 10 | slider | 3m/2—1 | 242 | |
Remarks | The puzzle can be built with various slider shapes, leading to different mazes. Most of them are not n-ary, like the one shown in the pictures. Several puzzles have been implemented as online version (see reference [2]), an n-ary one has also has been implemented — please see reference [3], and for this the solution length and other details are provided here. | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 5470065), [2], [3] | ||||
CR032 | Name | Puzzle H | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Eureka 3D Puzzles | 1997 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR145 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR248 | Name | Caged Stairs | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Ad van der Schagt | Hobbytik | 1999 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 3 | ring pairs | |||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the rope from the frame. There are pairs of rings, each consisting of a ring mounted to the top bar, and one mounted to the bottom bar. The puzzle is based on CR032 by adding the top half (left on the picture) introducing additional restrictions. The solution is roughly binary, but one has to choose the correct ring of each pair and will traverse the rings multiple times. The rope can go through no ring of a pair, each of the rings, and both rings, accumulating to 4 different possibilities for each pair. Designed for IPP19 as an unofficial exchange puzzle. | ||||
References | |||||
CR046 | Name | Apricot | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 2002 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | panel | ||||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR153 | Name | Elephant Wire Puzzle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Beijing Oriental Top Science Trading Ltd | 2003 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variant of: CR031 with a more irregular shape. The instructions lists 11 different starting positions as challenges. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR012 | Name | The Binary Burr | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bill Cutler | Jerry McFarland | 2003 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | burr pieces | ( (-1)m+1 + 2m+2 ) / 3 §‡ | 85§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; There is also a very rare 10 ring piece version, which is shown in the pictures; Variants: CR076, CR156 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR039 | Name | Barcode Burr | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Lee Krasnow | Lee Krasnow | 2004 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | burr piece | 2m+1—4 | 124 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR137, CR199; some shortcuts exist | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR058 | Name | The Key | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Walt Hoppe | 2004 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | switch | 40 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR063 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR162 | Name | Mechanic CUBI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 2005 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | 2m—1 | 32 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR048, CR056. Mechanism is completely made out of wood, no metal (pins) used. Kamei also included a second alternate solution with a shortcut, which will only work at the beginning of the usual sequence, and is a couple of moves only. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR006 | Name | Bin Laden | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Rik van Grol | Rik van Grol | 2006 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | drawer | 21 | ||
Remarks | Partially ternary and modified sequence | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR024 | Name | Frame & Loop Quartet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variant of Computer Puzzler No 5; Variants: CR003, CR013, CR034, CR045, CR081, CR122 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR003 | Name | Frame & Loop Quintet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variants: CR013, CR024, CR034, CR045, CR081 , CR122 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR045 | Name | Frame & Loop Sextet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | loop | |||
Remarks | Re-released for IPP34 Exchange; Variants: CR003, CR013, CR024, CR034, CR081, CR122 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR013 | Name | Frame & Loop Trio | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variants: CR003, CR024, CR034, CR045, CR081, CR122 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR048 | Name | Small CUBI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | 2m—1 | 32 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR056, CR162. Mechanism is completely made out of wood, no metal (pins) used. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR040 | Name | Hexadecimal Puzzle Reproduction | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Bill Wylie | 2011 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | switch | Θ( 2m ) | 170§ | |
Remarks | Binary and 170 move sequence for setting 1110; Variants: CR020, CR066 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 3637216), [2], [3], [4] | ||||
CR021 | Name | Rings Bottle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | ring | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR052 | Name | Fidgety Rabbits | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | rabbit disc | Θ( 2m ) | 170 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR018 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR081 | Name | Frame & Loop Octet | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variants: CR003, CR013, CR024, CR034, CR045, CR122 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR071 | Name | Expansion V | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | 2m—1+3 | 35 | |
Remarks | Simpler variant of: CR094 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR094 | Name | Expansion VI | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Akio Kamei | Akio Kamei | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | Θ( 2m ) | 83 | |
Remarks | More complicated variant of: CR071 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR092 | Name | Delirium | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Stéphane Chomine | Claus Wenicker | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 28 | burr pieces | (2m+2—1 — (m mod 2))/3 | 357913941 | |
Remarks | Simplified version of: CR012, CR076, pictures show versions with 28, 5, 6, and 38 special pieces. Reference 1 shows form for arbitrary many special pieces. Variant: CR154 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR066 | Name | Hexadecimal Puzzle 2013 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
William Keister | Creative Crafthouse | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | switch | Θ( 2m ) | 170§ | |
Remarks | Binary and 170 move sequence for setting 1110; Variants: CR020, CR040 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 3637216), [2], [3], [4] | ||||
CR063 | Name | Binary Key II | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Cubicdissection | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | switch | 1⁄6 [—7·(—1)m+2m+4—9] | 85 | |
Remarks | Variation of CR058 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR076 | Name | The Binary Burr | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Bill Cutler | Eric Fuller | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | burr pieces | ( (-1)m+1 + 2m+2 ) / 3 §‡ | 85§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; Variants: CR012, CR156 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR088 | Name | Labynary | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | slider pair+switches | |||
Remarks | Beside the 8 main sliders, the puzzle contains several other smaller sliders for the interaction between the 8 main sliders. Additionally, there is a small ball and a ball maze in this puzzle, and the goal is to get the ball out at one of the three maze exits. The maze is also part of the sliders (see second image) and therefore the binary character only holds for the basic puzzle, without the ball. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR073 | Name | Binary Bud | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | leaf | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal: start with all 6 petals having the small protrusion poiting to the top (picture [1]), and find a sequence so that sll end up with the protrusions inside the puzzle (picture [5]). Each petal has two different orientations, the starting one with the protrusion pointing upwards, and the goal one rotated so that the protrusion points inwards. Each petal interlocks with the next petal. For all but one petal, the starting orientation will allow the next one to move, the other orientation blocks the next petal. There is one petal that has locking and unlocking swapped between the two orientation. Additionally, all petals interact with the white part of the rotator on top, which allows two neighboring petals to move, and blocks all others. The puzzle contains different challenges: In the starting configuration (all protrusions pointing up), the central column can be pushed upwards and then the rotator on top be rotated for one of the 6 challenges. One of these challenges only allow one move and is othewise unsolvable, the others different solution sequences. One allows a genuine binary sequence of all six petals, the others modified sequences with shortcuts. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR074 | Name | Dispersed GC Lock | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | switch | 184 | ||
Remarks | Code corresponds to setting 1100 of CR020 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR122 | Name | Frame & Loop Septet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Abraham Jacob | Abraham Jacob | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variants: CR003, CR013, CR024, CR034, CR045, CR081 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR139 | Name | Mini Num Lock (binary) | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | slider | |||
Remarks | Variants: CR125 and CR176; the second picture shows three different even and odd base variants: bases 2, 3, and 4. The ternary one is the cross referenced Num Lock in this puzzle list. | ||||
References | reference section [12] | ||||
CR141 | Name | Power Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 6 | panels | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | reference section [12] | ||||
CR140 | Name | Crossing | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jack Krijnen | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | sliding piece | |||
Remarks | Goal: slide the pieces so that the left black L shape ends up in the bottom left corner | ||||
References | [1], reference section [12] | ||||
CR127 | Name | Alles Schiebung | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | slider | 42 | ||
Remarks | Additional locking mechanism; AKA: Sternary | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR119 | Name | Pin Burr 2 | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jerry McFarland | Jerry McFarland | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | burr pieces | Θ( 2m ) | 38§‡ | |
Remarks | Binary sequence, which is non-GC based and uses a pin-maze-mechanism, a little trick was added corrupting the sequence and making it more interesting for the solver. The third picture shows the prototype, which has a simpler frame but same sequence, the last picture shows both puzzles. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR115 | Name | Bicomplementary Formation b/b:1/2 | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 11 | bars, sticks | 70‡ | ||
Remarks | V1, N01; Two interlocking binary sequences (one of bars, one a bit hidden of the sticks). Beside the binary moves, this puzzle also contains burr moves without an n-ary scheme and with half-notches. The number of moves contains the binary sequences and some of the burr like moves. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR143 | Name | DITWIBIN | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | slider | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | One of the simplest designs of a whole puzzle family, with different number of sliders, disks, and arities. This design was devised fist for higher order variants in August 2014, about a month before this puzzle. One of the higher order variants is CR149. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR137 | Name | Barcode Burr (3D printed) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Lee Krasnow | Steve Miller | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | burr piece | 2m+1—4 | 124 | |
Remarks | 3D printed reproduction of CR039 in limited run; variant:CR199. Each of the six pieces is printed as one piece and has some additional metal pins. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR147 | Name | Fibula Puzzle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Lord Minimal | Monkeys Cage | 2015 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 3 | loop | |||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR150 | Name | Bin Laden Too | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Rik van Grol | Rik van Grol | 2015 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | drawer | |||
Remarks | Additional mechanisms, modified sequence, combination of several binary sequences. The objective to remove the dice modifies the sequence even further, as a die can only be taken out when a drawer is fully extended and the drawer above in its starting position inside the box. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR146 | Name | Drunter & Drueber | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Juergen Reiche | Siebenstein | 2015 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 4 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR160 | Name | B-Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Eric Fuller | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 6 | panel | 135 | ||
Remarks | This is a combination of puzzle box and burr. Not only the panels can be opened and removed, but also the frame can be taken apart completely. Inside the box is a second puzzle, the Reactor by Eric Fuller, a small puzzle box. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR164 | Name | JUNC | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | slider pair | |||
Remarks | Goal is to move all light sliders down and all dark sliders left. By unlocking and removing the transparent lid, all little square pieces can be reoriented, allowing for 425≅1015 different challenges. Not all of these are possible as can be seen from the second picture, where a partial configuration is shown with the two top-left slider pairs blocking each other, unable to move. While the first picture shows the simple standard configuration of the puzzle, the third one shows one adapted from the N522 puzzle (CR087), with nontrivial solution and exponential solution length. The letters of the name depict the various configurations of the small squares. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR154 | Name | Delirium 13 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Stéphane Chomine | Johan Heyns | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 12 | burr pieces | (2m+2—1 — (m mod 2))/3 | 5461 | |
Remarks | Simplified version of: CR012, CR076. Reference 1 shows form for arbitrary many special pieces. Variant: CR092 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR156 | Name | The Binary Burr (small) | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bill Cutler | Maurice Vigouroux | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 10 | burr pieces | ( (-1)m+1 + 2m+2 ) / 3 §‡ | 1385§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; the first picture shows the whole group of the Binary Burrs (small) with 3 to 10 special pieces, all with solid cage, the other pictures show the individual puzzles; Variants: CR076, CR012 | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] | ||||
CR159 | Name | Digits' Compressor | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | disc | 49 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to compress the digit stack to minimal height by rotating discs and moving them verticalle, and additionally to line up the red markings with the four red markings on top and bottom parts. There are several different-length dead end sequences. The five gray discs move in a binary symmetric Gray code sequence, unlike the black ones. Each disc has an orange pin, which can interock with two different holes in the disc below, i.e. two differet positions for each disc. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR175 | Name | Corn on the Cob I | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 9 | ring pairs | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | This is mainly a (binary) Chinese Rings puzzle with single rings. The second ring of each pair is dropped from the main bar when the corresponding ring get's off the bar. It will then stay unhooked, while the primary ring follows the usual Chinese Rings sequence. For each pair there are four states (on/off loop for each ring), so this puzzle can also be considered quarternary. However, the main sequences and interactions are only binary, with touching every secondary ring only once, hence classified as binary here. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR171 | Name | Mountain Trail | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | rings+connectors | |||
