Panic Attack

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The Panic Attack puzzle is one of many puzzles produced by PuzzleMaster. The original design was made by Kirill Grebnev in 2006 and was entered in the 26th IPP (International Puzzle Party) competition, at the time by the name of Love Secret.

The puzzle looks very simple, contrary to many other wire puzzles, that look scary and complex right from the start. Nevertheless, its looks are deceiving, as it can prove to be frustratingly difficult to solve. The goal is also very simple: you try to remove the orange string from the heart-shaped frame, without breaking or use too much force on the string or the frame itself. 

The description from the designer is very interesting and clever. According to him, you have something in your heart, may be a bad feeling, a sin or even a vice and your objective is to remove it from your heart. The name he had originally for the puzzle was Love Secret, but decided later to change it to Clear Heart, as in a heart free from bad things.

The level of difficulty in PuzzleMaster's scale is an 8 out of 10, and I think it fits perfectly with its complexity, as far as solving goes. I had several tries with more than 10 minutes each and I couldn't come close to a solution. I found myself trying the same approach each time, even though I struggled to look at it from another angle to see what could be done differently to reach a resolution. I even thought at times that the solution was behing some kind of a knot trick, like those you see in Marine Knots. Finally, in my last attempt, which by the way was just over a minute, I freed the string from the heart with ease. I don't know what changed, but I guess it had something to do with the fact that I haven't touched it in more than a week, and when I returned to it for another session with a fresh mind, I had it solved in no time. Do you want to know the trick? - If no, don't look at the picture below and don't read the rest of this paragraph: the key is to move the string to the middle of the heart (around the two parallel vertical wires) and then stretch it to one of the ends of the horizontal oval shape in the middle. Now just pass it around the rest of the oval and you should see it pop right out of the heart. Make the same thing, but backwards to return the string to its original position.

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The Panic Attack is a perfect puzzle, even for those who are not crazy about wire puzzles, like me. It has a simple design, easy to comprehend and has a great level of difficulty to keep you guessing about the solution for quite a while. If you find the solution for yourself, you'll see it has that rewarding feeling and the surprise factor.

You can find the Panic Attack at PuzzleMaster for CAD $9.95

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