Remarks | Main binary chinese rings chain, with three additional binary chains of 2 rings each, attached to rings 5, 7, and 9. These are interwoven with the main chain, leading to ternay subsequences, with some quaternary positions, where two subchains meet. Of each of those additional sequences, there is always only one of the two rings on the main loop. This is one of six puzzles in the Chinese 99-ring series. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR178 | Name | Corn on the Cob II | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jianjiang Wu | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 9 | ring pairs | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | This is mainly a (binary) Chinese Rings puzzle with single rings in a chinese rings chain (CRC) and then an additional chain, a zig zag chain (ZZC) through the connector piece ends. When the last ring from the CRC on the handle bar is dropped, a sequence through the ZZC follows. As this is a ZZC, half of the rings are wrongly oriented for the usual sequence, and at those points parts of the CRC are traversed to the beginning of the CRC, to allow access to the ZZC rings in the other orientation. These interruptions in the ZZC sequence by CRC sequences will then happen until the completion of the solution. The main scheme is that the rings of the CRC come off one after another like in a Chines Rings puzzle. Consequently, the reassemlby follows this scheme: Run through the CRC to put on the last free ring of the CRC, then put the lasts free ring of the ZZC on the handle bar. This automatically adds two rings of the ZZC, so one will need to be released to allow to put on the next CRC ring. For this some ZZC sequences are required, with some CRC sequences performed up to the correct entry point of the ZZC. The scheme can be learned with a few ring pairs (up to 4) initially, but only with 7 or 9 ring pairs, all required moves become apparent. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR188 | Name | Corn on the Cob III | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jianjiang Wu | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 9 | ring pairs | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Like the first two puzzles in the series, the CotC III is mainly a binary chinese rings puzzle. Each ring is part of a pair with a free ring (only one end caught in a connector) and a ring part of the main zig-zag back bone. After analysis, the puzzle can be solved with some simple rules: Each ring has only one correct orientation on the handlebar piece. The free rings form a binary chinese rings puzzle that needs to be solved, and when the bar needs to go through one ring of a pair, it should always go through the free ring. The last rule is about re-assembly (entanglement): When the handlebar is at the rightmost free/zig-zag ring pair, it should break the rule before and go through the zig-zag ring. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR255 | Name | Sensi Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Alfons Eyckmans | Alfons Eyckmans | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 6 | panel | 371 | ||
Remarks | This is a combination of puzzle box and burr. Not only the panels can be opened and removed, but also the frame can be taken apart completely. Inside the box is a second puzzle, the Sensi by the same designer, a framed 6 pieces burr. This inner puzzle also adds to the stability of the movements of the box panels. Both ideas are based on CR160. The panel with the name on it and which is the lid of the box is 6-ary | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR174 | Name | Alken/Kenal | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Alfons Eyckmans, Ken Johnson | Alfons Eyckmans | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 6 | panel | 321 | ||
Remarks | Variant of CR160, but not coming apart and only with 5 binary pieces, and one lid piece to be removed by the solution sequence. The lid piece has a different structure, and leads to four puzzles: Alken has lid piece which is binary (135 moves) in one orientation and 6-ary (321 moves) in the other. Kenal has a binary (135 moves) and 4-ary (257 moves) lid piece. The 135 move configurations also allow the solution sequence to run over the point branching into the last few moves before lid removal, and then leading to a dead end. These dead ends can also be reached when re-inserting the lid and trying to close the box. Also at the beginning of the 135 move sequences (box closed) there are some dead ends possible. Second pictures shows the box open and details of the lid pieces, the third piece shows the lid to be slid open without removal, possible for the Kenal 135 configuration just before the end of the sequence. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR183 | Name | xBrain binary | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
David Guo | David Guo | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | switch | [2m+1/3] | 42 | |
Remarks | This puzzle is based on: CR057. Variants: CR184 and CR185. The second picure shows the goal configuration (all sliders moved to the border), and the third picture a different colour variant in a configuration during the solution. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR182 | Name | Buggin | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Stuart Gee | Stuart Gee | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | loop | |||
Remarks | Variant of: CR031 by linking two of these (with 3 loops) together at the end of the sequence. Sequences can mainly be traversed one after the other. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR189 | Name | Reverse Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | ring pair+connector | Θ(m·2m) | ||
Remarks | This puzzle looks like a chinese rings with all the rings put on the main handle backwards. At a closer look, each ring has a second ring attached at the bottom. To solve this puzzle, the bottom chain has to be solved like a standard chinese rings puzzle, and at the end of each run, one more ring from the reversed top chain comes off. While there are more than two states for each ring pair (4 states, each ring can be on or off the handle), the main sequence is binary, which is why it is classed binary here, and considered as chinese rings puzzle with some extensions. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR190 | Name | Second Order Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 11 | rings | |||
Remarks | While the rings in the classic Chinese Rings puzzle are linking their connector with the next connector each, in this one, each ring links its connector with the next two adjacent connectors. The solution is based on the Chinese Rings solution, and is in fact the same sequence like for the Dispersed GC lock CR074 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR191 | Name | Third Order Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 13 | rings | |||
Remarks | While the rings in the classic Chinese Rings puzzle are linking their connector with the next connector each, in this one, each ring links its connector with the next three adjacent connectors. This is a logical extension of CR190. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR204 | Name | Corn on the Cob V | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aaron Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 9 | ring pairs | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | This fifth puzzle of the series is basically a binary puzzle like the other, and for this one it is more apparent: There are 9 pairs of rings each connected via the usual connector, but in a zig zag pattern each two adjacent are connected via a small additional ring. With this modification, the two rings of each pair assume roles, and while the ring next to the small additional ring only serves as secondary ring only sitting on the main handlebar when the pair is in the initial state, the other ring is part of a binary chinese rings chain. The main challenge is to choose the right ring of each pair (after unlocking both for the first time), and then perform a classic chinese rings solution sequence, just in a zig zag fashion. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR194 | Name | Double Image | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | ring+connector | |||
Remarks | The main chain of this is a classic 9 ring Chinese Rings puzzle. Attached to rings 3, 5, 7, and 9 are a small ring and connected to that two regular sized rings. Those rings are linked with the previous and next connector. During the solution, only at most one ring of each additional ring pairs will be on the handle. The main solution sequence is still binary, but one has to determine when to pick up the forward / backward secondary ring. At some points in the solution, both the primary ring and the secondary ring are on the main bar, at other points in the solution, also only the secondary ring might be on the main bar (but this only holds for the forward rings, the secondary backwards rings are never on the handle alone). Therefore, the puzzle could also be classed as a ternary puzzle, or even quarternary, but the main structure is still binary. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR193 | Name | Mountain Trail II | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | rings+connectors | |||
Remarks | This one is based on a main binary chinese rings chain, with an additional chain of 3 rings starting under the 5th and 8th ring. Unlike CR171, these additional chains are not rings linked directly with each other, but each ring is connected to one of the vertical bars via a smaller ring. In the starting position, these look like linked chains, during the solve, the chains act like secondary chinese rings chains, and therefore also multiple rings of the same secondary chain will be on the main bar at the same time, especially when one of them is put on/off the main bar. While the overall structure of the chains is binary, each of the four possibilities for each ring pair of ring on/off the handle (on/on, on/off, off/on, off/off) occurs and this puzzle could also partially be classified as a quarternary puzzle. For each pair of primary and secondary ring, putting on/off each of the rings of the pair requires a traversal of the lower rings sequence, making it a quite long solution sequence, adding up all these binary sequences. From the solution standpoint it might therefore also be classified as being partially ternary, and probably this is the main influence on the solution length. This is a later puzzle of the Chinese 99-ring series. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR203 | Name | Corn on the Cob IV | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jianjiang Wu, Aaron Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [6] | 9 | ring pairs | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | This fourth puzzle of the series is basically a binary puzzle like the others. The rings are occurring in pairs again, and one ring is part of a zig-zag backbone, while the other ring is only attached to one connector and can be on the main handle or off. The zig-zag character of the main chain makes it difficult to determine the correct orientation of the free rings, but after some analysis it is easy to see that only one orientation will work for each ring. This can be visualized by creating little "huts" of four rings each: two backbone rings for the roof, and two free rings for left and right wall. The handlebar can freely pass through such a "hut". During the solution, the binary sequence is traversed a couple of times with the main aim to unlock all rings up to the last ring (all of them sitting on the handle in wrong orientation initially) and transform the chain into a hut only shape; then the handlebar can be pulled out completely. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR206 | Name | Corn on the Cob VI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jianjiang Wu, Aaron Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 16 | rings | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | This sixth puzzle in the series is an easier one, and actually a direct variation of the classic Chinese Rings puzzle. There are two main frame bars on top and bottom, and the usual long handlebar in the middle, going through all the rings. The first pair of rings is simply attached to the end of the frame bars, and then the other attached via connectors to these frame bars, like in a Chinese Rings puzzle. These two copies from top and bottom are interweaved so that there are top and bottom rings in an alternating way, and additionally the connectors go though the adjacent ring of the opposite chain. That way, both chains have to be solved simultaneously and actually form one big chain of Chinese Rings of 16 rings, taking many moves to solve. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR192 | Name | Disordered Chinese Rings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Yuandong Jiang, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 9 | rings | |||
Remarks | While the rings in the classic Chinese Rings puzzle are linking their connector with the next connector each, in this one, the regular scheme is broken and some rings go over the next two or three connectors. Some of them lead to irregularly stacked rings on some connectors, while for others the rings over the next one and two connectors are aligned in parallel over one connector. When solving, one has to ensure to choose the right ring for the sequence and which ring to skip, while the overall solution sequence is aligned to the general Chinese Rings sequence. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR202 | Name | Chinese Soft Rings | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jim Wu, Aaron Wang | Aaron Wang | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | rope loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Version with red and white rope loops was introduced at IPP39 (Design Competition, Exchange with Dirk Weber). The IPP version had 3 loops in the base configuration, and others added as additional challenge. A version with more rings and 7 loops in two colors was offered for sale on-line, with additional challenges: Loop with 4 rings and (one or) two rope loops in between each, star shaped with 3 rings and binary chains of 2 loops meeting in a common additional rope loop in the middle, and star shaped with 4 rings and 4 binary chains (2 of length 1, 2 of length 2). | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR187 | Name | New Secret Box IV | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Akio Kamei | Karakuri Creation Group | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | panel | 2m—1 | 32 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR048, CR056, CR162. Mechanism is completely made out of wood, no metal (pins) used. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR196 | Name | Loopary Branch | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | 127 | |
Remarks | The linear structure is bent into U shape. In the IPP38 Design Competition it participated as part of "Loopy Lattice Puzzles"; other puzzles from the same series: CR197, CR198 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR217 | Name | Piano | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2[4] | 10 | rings | |||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the handle going through the upper row of rings. The puzzle consists of two binary Chinese Rings chains of 5 rings. The upper (with the handle) attached to short connectors, the lower one to longer connectors. To solve, the handle has to be moved out of the upper chain, and for each transitions, some move sequences of the lower chain are required. The arity is 2 in general, and could be viewed as 4 if pairs of upper/lower rings are grouped together. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR218 | Name | Rainbow | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [8] | 11 | rings | |||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the handle from the puzzle. The puzzle consists of four concentric half circles/arcs and 3 separate binary chinese rings chains, one chain of length four at each end, and one of length three in the middle. The right hand side chain is traversed many times, to traverse through the middle chain, and in certain situations when dropping a ring off the middle chain, one (or more) rings of the left hand chain are dropped. This can be viewed as one chinese rings chain of 11 rings with some branches. An alternate view is to count the rainbow arcs, which have three rings each and therefore 8 states each (each ring on/off the handlebar). That would make it an 8-ary puzzle with four special elements. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR254 | Name | Ratchet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Heping Gao, Aaron Wang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | oval rings | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the string loop from the metal frame. The main sequence is a classic Chinese Rings like sequence. The rope can pass through each of the 6 rings or travel around it, which leads to the binary structure. The first oval ring has a special feature as an entry point: The slots of the frame are all too small to allow the circular rings to pass through, except for the one adjacent to the first ring. This slot needs to be used in a short sequence to change the rope configuration between through and off the first ring — which happens a lot during the binary sequence — and which is the main challenge of the puzzle. Special care has to be taken to keep the two halves/slings of the rope separate, or additional knotting will occur. | ||||
References | [1] [2] | ||||
CR227 | Name | Sea Horse | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Xianyang Yang | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 2 | ring | 6 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove rope. Nicely made variant of CR031 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR228 | Name | Faraday Cage | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Heping Gao | Heping Gao | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 6 | loop | |||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the rope with the wooden ball. The sequence is similar to some classic loop and rope based n-ary puzzles. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR230 | Name | Panex Junior | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [3] | 6 | slider | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR035. Goal is to slide the pieces (without turning) to move stack between left and right channels. There is an additional one piece parking position on top of the left channel. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR226 | Name | 4L Bin | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Tom Lensch | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 4 | L-block | 2m+1—2 | 30 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR237. Goal is to pack all the L-blocks into the box, which only has an opening at the top/front (and two smaller openings on the back/bottoms sides for handling of the pieces). The first 3 pieces can be packed into the box with a few moves, the last one requires a binary sequence (with additional auxiliary positions, e.g. like for CR126, CR136 and CR167). The pieces come in left and right handed shapes, two of each. The first and last pieces are different, with the required grooves and blocks only on one side. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR237 | Name | 5L Bin | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Eric Fuller | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [4] | 5 | L-block | 2m+1—2 | 62 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR226. Goal is to pack all the L-blocks into the box, which only has an opening at the top/front (and two smaller openings on the back/bottoms sides for handling of the pieces). The first 4 pieces can be packed into the box with a few moves, the last one requires a binary sequence (with additional auxiliary positions. The pieces come in left and right handed shapes, two of each. There is no special first/last piece. Pieces can be rotated by 180° and then a change in the order of the solution can be observed, or a change in orientation, if the box is rotated as well after inserting the pieces. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR241 | Name | Railings | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Heping Gao | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 10 | ring | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the rope. This puzzle is basically a 10 ring binary rope puzzle that was folded into three layers (4 rings, 3 rings, and 3 rings), and these layers attached to the same poles. The solution sequence is mostly a typical binary reflected Gray code. As 3 of the rings are reachable from the outside (one on each level), one has to plan when to use each of them. The layer structure sometimes introduces modification in the 10 ring sequence and planning for the next step on the lower layer is also required to avoid unneccesary moves. The puzzle also features a quick reset where the rope can be opened. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR238 | Name | YPANEX | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Javier Santos | Jose Romero | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 [3] | 7 | slider | 190 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR230. Goal is to slide the pieces (without turning) to move stack between left and right channels. There is an additional one piece parking position on top of the horizontal channel that can be used for swapping. This is a symmetric version of Panex Junior, with one additional space above the left channel (by moving it to the left one unit). This allows swapping moves in a symmetric way, while Panex Junior only allowed them in one orientation, and overall also some shorter sequences than in Panex Junior. In particular, move sequences involving sliders 1 and 2 can be shortened, as they require less swapping. Like the other recent Panex variants and unlike the original Panex, this one can be played from both sides, with or without visible hints for the stair structure of the channels (but still the number indicators). This puzzle was developed in a discussion about CR231 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR257 | Name | B-Bar | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Felix Davis | FADplus | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | slider | 2m | 256 | |
Remarks | Goal of this counter is to run through all 256 configurations, starting from 00000000 via 11111111 to the goal of 10000000. The synchronizing mechanism can be seen through the open back side and works a bit like the CR057. The configuration shown in the picture is a few moves into the solution. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR247 | Name | Binary Disk | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | sliding knobs | |||
Remarks | There is also a video referenced [2] below with the description. Goal of the puzzle is to slide the coloured knobs to their corresponding positions with the same colours indicated in the frame, and with the line/arrow indicator of the bronze disk segment pointing to the target colour, consequently there are 8 challenges, one for each colour. The coloured/rainbow knobs each have their own groove in the top and bottom. There is a central disk consisting of two segments (bronze, golden coloured), and a rainbow knob can only move to the other end of its channel, if one of the two gaps between the golden/bronze slider disk segments is adjacent. The red and blue knobs have special grooves that stay on the inner/outer ring, and they can be moved either with one of the two gaps between the disc segments, or using the special cutouts in the bronze segment surrounded by a half circle indicator. The interaction between the two disk segments and the knobs are the main aspect of the puzzle. Each move of a rainbow knob will also move the two golden/bronze segments, and unlock other moves (or block some). The channels for the two green knobs, yellow and orange are oriented in parallel, the purple and pink ones in the opposite direction, and then there are the special blue/red ones mentioned before. In some cases it is also possible to move two knobs simultaneously, one of red/blue, and one of the others, adding further complexity. The additional pictures [2] to [5] above show some more details for the construction, also the reset feature of unscrewing knobs. The two disk segments are kept in place by magnets, and more magnets are used for keeping the knobs in their end positions. The original design by Oskar is from May 1988, but only recently 3D printing enabled the construction of prototypes, also for optimizing the channel layout, and the initial design had all of them oriented in parallel. Unscrewing the knobs it is possible to set up random starting configurations (with each knob in its channel of the same colour) and there are some completely blocked. It has yet to be determined if any configuration with at least on possible move will be a solvable starting configuration. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4], reference section [20] | ||||
CR266 | Name | Python | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Heping Gao, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 7 | ring | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the long handlebar piece, starting from the configuration shown in the picture. This puzzle is basically a classic chinese rings puzzle, where the rings have been split into groups and the main backbone is bent in a way so that access to the rings happens from two different sides for the various rings. The group of rings 5, 6, and 7 have a special arrangement, with ring 7 serving as a gate for the goal position. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR267 | Name | Rippl | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Heping Gao, Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 8 | ring | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the long handlebar piece. The main structure is like basic Chinese Rings puzzle, but with the frame bent in some spiraled fashion. There are two spirals which are connected via bridge offering two U bends for access, which both carry a ring and have a little indentation at the bottom. While solving the puzzle, these rings easily slip into these indentations suddenly blocking the move, and forcing the user to locate this block and move the ring aside. This bridge separates the rings into two groups. The first three form some simple binary sequence, with nice interaction between the handlebar, the rings, and the spiral frame, where the first ring can also move around nearly a whole rotation around the spiral. For solving the other 5 rings, a both U openings of the bridge is used several times. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR271 | Name | Lost | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jürgen Reiche | Siebenstein | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
2 | 5 | loop | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Goal is to free the rope. The design follows the standard binary disentanglement puzzle approach. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR135 | Name | Double Loop | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 2 | loop pairs | 3m — 1 | 8 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR067 (other variants see there) | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR041 | Name | Row to Row | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 8 | disc | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | A Tower of Hanoi like puzzle. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR049 | Name | Junk's Hanoi | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Junk Kato | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | block | Θ( 3m ) | 161 | |
Remarks | Variation: Israelogi by ThinkinGames / Ili Kaufmann. The image shows a different version created by Dirk Weber. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR067 | Name | Gordian Knot | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Eureka 3D Puzzles | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 2 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 8 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR014, CR030, CR068, CR069, CR070, CR075, CR135; alternative version named "Gekkenwerk" was devised by Jack Botermans, see reference section [13] pp. 76 and 77, including a solution | ||||
References | [1], [2], reference section [13] | ||||
CR077 | Name | Meiro Maze Variant | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Fujita | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | pair of loops | |||
Remarks | First goal is to remove the coin, second the whole thread from the metal part. Both challenges are the same ternary puzzle repeated, but for releasing the coin additional restrictions exist. This seems to be a variant of the Meiro Maze shown in reference 2. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR091 | Name | Algorithme 9 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Patrick Farvacque | Patrick Farvacque | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 9 | discs | |||
Remarks | The Algorithme series features different puzzles with different number of discs, different disc heights and post heights. They are all some variation of Tower of Hanoi, which can also be seen in the rules: move one disc at a time, which is on top of its pile; no bigger disc may be put on a smaller one (equal size is OK); piles may only go up to post end, not higher. | ||||
References | CFF79 contains an article by Dick Hess about Algorithme 6 | ||||
CR014 | Name | Electro 1 | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Tenyo | |||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 26 | |
Remarks | The second picture shows an unknown variant. Variants: CR030, CR067, CR068, CR069, CR070, CR075 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR062 | Name | Tower of Hanoi | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Edouard Lucas | Philos (and others) | 1883 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 9 | disc | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR158 | Name | Disc & Crown CFF 100 Jubilee Edition Puzzle | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Robrecht Louage, Michel van Ipenburg | Robrecht Louage | 1916 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | rivet | 2·3m | 54 | |
Remarks | Limited edition of 500 that was a gift with CFF issue 100. Variants: CR047, CR120, CR121 | ||||
References | [1], Reference Section [15] | ||||
CR036 | Name | Pharaoh's Dilemma | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Mag Nif | 1970 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | disc | |||
Remarks | Tower of Hanoi variant | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR030 | Name | Loony Loop | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Trolbourne Ltd | 1975 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 2 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 8 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR014, CR067, CR068, CR069, CR070, CR075 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 2091191), [2] (US Patent D0172310), [3], [4] | ||||
CR009 | Name | Panex Gold | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Toshio Akanuma | TRICKS | 1983 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 20 | slider | 31537 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR035. Goal is to slide the pieces (without turning) to exchange the left and right stacks. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR035 | Name | Panex Silver | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Toshio Akanuma | TRICKS | 1983 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 20 | slider | 31537 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR009. Goal is to slide the pieces (without turning) to exchange the left and right stacks. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR043 | Name | Hanui | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Yoshiyuki Kotani | 1994 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | U piece | 3m—1·2i—1 | 242 | |
Remarks | Piece i not allowed on middle position; 242 moves for i=biggest piece | ||||
References | |||||
CR061 | Name | A Slide-ly Tricky Tower | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Yee Dian Lee | Yee Dian Lee | 1999 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | sliding piece | Θ( 3m ) | 485 | |
Remarks | Different movement schemes by using additional blocking pieces to block the tunnel for some larger sizes of the blue sliding pieces. In the worst case (all blocking pieces), it has 2·3m—1—1 moves. Other cases have just Θ(2m) moves. The configuration without blocking pieces is equivalent to Tower of Hanoi (obeying the rules!), while the one with all blocking pieces is equivalent to a one-tower Panex. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR025 | Name | Super-CUBI | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2000 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | panel | 324 | ||
Remarks | First image shows newer version (opposite panels following in solution), second and third the older version (panels following in 90° turn order); Variant: CR165 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR075 | Name | Devil's Cradle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Rick Irby | 2000 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 80 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR014, CR030, CR067, CR068, CR069, CR070 | ||||
References | |||||
CR010 | Name | Crazy Elephant Dance | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Markus Goetz | Peter Knoppers | 2005 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | elephant | 3·(2m—1)—2·m | 83 | |
Remarks | The second and third pictures show the original prototype of the puzzle. | ||||
References | [1], reference section [17], [18] | ||||
CR011 | Name | Sliding-Block Chinese Rings-style Puzzle | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bob Hearn | 2008 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | pair of yellow blocks | |||
Remarks | The second picture shows the different position of the special pieces, the pairs of yellow blocks in positions 0, 1, and 2. There are other positions not part of the solution. Recently, we found a shorter, non-ternary solution that was not intended, with goal configuration in third picture; under investigation. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR004 | Name | PyraCircle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2008 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 10 | block | 116 | ||
Remarks | Variation of Panex, a non-disjoint union of several such puzzles; 116 is minimum number of moves | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR008 | Name | Magnetic Tower of Hanoi | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Uri Levy | 2009 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | disc | Θ( 3m ) | 83 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR002 | Name | Tern Key | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Cubicdissection | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | switch | 12·(2m)—12·m—10 | 134 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR055 | Name | Ternary Burr | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Mr. Puzzle | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | burr pieces | 6·2m—4·m—5 §‡ | 75§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; 95 moves for complete disassembly; Variants: CR005, CR095 | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] | ||||
CR005 | Name | Ternary Burr | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | burr pieces | 6·2m—4·m—5 §‡ | 75§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; Variant with only two frame pieces; Variants: CR055, CR095 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR053 | Name | K-323 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Kim Klobucher | Kim Klobucher | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | block | 323 | ||
Remarks | Variants: CR016, CR038 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR007 | Name | Rudenko Clips | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Valery Rudenko | Roscreative | 2011 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 7 | clip | ( 3m—1 )/2 | 1093 | |
Remarks | Tower of Hanoi with move restriction | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR019 | Name | Rudenko Disc | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Valery Rudenko | Roscreative | 2011 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 7 | disc | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Tower of Hanoi with simplification | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR044 | Name | Rudenko Matryoshka | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Valery Rudenko | Roscreative | 2011 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 7 | slider | Θ( 2m ) | ||
Remarks | Tower of Hanoi equivalent with restriction of moves between the outer two rows | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR023 | Name | Auf dem Holzweg | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Juergen Reiche | Siebenstein | 2011 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | |||
Remarks | Two arity 3 puzzles in one | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR018 | Name | Fidgety Rabbits ternary | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | rabbit disc | Θ( 3m ) | 230 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR052 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR078 | Name | Lego Ternary Gray Code Puzzle | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Adin Townsend | Adin Townsend | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | lever | 3·(2m—1)—2·m | 177 | |
Remarks | Lego variant/implementation of CR010. Second picture shows the three different piece states, with one moved out to the right already. Second reference links to building instructions created by Jeremy Rayner; the puzzle can be built with the pieces of a Mindstorms NXT set, but slight modifications might be necessary depending on the actual piece set. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR095 | Name | Ternary Burr | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Eric Fuller | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | burr pieces | 6·2m—4·m—5 §‡ | 75§‡ | |
Remarks | Move count includes control bar; 95 moves for complete disassembly; Variants: CR005, CR055 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR068 | Name | Gordian Knot 2 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Huso Taso | 2013 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 1 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 2 | |
Remarks | The second picture shows a variant built by Jan Sturm (new in 2014). Variants: CR014, CR030, CR067, CR069, CR070, CR075 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR069 | Name | Gordian Knot 4 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Huso Taso | 2013 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 2 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 8 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR014, CR030, CR067, CR068, CR070, CR075 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR070 | Name | Gordian Knot 6 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Huso Taso | 2013 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | pair of loops | 3m — 1 | 26 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR014, CR030, CR067, CR068, CR069, CR075 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR087 | Name | N522 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider-pair | Θ(3m) | 212 | |
Remarks | AKA: "522"; Variants: CR131, CR132, CR133; Beside ternary sliders in two orientations, there is a simple ball maze built into the left end of the sliders and the ball is to move from bottom to top as goal, while the moving sliders obstruct and open some of the maze parts. The second picture shows the position in which the maze is usable; only the first slider has to be moved up and down while the ball traverses the maze. The number of moves is for putting all sliders up/to the right (calculcated with Burr-Tools, see second reference), with five additional moves of the left slider to remove the ball, totalling 217. This is the first model of the series. Physically built have been all versions from 2+2 to 10+10 sliders, and some are presented on this page. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR064 | Name | Six Bottles | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | slider+ball | 4·(2m—1) | 252 | |
Remarks | Each metal ball can be in a top-left, bottom-left, or a bottom-right position, and there are corresponding slider positions middle and top. The bottom slider position occurs only during transition of ball between left and right. A newer circular version replacing balls by switches is: CR083 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR084 | Name | Spiralschloss | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | shackle-layer | 2·(nm—1) | 160 | |
Remarks | Mechanism similar to CR085. Goal: Open all shackle-layers completely. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR083 | Name | Steuerrad | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 8 | slider+switch | 3·2m | 768 | |
Remarks | Round variant of CR064. Goal: Move all handles to the outer position and reveal hidden message "Nicht durchdrehen", German for "do not get mad" and also referring to turning the steering wheel (German: Steuerrad). The second picture and reference show a box newly released in 2018, which features the same puzzle as lid. To open the box, all the sliders but the short one have to be moved to the outer position. This makes the solution shorter than the one of the original puzzle. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR085 | Name | Uhrwerk | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | ball/gear | 2·(nm—1) | 160 | |
Remarks | Mechanism similar to CR084. Goal: Move the one ball with the special starting position to its third hole and remove (only) this ball from puzzle. The two pictures show second (more stable) and first edition. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR089 | Name | GC machine ternary | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | switch | 141 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to move all switches to the "far out" position | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR093 | Name | Railing with Draining ternary | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | slider | |||
Remarks | Quaternary version is: CR124 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR155 | Name | ReTern Key | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Charlie Rayner | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | 8 · 3m—1—8·m+1 | 185 | |
Remarks | The full name is "The Return of Tern Key" and demonstrates a variant of CR125 without a long synchronizing slider piece. Variants: CR168, CR223, CR224. | ||||
References | reference section [12], [1] | ||||
CR170 | Name | Double Helix | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | pairs of burr sticks | 73 | ||
Remarks | This puzzle consists of 20 pieces, of which 8 are the special pieces (middle layers). A pair of pieces makes up one level, as outlined in the article referenced below. | ||||
References | reference section [12] | ||||
CR142 | Name | Slots and Pins (mixed base) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | slider | |||
Remarks | This version has mixed bases, i.e. binary and ternary pieces/piece parts. | ||||
References | reference section [12] | ||||
CR126 | Name | Power Tower | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jack Krijnen, Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [5] | 4 | burr sticks | 3m—m—1 ‡ | 76‡ | |
Remarks | Variants: CR136, CR167 | ||||
References | [1], reference section [12] | ||||
CR134 | Name | Bi-Nary | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider-pair+ball | 259 | ||
Remarks | This puzzle combines the mechanisms of CR064 and CR087. The pictures shows second and first edition. The second is more stable and removes a solution issue of the first. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR129 | Name | Find my Hole | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | discs | |||
Remarks | This puzzle contains three disks, but from a mathematical view, the top and bottom disc act as one and have to be moved simultaneously in different directions. Additional locking mechanism. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR130 | Name | Lock 14 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | slider+ball | |||
Remarks | First shackle part has ternary sequence, second part additional trick. Mechanism is like in CR064; AKA: Alphalock | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR131 | Name | N5 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 2 | slider-pair | Θ(3m) | 20 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR087, CR132, CR133; Beside ternary sliders in two orientations, there is a simple ball maze built into the left end of the sliders and the ball is to move from bottom to top as goal, while the moving sliders obstruct and open some of the maze parts. The second picture shows the position in which the maze is usable; only the first slider has to be moved up and down while the ball traverses the maze. The number of moves is for putting all sliders up/to the right (calculcated with Burr-Tools, see second reference), with one additional move of the left slider to remove the ball, totalling 21. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR132 | Name | N52 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | slider-pair | Θ(3m) | 68 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR087, CR131, CR133; Beside ternary sliders in two orientations, there is a simple ball maze built into the left end of the sliders and the ball is to move from bottom to top as goal, while the moving sliders obstruct and open some of the maze parts. The second picture shows the position in which the maze is usable; only the first slider has to be moved up and down while the ball traverses the maze. The number of moves is for putting all sliders up/to the right (calculcated with Burr-Tools, see second reference), with three additional moves of the left slider to remove the ball, totalling 71. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR133 | Name | N522222222 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 10 | slider-pair | Θ(3m) | 137334 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR087, CR131, CR133; Beside ternary sliders in two orientations, there is a simple ball maze built into the left end of the sliders and the ball is to move from bottom to top as goal, while the moving sliders obstruct and open some of the maze parts. The second picture shows the position in which the maze is usable; only the first slider has to be moved up and down while the ball traverses the maze. This is the biggest of the series actually built. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR152 | Name | Viking Box | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Sven Baeck, Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | switches | |||
Remarks | The basic mechanism of the box is a ternary mechanism consisting of discs with the switches attached and visible to the puzzler, and some ball bearings. These will move into some cutouts of the discs and block them in various positions, same general concept as in CR064. Additionally, there are two mechanisms interacting with several discs each: One visible as the bottom horizontal slider, the other hidden, but with its state visible through a small hole below the left disc. This mechanism and the ball bearings have to be manipulated via tilting. The lid contains the mechanism and is firmly closed. However, a second variant was released with a transparent top, allowing the puzzler to see most of the mechanism. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR128 | Name | Panex Squared | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
John Haché | John Haché | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 12 | slider | 68 | ||
Remarks | Variant of CR035 which includes overlapping and interacting Panex instances. As the original design was not solvable (as discovered by Bob Hearn), this puzzle has to be modified by removing the blocking mechanism in the center. Goals are: 1) to swap pieces horizontally (e.g. A and B), and 2) swap pieces vertically (e.g. A and C), obeying the Panex rules, i.e.: in the vertical grooves, no smaller piece can be below (i.e. closer to the center) than a larger piece, same for the horizontal grooves (no larger piece closer to the center, but for both sides of the groove). This modification was proposed by Diniar Namdarian in 2015. The solutions provided have 46 moves for swapping A and B, and 68 moves for swapping A and C. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR123 | Name | Complementary p-arity | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 14 | bars, loops | 102‡ | ||
Remarks | Complimentary combination of several different sequences: Top 5 bars run in a 3-ary sequence, together with the 5 bottom bars, who run (slower) in a 2-ary sequence. These interact with the 4 loop-pieces, which run accross in a 3-ary sequence. First challenge of the puzzle is to understand these sequences, then the second is to disassemble and correctly reassemble the puzzle, with many other parts, alltogether 29 pieces. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR125 | Name | Num Lock | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Tom Lensch | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | sliders | 16 (3m—2) —1 ‡ | 143‡ | |
Remarks | Variants: CR139 and CR176 | ||||
References | [1], [2], reference section [12] | ||||
CR148 | Name | Racktangle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | Tom Lensch | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [5] | 4 | plate | |||
Remarks | Variable number of stages (1 to 4, box is built modular) and plates of base 2 and 3 included, which together with the solid plate for the lowest position, can be used to create all mixed base 2 and 3 puzzles for up to 4 stages. | ||||
References | [1], [2], reference section [12] | ||||
CR149 | Name | MixTer-MaxTer | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2015 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 8 | slider | Θ( 3m ) | 342 | |
Remarks | One of a whole puzzle family, with different number of sliders, disks, and arities. CR143 is a simpler variant. The goal of MinTer-MaxTer is to move the sliders from the outer discs with two slots to the outer disc with 8 slots and collect them there. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR161 | Name | Fishing Hook Chain 9-Ring | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 9 | rings+loops | |||
Remarks | The three states of each ring+loop pair are: main bar through the loop (or "fishing hook", initial configuration), through the ring, and off both. When reassembling the puzzle, an additional challenge arises: it may easily happen that some hooks end up on the main loop in wrong orientation. As this can only be seen after many (up to 1000s) of moves, careful planning is advised and analaysis of smallers problem of the first few hooks only. One feasible approach is to arrange the loops in an alternating pattern above and below the the backbone while running through the sequence. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR165 | Name | Super-CUBI (small) | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | panel | 324 | ||
Remarks | Smaller version of original Super-CUBI with adjacent panels moving on opposite sites. Comes with a solution leaflet showing all 324 moves, and additionally some instructions on how to calculate and identify the current configuration. Varaiant: CR025 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR163 | Name | B-Nary | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | Θ( 3m ) | 220 | |
Remarks | The mechanism is hidden and seems to consist of the four sliders, several ball bearings, and sliding pieces. There is also one additional ball bearing that has to travel from start to goal, from where it can be put into the start position via a reset feature. During this time, the ternary sequence is executed twice (forwards, then backwards) with 54 slider moves each. The total number of moves includes these slider moves (2·54), the corresponding tilting moves to move ball bearings/sliding pieces (2·54), tilting moves to move the extra ball bearing inside the puzzle and out (3+1). Once the extra ball bearing has reached the half way position, it can go inside the sliders and cause some lockups that have to be undone by reversed moves before the regular sequence can continue. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR184 | Name | xBrain ternary | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
David Guo | David Guo | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | switch | 2·3m — 1 — 1 | 485 | |
Remarks | This puzzle is based on: CR057. Variants: CR183 and CR185. The second picure shows the goal configuration (all sliders moved to the border), and the third picture a different colour variant in a configuration during the solution. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR168 | Name | ReTern Key with circular pieces | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Fredrik Stridsman | Fredrik Stridsman | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | Θ( 3m ) | ||
Remarks | The ReTern Key was the base for this puzzle, and the designer replaced the groups of small pieces running on the sides of the puzzle for synchronization by circular pieces. Variants: CR155, CR223, CR224. | ||||
References | |||||
CR172 | Name | Aquarius Drawer (5 devices) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | block | 61 | ||
Remarks | Five blocks form a ternary chain of pieces, with two small drawers at the ends. First drawer can be opened after 5 device moves, the other requires 61 moves. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR195 | Name | Jack-in-the-Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jack Krijnen | Jack Krijnen | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [5] | 4 | wheel | |||
Remarks | From the description: It's sequential discovery, it's riddle solving, it's ternary and in the end it's challenging. The ternary puzzle inside is used as a lock for one of the sliding panels and consists of 4 wheels with pins and rails. These wheels are basically a round version of the stick pieces of CR126, and like in that puzzle, the wheels only interact locally with their immediate neighbors and not requiring any synchronizing piece. The wheels are arranged in an alternating pattern of 3 layers (1 middle layer, 2 wheel layers). The goal is to rotate all pieces as far anti-clockwise as possible to unlock a panel. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR186 | Name | Planex | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam | JL Puzzles (Jerry Loo) | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | sliding block | 42 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR035, CR009. This puzzle is basically a Panex puzzle with only 3 levels (6 pieces) instead of the 10 levels (20 pieces) of the Panex puzzles. Goal is to slide the pieces (without turning) to exchange the yellow and blue stacks. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR181 | Name | The Bell | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Juergen Reiche | Siebenstein | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 12 | slider | 881 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR035, CR009. This puzzle is basically a Panex puzzle with only 6 levels (12 pieces) instead of the 10 levels (20 pieces) of the Panex puzzles. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR220 | Name | Ternary Pin Burr | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Aleksandr Leontev | Aleksandr Leontev | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | block | 2·3m §‡ | 162§‡ | |
Remarks | Objective of the puzzle is to move the four special pieces and the big slider piece until the special pieces come out, then completely disassemble the burr of 35 pieces in total. The second picture shows the puzzle in this second stage of disassembly. The mazes are based on the Kugellager mazes, and aside from ternary mazes, also a version with quinary mazes was designed. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR212 | Name | Aquarius Box (small) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | panel | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR214. This box has two compartments and follows the basic move scheme of CR172. In this puzzle, there are two chains of 3 panels each, in two different species of wood. The first one opens the first compartment, but somewhere in the middle of the sequence with a special move also unlocks the starting move for the second chain of panels. It is up to the puzzlers choice which compartment to open first, both ways work. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR211 | Name | Six Keys Box | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | key slider+ball slider pair | 4⁄3 ·3m—3 | 969 | |
Remarks | Move all the keys down and then open the box. At first look similar to CR064, but no long synchronizing piece exists here. Instead there are two rows of acrylic sliders beneath the keys, each slider with one ball interacting with one of the keys. The slider work in a way similar to the Num Lock CR125, but the key pieces have a different layout. Move count: both keys and acrylic sliders. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR210 | Name | Sluice and Ships | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 12 | ships | 192 | ||
Remarks | The goal of this puzzle is to move the board with ships out of the puzzle by moving all ships from the lower chamber to the upper chamber. While travelling between upper and middle chamber is unrestricted as long as the ships reaches the opening, for travelling between the bottom and middle chamber, another ship needs to be in the chamber before and push the left or right gate aside. Only the first ship can always traverse here. There is an additional white block with blue rectangles that can be inserted into the left end of the middle chamber, reducing the length of the chamber (and therefore the left gate), and with a solution length of 102 moves, where a move is a move of a ship between the chambers, not one of the acrylic board or gate. The two configurations have the following names: 5:6/N12 (with 12 ships, left gate 5 ships wide, right gate 6), and with the extra block: 3:6/N12 (with the left gate now only 3 ships wide). To get ships out of the middle chamber quickly (in case of being lost in the solution) one can push the chamber gates open from below, or one can remove the black piece to open a shortcut between lower and upper gate (and the exit). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR219 | Name | Crazy Elephant Dance (3D printed) | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Markus Goetz, Samuel Farinas | Samuel Farinas | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 7 | lever | 3·(2m—1)—2·m | 367 | |
Remarks | 3D printed design based on CR010. Goal is to run through the ternary sequence (like shown in second picture) and then to get all elephant pieces pointing downwards, to remove the slider from the frame (third picture). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR214 | Name | 5 times 5 times 5 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | panel | 125 | ||
Remarks | Variant: CR212. This box has one compartment and follows the basic move scheme of CR172. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR222 | Name | Stacker | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jared Petersen | CoreMods | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | ball bearing | |||
Remarks | Goal is to slide ball bearings from the right to the left compartment (and back), using both the ball bearings and the horizontal slider. The cutouts allow the ball bearings of 5 different sizes only to decend to the same level of the three compartments where they started and not below, and the horizontal slider will only contain one ball bearing. This makes this puzzle similar to the Panex puzzle, just with one set of special pieces instead of two, and with a middle compartment that is two units shorter than the outer compartments, and containing at most 3 ball bearings. The usual solving method of Tower of Hanoi will work to some extent, until the smallest ball bearing needs to be relocated to the other outer compartment, then a different approach is required. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR223 | Name | N-Airy Box | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Fredrik Stridsman | Fredrik Stridsman | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | Θ( 3m ) | 85 | |
Remarks | This is a puzzle box based on the ReTern Key with Circular pieces, and the transparent cover features exactly such a puzzle. The goal is to open the box, and for that, the sping loaded sliders on the top and bottom left need to be slid to the middle of the puzzle. Of course, this cannot happen at the same time because of the middle slider on the left, so these moves need to be performed one after another, and the little spring mechanisms are part of the solution to this problem. These springs are also part of a quick reset mechanism so that the lid can be closed regardless of the sliding puzzle configuration. The starting configuration of the box is in the middle of the ternary sequence. As both ends of the sequence need to be visited for opening, the ternary sequence is approximately 1.5 times. A smaller version with only 3 special pieces was built as well. Variants: CR155, CR168, CR224. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR224 | Name | ReTern Key with circular pieces (Coin Release) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Fredrik Stridsman | Fredrik Stridsman | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 5 | slider | Θ( 3m ) | 313 | |
Remarks | The ReTern Key was the base for this puzzle, and the designer replaced the groups of small pieces running on the sides of the puzzle for synchronization by circular pieces. This one is a newer, version with laser cut acrylic and 3D printed sliding blocks, with more pieces and the goal to release the coin. Variants: 2, CR168, CR223 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR225 | Name | The Tippenary Mystery Tour | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jack Krijnen | Jack Krijnen | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [5] | 4 | slider | 55 | ||
Remarks | From the description: It is sequential (puzzle) discovery, it is riddle solving, it is n-ary, and in the end there is a challenge waiting. This puzzle box has multiple stages of the solution, one of them being a ternary/binary mixed base puzzle, and also containing burr components. The goal for the ternary/binary mixed base puzzle is to solve it and unlock a locking mechanism, the overall goal is to work through the final challenge and solve this one. To avoid more spoilers, no further description is provided here. The design was first presented in 2019 with a prototype and in 2021, this box was released. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR232 | Name | N3-Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | slider-disc pair | Θ(3m) | ||
Remarks | Box with a round variant of the series: CR131, CR132, CR087, CR133; The box has a lid with an n-ary sliding piece puzzle, which consists of 3 layers of discs with mazes, and 3 rivets sliding in those. These correspond to what would be the pairs of sliders in the N52 puzzle. At the start, the rivets are in the center start positions marked with circles, and the discs have the little triange/square/circle symbols aligned and stacked. To solve the box, all three layers need to be rotated to the end of the maze so that the rivets can fall out when turning the box over. After that, the lid can be unscrewed by rotating the top disc. Variant: CR242 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR236 | Name | Coherent Convoys | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov, Goetz Schwandtner | Namick Salakhov | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 14 | ships | Θ( 2m ) | 296 | |
Remarks | The plastic body of this puzzle contains two channels (red, blue), and a lock chamber in between, with two gates between the lock and each of the channels and an acrylic cover with 14 ship pieces sliding in grooves in the cover. Ships can move between the channels and the sluice chamber depending on the configuration of ships. Ships can open one or the other gate for another ship to pass. There are several challenges which can be be set up by adding one of the spacer pieces into the lock chamber. The challenges from the Design Competition version are: (#1, 100 moves) Move all ships from the starting (blue) channel through the lock (gray channel) and into the red channel. (#2, 126 moves) Add the small spacer at the blue end of the lock, then move all ships from the red channel to the blue channel, except that the guard ships (light red and light blue) will remain in the lock. (#3, 296 moves) Add the large spacer at the red end of the lock (remove the small spacer), then move all ships from the blue channel to the red channel, again leaving the guard ships in the lock. This version of the puzzle has two extra spacers for additional challenges, which add up to 21 possible challenges in total. The puzzle won the first prize in the 2021 IPP Design Competition. A simpler ancestor is CR210. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR243 | Name | Magestic 3 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Goh Pit Khiam, Alfons Eyckmans | Alfons Eyckmans | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 3 | sliders | 64 | ||
Remarks | Variation of CR125 with reduced piece counts and slight modification of the pieces leading to a slighly less regular sequence. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR246 | Name | Stern-Box/Star Box/Sun Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider-pair | |||
Remarks | Goal of this box is to open all four doors at the sides. To achieve this, a hidden N522 puzzle (CR087) in the top part of the box with 4 slider pairs needs to be solved. Unlike for the N522 puzzle, the sliders start in the middle position each. To open a door, the sliders all have to be moved to the other side. However, the order of the doors is also important (first door next to the first slider to move (right), then opposite (left), then the top one, then the bottom one last), which is accomplished by an additional locking mechanism that can be shifted to release the next door after removing a door. After opening each of the doors, the sliders also need to be arranged for the next one, solving the N522 maze on top blindly, which can be confusing. The second picture shows the box partially disassembled and the N522 puzzle visible. Behind the last door, there is a little prize. The name is Star Box (in German or English), and alternatively you can name it after the Sun, whatever you like better (statement from JC when explaining this box). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR242 | Name | Telefon Box | |||
´ | Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider-disc pair | |||
Remarks | Box with a round variant of the series: CR131, CR132, CR087, CR133; The box has a lid with an n-ary sliding piece puzzle, which consists of 4 layers of discs with mazes, and 4 rivets sliding in those. These correspond to what would be the pairs of sliders in the N52 puzzle. At the start, the rivets are in the center start positions marked with circles, and the markings aligned with the rivets. To solve the box, first the 3-ary puzzle needs to be solved, and then a second stage follows with several locks and tools to unlock the main door, in a sequential discovery manner. Variant: CR232 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR245 | Name | Eurofalle 8 / Auf dem Holzweg | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Juergen Reiche | Siebenstein | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 4 | slider | |||
Remarks | Variant of: CR023, Two arity 3 puzzles in one. Goal is to remove the top slider and extract the coin. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR253 | Name | Shoulder To Shoulder | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Shuai Chi | Heping Gao | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [2] | 9 | rings | |||
Remarks | Goal is to free the rope (withtout using the quick-reset feature). The main structure is a classic binary Chinese Rings like puzzle, but with an additional long metal loop through the rings. The vertical rods have been split up into U shapes, and this creates pairs of rings: One of the pair is going through the U below the long loop, the other ring of the pair going through the adjacent U shape above the long loop. The whole puzzle and solution structure is thereby changed into a ternary structure: Rope off the ring, rope through the ring and above the long loop, rope through the ring and below the long loop. In this aspect the puzzle is very similar to CR251 by the same designer/manufacturer from the same release. For the (disentanglement) solution, the rope has to be fed through all the rings that are accessible from above first (those linked to the lower U part), then some form of binary sequence follows from the open end to the closed one: The other rings have to be put onto the rope loop in a binary fashion, and for this the other rings have to be traversed on the way in shorter sequences. Care has to be taken so that the crossing of the rope with the long loop always happens on the inside. This can be achieved by "storing" some extra rope slings on the long loop, and this is possible while the rope runs through an uninterrupted chain of rings from the open end (where the extra slinging happens). The last phase of the solution happens mainly above the long loop and works towards the open end, even though some moves still work below that. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR251 | Name | Shuttle Run | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Shuai Chi | Heping Gao | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 [2] | 11 | rings | |||
Remarks | Goal is to free the rope (withtout using the quick-reset feature). The main structure is two classic binary Chinese Rings chains of rings, just that they have been broken into an upper sequence (still binary) of 6 rings, and there is a lower one, which is segregated by a fixed long metal loop running through all of the rings. This long metal loop introduces additional rope+ring positions, incresing the arity to ternary, rougly: Off the ring/through the ring above the loop/through the ring below the loop. The solve is mainly a binary solve, but made more complicated by this loop, and for more moves the top binary chain interacts with the solution. The two chains are also of reversed orientation: For the first ring on the bottom (near the round loop end), the whole sequence above has to be traversed and is the longest run, while shorter runs on the top chain may appear later in the solution. For solving the bottom chain, a special trick is required: Solving it the usual way will make the loop end up on the wrong side of the long loop after a few moves (and later again), hence additional rope slings need to be stored around the long loop, and this is only possible at the open end, and when the rope traverses through an uninterrupted sequence of bottom rings from the rightmost/first ring. After running the sequence past all bottom rings, the loop will be slung around the last/leftmost vertical bar, and then the whole rope loop will move above the long bar. A few moves through the end of the top chain end will free this end, so that the rope has moved to the next gap between two poles, and the rope is then running through the puzzle only once — like in the beginning, but this time more in the middle. More sequences on the lower chain (padded by those filling sequences on the upper chain) will then lead to the rope coming off the frame. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR272 | Name | Ternary Key | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
3 | 6 | keys | 2 · 3m — 1 + 1 | 487 | |
Remarks | Goal: Disassemble and reassemble. This was the DCD 2024 welcome gift, and is a variation of Oskar's classic Keys puzzle (with 2 keys) once produced by Hanayama and now re-relaeased as a 3 key version. This 6 key version has keys with a simpler shape leading to a ternary pattern. The red key only has two positions, and the move count includes a small initial step and the removal of the pack of keys at the end. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR239 | Name | Switched Maze | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Kirill Grebnev | Kirill Grebnev | 2007 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 2 | pairs of switches | 12 | ||
Remarks | AKA: Life's Maze; goal is with all switches turned clockwise first, insert the runner into the right hole and guide it to the left hole to exit. In this puzzle, the switches can be rotated between two positions, and two of them are grouped as an n-ary piece "pair of switches": one from the lower row in the picture and the one right above next to it. The switches have two positions to accept the runner, and it can move to the other exit channel of this switch, if the switch can turn this way. This leads to a lot of setting and resetting switches during the solution sequence. The lower row of switches creates some binary sequence, but combined with the upper row they demonstrate a longer and more complicated sequence. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR017 | Name | King-CUBI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | panel | 1536 | ||
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR038 | Name | K-419 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Kim Klobucher | Kim Klobucher | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | block | 419 | ||
Remarks | Variants: CR016, CR053 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR016 | Name | MMMDXLVI | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Kim Klobucher | Kim Klobucher | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 9 | block | 3546 | ||
Remarks | Variants: CR038, CR053 | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR124 | Name | Digi Fork Lock | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 5 | slider | |||
Remarks | Enhancement of CR093. The first two pictures show the enhanced version built in 2021, with an improved mechanism and some additional design elements, the other two pictures were taken directly of the IPP34 design competition entry at IPP34. The goal is to remove the long slider in the bottom of the picture. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR173 | Name | Reflection | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 9 | pairs of rings | |||
Remarks | Variation directly created from Chinese Rings by attaching a small connector ring and a second bigger ring to each ring, below the first and around the same vertical rod. There are four states for each ring pair: main bar through lower ring (initial position), through upper ring, through both rings ("double ring"), and off the rings. All those appear in the solution, and the double ring configuration is used to mimic the classic binary chinese rings. The configurations with one ring on the loop appear exactly once in the solution sequence, and their transitions interrupt the binary sequence in a regular pattern and increase the number of moves considerably. This is one of six puzzles in the Chinese 99-ring series. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR185 | Name | xBrain quarternary | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
David Guo | David Guo | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | switch | 0.1 · (—1)m + 0.4 · 4m — 0.5 | 1638 | |
Remarks | This puzzle is based on: CR057. Variants: CR183 and CR184. The second picure shows the goal configuration (all sliders moved to the border), and the third picture a different colour variant in a configuration during the solution. The solution length function for the number of moves f(m) is a solution of the recursion f(m) = 3f(m—1) + 4f(m—2) +3 with f(0)=0 and f(1)=1 derived from solving the puzzle with m pieces. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR179 | Name | No Full Pirouette! | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | module | 61 | ||
Remarks | Starting position is with all green arrows pointing to the green rectangle (right). Goal is to turn all the elements on the modules with the blue arrows pointing right. There are dead ends and it is not always immediately obvious which move should be the next one. The modules have arities (left to right): 4,3,3,2,3,2. The puzzle won a Jury First Prize in the 2017 IPP Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition. The name is based on the following little anecdote relating to the movement of the pieces: The teacher-choreographer of ballet school gathered the students of various classes near the bar and tried to arrange a new divertissement with pirouette as the main element of group dance in a limited area. He ordered to make pirouette one by one to avoid collisions. But it was impossible in limited space to do that. The lesson failed. Somebody suggested asking the math teacher to help. Luckily the mathematics was passing near and was interested in assigned task. After some measuring, he proposed a scenario and exclaimed: One by one spin back and forth and no full pirouette! | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR201 | Name | Sequence Cube | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aleksandr Leontev | Aleksandr Leontev | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 12 | burr sticks | 2m+1—2 | 8190 | |
Remarks | The cube in the picture is a version where only the first piece can be removed, called the "136 Minutes Cube". It comes with an alternate piece, which can be used to raise the number of moves to 12282 moves, calles the "206 Minutes Cube". These names refer to an estimate of solving the respective puzzles. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR199 | Name | Barcode Burr (3D printed, Master Sets) | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Lee Krasnow, Derek Bosch | Lee Krasnow/pacificpuzzleworks | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | burr piece | Θ(4m) | 1233 | |
Remarks | 3D printed reproduction of CR039 by original designer; variant:CR137. Each of the six pieces is assembled from three 3D printed pieces (one silver, two black), and some screws. The second picture and second reference show the add-on to the "Master Set", which contains an additional set of body pieces, so that two full cubes can be built in parallel, an extra bronze colored piece for keeping track of the orientation, and additional inserts, so that the following puzzles can be built: Barcode burr (black, binary, by Lee Krasnow), TernCode Burr (orange, ternary, level 115, by Derek Bosch), QuadCode Burr (yellow, quarternary, level 1233, by Derek Bosch), SuperCode Burr (red, level 81.38.11.11.6, by Lee Krasnow), ExtremeTortureCode Burr (white, red, orange, level 139.6.1.17.6, by Lee Krasnow and Derek Bosch), CoordiCodeBurr (blue, coordinate motion and binary mixed, level 7.5.3.4.1, by Lee Krasnow). The third picture shows the paperwork coming with this puzzle, including some overview, detail cards for each puzzle, an assembly guide, a hint and solution guides, solution (Grey code printed in shades of grey), and diagram plans that can be used to keep track of the maze positions during the solution, for which some small nuts are included as markers. In the beginning of 2019, some more inserts were designed by Lee for his BarcodeBurr, but with a focus on coordinate motion and shorter, less regular solutions, not the long n-ary sequences. This set can be seen in the fourth picture and third reference. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR233 | Name | Square Tower of Hanoi | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jun-ichi Miyoshi, Mineyuki Uyematsu, Hajime Katsumoto | MINE/DYLAN-Kobo | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 10 | disc | 108 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to move the stack from the top left to the bottom right pole following the rules: The usual Tower of Hanoi rules (only one disc to be moved at a time, and no larger disc on a smaller one), moves only horizontally or vertically (not diagonally accross the center). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR234 | Name | Ziggurat | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bram Cohen, Eitan Cher | Bram Cohen, Eitan Cher | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 8 | board | 2m+1—2·m—3 | 493 | |
Remarks | This puzzle comes is a 3D printed stack of boards with pins running in grooves in the next two lower boards and a stand. Goal is to disassemble and re-assemble the puzzle. The boards come in two chiral variants, and the stack of boards alternates between left and right handed boards. Each board has a pin that runs through the next two boards and it is assumed that this the minimum number of boards for creating a meaningful recursive move pattern in the solution sequence. The first picture shows the whole puzzle on a stand, the second the puzzle in its initial configuration with only 6 of the 8 boards used, and the third picture from the bottom of the boards in mid solution somewhere. The puzzle was 3D printed in different colour schemes, and the Design Competition version clearly distinguished between the two chiralities by two different board colours. Reference 3 below is a Burr-Tools file created for the analysis of this puzzle. It shows two main aspects: The n-ary nature allowing to add more and more pieces, and the move counts appearing, and then also a left handed and right handed version of the puzzle. This is one of the few puzzles allowing such two different assemblies. Mazes with more grooves leading to a 4-ary or 6-ary puzzle (etc.) can also be created, so both the arity and the number of pieces can be changed. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR229 | Name | Gears Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 7 | sliders and gear rows | |||
Remarks | Goal is to open the box. For this, first the additional cover needs to be removed and then the n-ary sequence has to be performed so that all gears are in the position allowing the sliders to move freely. Pushing the sliders near the top position, the locking mechanism can be slid sideways and then the lid be taken off. The sliders have 3 positions each (and are therefore ternary), the gears have 4 positions each (therefore quaternary) and the gears are linked in rows while the rows can rotate independently. This puzzle revisits the general maze ideas of some other puzzles by the same designer, but the overall design is a new one. For closing the top lid, the gears and sliders need to be in their initial positions, which is enforced by pins and the structure of the lid. The second picture shows the puzzle in mid solution and the upper lid removed and lying behind the box. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR235 | Name | Jacob's Ladder | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
A.J. Jacobs, Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 55 | pins | 4m—1 | 1298074214633706907132624082305023 | |
Remarks | Goal is to remove the central long helix piece. For this, in an alternating sequence, the pins and the helix have to be rotated. Each pin has four orientations and interacts with the central helix and its upper and lower neighbor. The pins are arranged in a helical pattern around the central helix, and the first one to move is the bottom one (which only has 2 states, while all other pins have 4 states, transitioned via 90° rotation of the pin). The first picture shows the world record puzzle with 55 pins, which has approximately 1033 moves in the solution, and which was presented at MoMath event in February 2022. The second picture shows a close-up of the top of the puzzle, the third some details of the pins. The fourth picture shows a smaller prototype with 5 pieces and 1023 moves. Reference [1] below is Oskar's presentation of the puzzle demonstrating it in detail and [2] is a detailed post on the Twistypuzzles forum with many pictures and behind the scenes pictures *some of them here with permission. | ||||
References | [1], [2], reference section [19] | ||||
CR231 | Name | Panex Galaxy | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2021 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | slider | |||
Remarks | Variant: CR035. Goal is to slide the pieces to exchange the silver and gold pieces. The second picture shows the wooden mass produced version (by manufacturer Project Genius) from 2022. Here, colours have been replaced by chess piece icons (with some hieroglyph elements included). In this version, the arrangement of the channels was changed, so that the bronze pieces now occupy the longer channel. This changes the solution sequence and makes it possible to solve the goal without moving any of the bronze pieces. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR256 | Name | Zigguflat | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bram Cohen, Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | board | 2m+1—2·m—3 | 113 | |
Remarks | Goal: Disassemble and re-assemble again. Flat version of CR234 with one basical piece shape only (except for the borders). The puzzle consists of 6 pieces, but can be assembled in different ways with the same pieces: Removing green and yellow, a square version of 4 pieces (21 moves for full disassembly). By removing green or yellow, and turning purpple and blue over, in a rectangular version of 5 pieces (51 moves), and also a 3 piece version with red, orange, and yellow (ignoring the closed borders, 7 moves). With multiple copies of the puzzle, more inner pieces (yellow, green) can be added for higher move count, like an 8 piece version at 493 moves or a 10 piece version at 2025 moves. This is the first n-ary interlocking puzzle that is flat without a frame. This puzzle was used as DCD42 welcome gift in October 2023. The other two pictures show versions with 4 and 8 pieces as examples what can be built with the pieces as well. The fourth picture shows the mass produced version by Recent Toys. | ||||
References | [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] | ||||
CR260 | Name | MiBinity I | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Michel van Ipenburg | Jack Krijnen | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 [6] | 3 | Sliding plates | 25 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to slide the pieces until they are apart. The central piece serves as a frame pieces with mazes on both sides, and the two other pieces are identical and have two dowels each, one piece running in the front maze, the other running in the back one. The two dowels run in paralell mazes added for stability, and the back maze is oriented vertically and binary. The front maze features two copies of a binary maze (one for each dowel). As the left dowel (as seen on the picture) first traverses its own binary maze, and then the one for the right dowel, this leads to four positions (plus two additional ones for the initial locking position and the "slide out" position. The back maze is binary (with two extra positions as before) and oriented in a vertical manner. Hence this can be considered as a mixed-base puzzle with binary and quaternary mazes. When the first piece (longer maze) slides out, the other slider is in the initial position and afterwards needs to traverse its maze fully to be extracted. The middle frame piece will always perform moves orthogonally to the two identical pieces (i.e. move up/down). With the current arrangement of the pieces, the number of dowels/mazes and also bends in the mazes could be increased leading to other arities/numbers of states for each piece. Similar mazes can be seen in the puzzle CR142. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR262 | Name | Zigguchain | |||
[1] [2] [3] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bram Cohen, Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | chain link ring | 2m+2—m—7 | 243 | |
Remarks | Goal: Disassemble and re-assemble again. This is a chain version in the Ziggurat line of puzzles. Moves are linking/unlinking rings via the notches, and rotational moves of a ring (rotating until the move is blocked). The puzzle consists of 6 identical ring pieces which are only different in colours as shown in the second picture. Each ring has a little knob to run in the maze of the neighbour ring. The rings are held in place and the knob inside the groove by the available space of each ring being filled by the two neighbour rings. The third picture shows the initial arrangement for the assembly, after each ring has been inserted and rotated by 180°, and during the solution to be rotated until the 270° mark. Note how the notches in the rings all point into the same direction (towards the purple end in the picture). While each ring can be added in two orientations to the existing chain, only one will work, which allows the knob to run into the groove. All rings will now need to be rotated until their notches point to the sides, in a helix like pattern, as shown in the first picture. The fourth picture shows an intermediate configuration somewhere in the solution sequence. The whole puzzle is quite wobbly initially (as to be expected from a chain), but in the fully assembled state it is quite stable and the puzzle can be picked up on any of the rings and will retain the shape. Of course, this only holds for arrangements with more than 2 rings, as 2 rings don't have the stabilizing mechanism via the available space inside rings. During the solve, a configuration with a notch pointing towards the neighbor ring will be a bit unstable as the little knob can now exit the groove and slide into the notch a bit, but with proper handling solving works fine. The fourth picture and reference [2] below show a 12 piece version, for which the formula provides a count of 16365 moves. | ||||
References | [1] [2] [3] | ||||
CR264 | Name | Zigguhooked | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | disks | 2m+2—3·m—3 | 235 | |
Remarks | Goal: Rotate the discs so that they end up in the furthest anti-clockwise orientation, which unhooks the purple one from the tray blocker protusion and the board with the discs can be slid out from the tray. This is a 2D modification of the puzzle CR261 where the two functional layers of the discs have been replaced by a mechanism of two hooks per disc, which hook into gaps of the next disc. Here, an obvious similarity with the structure of CR256. Unlike the Ziggutwist, the movements in this puzzle are only subtle moves by a slight turn each, and they are shown in the second picture. An alternate version with the discs arranged in a stair shape can be seen in the video linked below. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR265 | Name | Ziggutrees | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | round trees | |||
Remarks | Goal: Rotate all trees so that the arrows are pointing to the opposite direction from the starting configuration, and then slide the board with the trees (screwed on) out from the tray. Similarly to CR263, this is achieved by an interaction by the bottom part of the purple piece (only in this case) and a cut-out in the frame. Here, the arrangement of the pieces has been changed into two lines that occur in a zig-zag pattern. The order of the piece to rotate is still the same, shown by the colours, but in this case each piece interacts with two neighbors in each direction, e.g. the yellow piece interacts with red and orange on one side, and on the other side it interacts with green and blue. For each piece, both earlier neighbors need to be arranged correctly to allow the current piece to rotate. The pieces come in two sets of 3 identical tree pieces, 3 left-handed, and 3 (mirror imaged) right-handed ones. While the other trees all make use of all 4 possible orientations during the solution, the red and orange trees only make use of their two extreme orientations. However, it is possible to rotate them to the other positions as well and then lock them with their neighbors, leading to dead end configurations. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR261 | Name | Ziggutwist | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | disks | 2m+2—3·m—4 | 234 | |
Remarks | Goal: Rotate all disks so that the arrows are pointing in a 135° angle away from the initial position along the main axis of the puzzle (shown in second picture). While the puzzle has some resemblance with Spin-Out or Crazy Elephant Dance, this one does not feature a sliding frame to synchronize the disks. Instead only a local interaction between neighboring pieces is achieved here, which is similar to the other Ziggu* puzzles, and also the ternary puzzle inside CR195. However, the mechanism in the Ziggutwist puzzle is based on indentations in the disks, a bit similar to Spin-Out. Here, the disks have two layers with a different indentation arrangement (identical except for the first and last one). The third picture shows the possible orientation of the disks in an example configuration, and the interaction between neighbors is also visible in some places, as are some of the indentations on the lower layer as well. The longer indentations allow the respective disk to rotate between two orientations, while the shorter ones are used to enable a neigbor disk's rotation. Not all possible configurations occur in an optimal solution sequence. The discs are mounted to the board using screws and a second set of screws restrict the rotation of the disks to 135°. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR263 | Name | Ziggutwist Too | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | disks | 2m+2—2·m—4 | 240 | |
Remarks | Goal: Rotate all disks so that the arrows are pointing in a 135° angle away from the initial position along the main axis of the puzzle (shown in second picture) and then slide them out from the puzzle. This is a minor modification of the puzzle CR261 where the discs still have the same two functional layers, but the pieces have now been extended so that they lock into a tray provided, instead of screwing to a board. They can be slid in the 135° position and are locked in the others. As all pieces are identical, all possible permuations of colours can be set up here. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR269 | Name | Ziggustretch / Screwy-Louie | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer, Zachary Zieper | Oskar van Deventer | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 [8] | 6 | tubes | 2m+1+3·m—8 | 138 | |
Remarks | Goal: disassemble and then reassemble. This is a variation of the other Ziggu puzzles, and in this case the maze allows 4 different positions of each piece in the fully assembled state, where positions are indicated by the width of the gaps. In the second picture, both the internal mazes for the small pegs running in them can be seen, one S shaped maze, and a straight groove. The two pegs of each piece run in the straight groove of the next tube, and in the S shaped maze of the next piece after that, hence directly interacting with the two next pieces. Rotational moves will translate to a screwing motion, extending or shortening the gaps. When the puzzle is fully extended, it can be disassembled starting at the purple end, and each piece will then traverse the S shaped maze of the neighbor once more, so each piece has 8 positions in reality. Those last steps can be skipped by tilting the piece, but have been included in the solution length formula and total move count. As shown in the picture, there are two main flavors of pieces: Left handed and right handed pieces. These occur in an alternating fashion in the puzzle and additionally there are two modified end pieces (red and purple) without pegs or maze respectively. As the others are identical pairs, these could be used to build arbitrary large puzzles from these pieces. Pictures 3 and 4 show the Screwy-Louie puzzle, the smaller IPP41 Exchange puzzle version. The end pieces have front and back of a dachshund attached as 3D print, based on a 3D scan of Zachary's dog Louie. The goal is to dissassemble and reassemble, and also assemble into a 2 and a 4 piece dog. These shorter assemblies automatically line up the four legs on the same side as they should be. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR270 | Name | Rainbow Drawers | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Bram Cohen | Puzzleguy | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
4 | 6 | board | 2m+1—2·m—3 | 113 | |
Remarks | This puzzle comes is a 3D printed stack of boards with rails running in grooves in the next higher board and a pin running in the second next higher board. Goal is to disassemble and re-assemble the puzzle. This puzzle is a cuboidal variant of Ziggurat CR234 The boards come in two chiral variants, and the stack of boards alternates between left and right handed boards. The pictures show the assembled puzzle of 6 boards (but a higher or lower number of boards can easily be used), the puzzle mid-solution, and then the two flavors of boards, shown from top and bottom. This puzzle was Bram's Exchange puzzle for IPP41. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR047 | Name | Cross and Crown | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Louis S. Burbank | 1913 | ||||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | rivet | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR120, CR121, CR158 | ||||
References | [1] (US Patent 1071874), [2] | ||||
CR033 | Name | Mysterians | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Oskar van Deventer | George Miller | 2002 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 3 | plate | 5m—1 | 124 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1], [2], [3] | ||||
CR051 | Name | Kugellager | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | ball | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR027, CR028 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR001 | Name | Void Lock | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2009 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 3 | slider | 2·5m | 250 | |
Remarks | AKA: Kleines dickes Schloss; the second variant shown in picture and references is a metal version released in 2018 by Constantin | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR060 | Name | Die Welle | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 3 | ball | 5m—1 | 124 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR027 | Name | Kugellager 8 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | ball | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Smaller Version and upside-down to original Kugellager; AKA: Kugellager 2; Variants: CR028, CR051 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR079 | Name | Frequency Doubler 1 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Tom Lensch | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | slider | 4·(m2+2·m—1) | 28 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR080, CR090 older design, but first made in this version in 2012 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR080 | Name | Frequency Doubler 2 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Tom Lensch | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 6 | slider | 4·(m2+2·m—1) | 56 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR079, CR090 older design, but first made in this version in 2012 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR090 | Name | Frequency Doubler 3 | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Oskar van Deventer | Tom Lensch | 2012 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 8 | slider | 4·(m2+2·m—1) | 92 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR079, CR080, second picture shows solved state, older design, but first made in this version in 2012 | ||||
References | |||||
CR120 | Name | Cross and Crown 2013 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Louis S. Burbank | Robrecht Louage | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | rivet | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Reproduction based on the original patent; Variants: CR047, CR121, CR158 | ||||
References | [1], [2] (US Patent 1071874) | ||||
CR136 | Name | Power Tower (mixed base — variable stage) | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jack Krijnen, Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 [7] | 6 | burr sticks | 2·(nm—1)/(n—1)—m | 7806 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR126, CR167; This Power Tower is a whole set with a block hosting up to 6 stages, a blocker piece to set the number of stages (between 3 and 5, 6 stages without blocker), and a set of pieces for each of the two orientations (two different woods). The pieces come in binary, ternary, and quaternary shape and can be combined arbitrarily, leading to mixed (or uniform) base sequences, which can be quite confusing. There are 1080 different possibilities, with the level varying from 11 to 2724. The solution length is for a uniform n-ary configuration with m pieces. Addition: This now includes an extension set of quinary pieces. The overall entry now contains these pieces and there are now solutions possible up to level 7806.The second picture shows this extension set. | ||||
References | [1], reference section [12] | ||||
CR121 | Name | Cross and Crown 7 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Louis S. Burbank, Michel van Ipenburg | Robrecht Louage | 2014 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | rivet | 2·7m | 4802 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR047, CR120, CR158 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR200 | Name | Visible 5-Ary Drawer (Quinary) | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Hiroshi Iwahara | Hiroshi Iwahara | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 3 | drawers and plates | 2 · 5m—1+1 | 51 | |
Remarks | A series of boxes with arity 2, 3, 4, and 5 was built and this is the highest arity one. All boxes have 3 drawers and two plates for the top mechanism, and a main drawer to open after the sequence has been completed. The models differ in their acrylic plates, which are engraved with a label stating their arity. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR197 | Name | Quadrupled Quadlooplet | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | loop | 3m | 81 | |
Remarks | This puzzle contains multiple challenges, i.e. starting configurations of the loop: adjacent compartments or opposite compartments. The whole puzzle consists of four modules/sectors with four loops each. During the solution sequence, the loop bend will traverse through multiple sectors/modules. The solution works in several stages: First, remove one of the bends from the puzzle (steps 1 to 41), and then only one bend will be caught in the puzzle center. Then in the second stage, remove the other bend, which may be accomplished in several ways. Move the free bend into the puzzle via a different path so that both bends meet at the end and the rope can be pulled out, or remove the second bend like the first one before. The configuration vector will denote the position of the rope (bend) in the compartments defined by the layers of loops, counting them from innermost to outermost.During the solution, the rope will go through at most one of them at each time, leading to configurations of 0 to 4 (number of sectors/modules). The solution does not make use of all combinations, leading to a ternary solution path length. Other puzzles from the same series: CR196, CR198 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR215 | Name | White Bow-Tie | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Aleksandr Leontev | Aleksandr Leontev | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | blocks | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR207. This puzzle is a 2-in-1 puzzle with two challenges, each with the same 4 blocks and two different mazes. One set of mazes (the initial configuration of the puzzle) starts from the top and is ternary, with a total of 162 moves, and the other starts from the other side with the 5-ary maze. Aside from the black and white colour, the four blocks have each one pin and seem to be identical. Goal is to slide the blocks through the maze until they can be extracted. Mixing 3-ary and 5-ary mazes does not seem to work, as the 3-ary mazes are not wide enough to allow for the 5-ary transitions. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR205 | Name | Ternary / Quinary Cube | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Aleksandr Leontev | Johan Heyns | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | block | 1251§‡ | ||
Remarks | Objective of this puzzle is to move the four blocks on the sides and the central maze block with the two maze panels in a way that the four blocks on the side can all be removed. The puzzle comes initially in a ternary configuration, and with the allen wrench included (in the wooden storage plate), it can be disassembled partially, the maze plates can then be rotated to the other side and after reassmbling, the initial ternary 170 move solutions becomes quinary with 1257 moves. Jack Krijnen pointed out that also mixed base setups are possible, with 463 and 470 moves solutions. The second picture shows the puzzle partially disassembled and also somme of the ternary and quinary mazes included. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR213 | Name | Vertical | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Aleksandr Leontev | Aleksandr Leontev | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 6 | sliders | 24 (5m—2) —1 ‡ | 14999‡ | |
Remarks | Variants: CR125, CR139, and CR176. This is is a round version of the Num Lock puzzle. The goal is to remove all (white) pieces from the black frame. The pictures show the puzzle in the start configuration, some pictures from the beginning of the solution, and then disassembled with all pieces. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR221 | Name | Void Box | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 3 | slider | 2·5m | 250 | |
Remarks | Goal is to open the box. This is a box with an internal mechanism that (presumably) looks like CR001 and features the same sequence. The three knobs on the left side perform a quinary sequence together with the sliders on the front and back long sides. After the sequence is completed, the box can be opened by pulling out the knob on the right side. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR240 | Name | Lager Lock | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | ball | 2·5m | 1250 | |
Remarks | Based on: CR051. The goal is similar to the Kugellager: traversing all 4 balls to the bottom of the maze, then pull the slider to the end an swing the shackle open. This puzzle has two mazes/balls on each side, which are running on a common slider which is pulled/pushed as one piece. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR244 | Name | Tvnary | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Tamás Vanyó | Rex Roxano Perez | 2022 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
5 | 4 | Slider | 1003 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to disassemble this interlocking puzzle. The puzzle is a combination of an n-ary puzzle and a maze puzzle, in which the n-ary maze has been modified a bit to increase the number of moves and make the structure of the solution less regular and much more challenging to solve. The second picture shows one side of the central slider with two of the mazes, and there are two others (and different ones) on the back side. The overall structure of the solution is 5-ary, as can also be seen from the maze. On a higher abstraction level, each of the 4 sliders has 5 main positions, which consists of 2 (sometimes 3) adjacent positions in some of the mazes. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR037 | Name | Lock 250+ | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
6 | 4 | slider | Θ( 5m—1 ) | 310 | |
Remarks | Lowest (4th) ring piece has only 2 position and acts as slider, AKA: Big Sliding Lock, Schloss 250+; Variant: CR065 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR166 | Name | Cast Infinity | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Vesa Timonen | Hanayama | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
6 | 2 | disc | |||
Remarks | Two interlocking discs which can rotate between six positions and can move up and down. Objective is to remove the discs. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR167 | Name | Merry-go-round | |||
[1] [2] [3] [4] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jack Krijnen, Goh Pit Khiam | Jack Krijnen | 2016 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
6 [8] | 6 | burr sticks | 13432 | ||
Remarks | Variants: CR126, CR136; This puzzle is a further developed variant of the original Power Tower, and as such it also comes as a whole set of pieces. With these pieces coming as 2-ary, 3-ary, 4-ary, 5-ary, and 6-ary (in the version shown in the pictures), different configurations can be created. There is a special binary piece as a key piece that is part of all configurations as top piece. Therefore, there are 6 slots and 5 of each piece arity (only 2 for 6-ary). Reducing the massive block to a slim tower allows pieces of different length and theoretically in arbitary arity without changing the central tower or other pieces. In the pictures, different examples are shown: 3 binary pieces (solved), 6 binary pieces (solved), one of each kind (mid-solution). While the Power Tower has pairs of mirror-symmetric pieces, here all pieces of same arity are the same and have to be entered in a helical pattern. While the sequences for even and odd arity pieces differ especially at the beginning, they are the same in this puzzle. Goal is to choose a configuration, enter the pieces into the tower, and slide them until they are all flush with the tower side on one end. The maximum number of moves for the puzzle in the picture is 13432, with pieces: (2*, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR252 | Name | Salva | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Rex Roxano Perez | Rex Roxano Perez | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
6 | 2 | slider | 71 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to free the Salva dog coin from the cage. The puzzle is a combination of a 6-ary maze puzzle and a sequential discovery puzzle that offers an additional prize. The 6-ary sequence occurs in two stages, and the two thin sliders interact with two different areas of the large maze board. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR249 | Name | Slidebox | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Stephan Baumegger | Stephan Baumegger | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
6 | 6 | sliding panel | 353 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to disassemble the box into the 6 plates and 12 frame sticks. 5 of the plates have a brass pin running in grooves in the neigboring plate, and these grooves have different shapes and create mixed-base mazes of arity 6 and lower. After the first plate has been extracted, the disassembly of the stick frame starts. This is based on an idea first presented in CR160 and later shown in puzzles with fixed and disassemblable frame. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR028 | Name | Kugellager 7 | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2010 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 4 | rivet | 2·7m | 4802 | |
Remarks | Variants: CR027, CR051 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR180 | Name | MiSenary Puzzle Box | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Michel van Ipenburg | Michel van Ipenburg | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 2 | slider | Θ( 7m ) | ||
Remarks | The object is to open the box, by tilting it to the left and right, while pulling/pushing the lid. The puzzle was entered into the 2017 IPP Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition. | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR198 | Name | Entwined Loop Lattice | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Namick Salakhov | Namick Salakhov | 2018 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 4 | loop | Θ( 3m ) | 80 | |
Remarks | This is actually a section of an infinite puzzle: The puzzle could be extended infinitely to the right or left. If this structure is closed as a loop, this will lead to something like CR197. Therefore, the arity is hard to determine. There are six loops and the configuration off the loop for each pole/sector, so 7-ary might be a good description. However, the solution only makes use of 4 of the poles (and the rope off the puzzle), so it is more 5-ary, and the actual solution length is 3-ary. For the solution the two bends of the rope start in the compartments denoted by red triangles, and each bend will be maneuvered off the puzzle separately, with 40 moves each. In the IPP38 Design Competition it participated as part of "Loopy Lattice Puzzles"; other puzzles from the same series: CR196, CR197 | ||||
References | [1], [2] | ||||
CR209 | Name | Septenary Cube | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Aleksandr Leontev | Johan Heyns | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 4 | board | 4802§‡ | ||
Remarks | Objective of this puzzle is to remove the four acrylic boards by moving the pin connected to the central wooden block through the mazes, and then to find and open the secret compartment. This puzzle has the same maze structure like a Kugellager 7, just divided over the 4 pieces. In the end position. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR250 | Name | Devil | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Stephan Baumegger | Stephan Baumegger | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 6 | sliding panel | 663 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the 6 plates of this interlocking box. All the plates have a wooden pin running in grooves in the neigboring plate (one plate without groove), and these grooves have different shapes and create mixed-base mazes of arity 7 and lower. Not only have the mazes different number of levels/arity, but also different lengths, which influences the interaction with the neighbors and makes the solve more challenging. Additionally, there are some initial moves required before the long n-ary sequence starts. Missing these moves will lead to a sequence ultimately ending up in a dead end situation. The panels have some engraving of the mazes on the outside to serve as a map for solving, and there are holes in the frame sides to have a (partial) look at these engravings. At the beginning the plates are well aligned by each other, but after a while some of the plates are partially extracted and don't provide this alignment guidance to their neighbors. Not taking care of the alignment in these situations can lead to slight tilting of the plates and may also cause skipping of moves. This puzzle was inspired by puzles like CR174. Variant: CR258 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR268 | Name | Tower | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Stephan Baumegger | Stephan Baumegger | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
7 | 5 | Maze board | Θ( 7m ) | 6746 | |
Remarks | Goal is to remove the maze boards from the frame. The burr level shows the number of moves required to remove each: 5642.939.155.8. All but the bottom boards have a wooden dovel running in the maze of the board below it. The top board does not have any labyrinth engraved, while the second board has a somewhat complicated and irregular labyrinth included, with several sections of similar moves, and with the final channels only being used for extracting the first piece, not before. The other three boards all have a very similar labyrinth (see second picture). The boards have two main directions, with the orientation differing by 90° in an alternating pattern, and the frame has some supporting structures with cut-outs (and 1 dovel) making the solution unique. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR176 | Name | Num Lock (mixed bases) | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Goh Pit Khiam | Johan Heyns | 2017 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
9 | 9 | sliders | 4 n0··· nm—1(nm+1) —1 ‡ | 50009399‡ | |
Remarks | Variants: CR125 and CR139. The first piece shows the puzzle on the stand with 9 sliders entered and one of each arity 3, 5, 7, and 9 coming with the set, and some sheets listing number of moves for certain configurations. Those sheets are based on above formula involving the base/arity nm of the leftmost piece and the product n0··· nm—1 of the arities of the other pieces, regardless of their order. The second picture shows the puzzle with 9 sliders and all 16 knobs in two rows. The third picture shows all pieces of the set, including the leftmost pieces (called "starting block") for each arity, and the common piece. There are following piece counts: 3-ary: 7+1 (1 block attached), 5-ary: 4+1 (2 blocks), 7-ary: 3+1 (3 blocks), 9-ary: 3+1 (1 blocks), 1 common piece, 16 knobs. The reset and piece number selection mechanism has not been shown in the pictures, as finding this is an extra puzzle posed by Johan. | ||||
References | [1], reference section [12] | ||||
CR207 | Name | Black Bow-Tie | |||
[1] [2] [3] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Aleksandr Leontev | Aleksandr Leontev | 2019 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
9 | 4 | blocks | 2·9m | 13122 | |
Remarks | Variant: CR215. The puzzle consists of a sleeve with 4 mazes, and 4 block pieces with the goal to remove these 4 block pieces. The maze and sequence is inspired by the Kugellager puzzles, and this could be called a 9-ary Kugellager. During the solve, the maze can only be seen partially (from the bottom, like in the third pictures), and it is a partially blind solve (while the piece positions can be seen clearly). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR258 | Name | O.M.G | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Stephan Baumegger | Stephan Baumegger | 2023 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
9 | 6 | sliding panel | 1719 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the panels by sliding them through the solution, with many moves for the first and subsequent panels (level 1719.321.61). This is a larger variant of the Devil (see below) with more moves by higher arity. The panels have each a wooden peg running in a neigbouring panel's groove, and the grooves are cut in a zig-zag-shape. Like for the Devil, the start of the solution requires some higher panels to move first (which was added to reach a unique solution), otherwise a dead end is reached when that respective panel should move after many moves. While the panels have the groove for the mechanism engraved on the inner side, an outline of the groove was engraved for the puzzler to have some orientation about the actual maze layout inside, which is also shown in the second picture. The panels also have different exit points, which lead to the higher level for the 2nd and 3rd panels. After the removal of the 1st panel, the 3rd panel has only seen half of rhe groove before, and the other half will be used to increase the level for the subsequent panels. Variant: CR250 | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR259 | Name | Jellyfish | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Stephan Baumegger | Stephan Baumegger | 2024 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
9 | 4 | sliding panel | 687 | ||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the panels by sliding them through the solution, with the handlebar (with the puzzle name engraved) moving through the grooves of the panels. The panels have partially a regular n-ary structure, but also some more irregular structure as well which can be seen in the second picture. The overall solution is still the n-ary one, but the mazes allow for some shortcuts on one hand, and also some dead ends leading to a possible longer solve on the other hand. The panes are slid through the main frame with the handlebar and the mazes are mostly visible from the sides, which makes this not a blind solve. Care has to be taken about the length of the regular grooves to be able to progress with some panels. Because of this, some panels need to be traversed completely again and again between moves of the other panels, a typical n-ary solution property. The first two panels to be extracted can be removed simlutaneously, the others require another short sequence and then also leave the frame simultaneously. The 4th panel to move has a mainly regular maze in the upper part, and then a small orthorgonal one in the bottom (the left panel in the second picture). This leads to an interesting change of the sequence for the last part of the solution sequence. | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR216 | Name | Jack's Ladder | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
DDK | Aaron (Yulong) Wang | 2020 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
10 | 2 | group of rings | |||
Remarks | Goal is to remove the rope loop with the ball from the frame. The ball is too wide to fit through the main handlebar loop, separating the puzzle in an upper and lower half. Each group of rings consists of a U bend in the zig zag part of the frame, and three rings: left, right, bottom. The bottom ring controls access to the left ring. Each group has the following states (part of the solution sequence, ignoring others): the rope off the group, through the bottom ring only, through the left ring only, through left and right rings, through left and bottom rings. For each ring there is only one orientation for the rope to go through it, so the total number of states of the group is 5 different possibilities, and then multiplied by the cases: rope above the main handlebar loop, and below (and this as transition for each of the groups, possibly with multiple such transitions along the handlebar). Thus, these are 5·2=10 sttes, leading to the arity of 10. There is an additional single ring controlling the right hand end of the two ends of the frame (zig-zag part, handlebar loop). | ||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR086 | Name | Seestern | |||
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | |||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
11 | 3 | Layers | 11m—1 | 1330 | |
Remarks | |||||
References | [1] | ||||
CR065 | Name | Generation Lock | |||
[1] [2] |
Designer | Manufacturer | Year | ||
Jean-Claude Constantin | Jean-Claude Constantin | 2013 | |||
Arity | No of pieces | Piece type | Solution length function | Number of moves | |
15 | 8 | slider | 2·15m—1 | 341718750 | |
Remarks | second picture shows comparison with CR037; Variant: CR037 | ||||
References | [1] [2] | ||||