(Click to Enlarge)

The Cast Slider looks like it could be one of those sliding lock devices, which at first glance doesn't look like anything special... Until you take a closer look. The movement is surprisingly satisfying, like a fidget toy. You can keep playing with this indefinitely, even if you don't plan on solving it.

(Click to Enlarge)

Now, regarding Hanayama difficulty rating, it's yet again way off the mark. Level 3/6 it is not. It took me quite a while to figure out the solution for this one, and it was basically a fluke, so to speak. This is at least a level 4/6. As you fiddle with the puzzle, certain movements you do are more a reflection of your fidgeting and less a product of your logic reasoning. After a couple of follow up tries I was able to understand how exactly the solution works and it is indeed quite fascinating. It's hidden in plain sight and almost as obvious as the actual simple movement of the puzzle.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Cast Slider is in my opinion one of the best Hanayama puzzles of the last 5 years. It's no wonder that it took the Top 10 Vote Getter award at this year's IPP (International Puzzle Party). The simple but elegant solution and the great movement of the puzzle combines for a wonderful puzzling experience. Vesa, you did it again!

Availability: You can get a copy of the Cast Slider at PuzzleMaster. Check out other interesting puzzles in the Cast family.

It's not everyday you review a puzzle from outer space. If you don't believe aliens exist, wait until you try to figure out how to understand this unknown technology and solve it. The Cast UFO by Vesa Timonen promises to keep you guessing for quite a while...

The design is really attractive, as it made in the shape of an UFO, with six pieces forming a complex structure that will surely be a test to your skills. The silver color adds to the mystery, but also gives this extra shiny and reflective appearance. It's a really beautifully made puzzle.

The pieces in the center sort of remind me of the Cast Marble mechanism, where you could rotate the sphere freely, but there was only one way to align the pieces so that they would be removed. However, the Cast UFO has four pieces in the middle, and aligning them seems to quite frustrating. Besides having to guess the correct alignment, you also need some dexterity, because it's very easy to move the pieces accidentally. It's like trying to move with suit shoes on an ice skating rink.

The two main pieces can and will be separated, but only after you solved the problem with the pieces in the center. This mechanism could most certainly be used as a lock against burglars.

The difficulty is rated by Hanayama as a level 4/6, but since I'm yet to solve it, I'm most inclined to say it feels more like a level 5/6. I know it's a matter of time, and that by continuing to try different combinations with the pieces, I'll eventually solve it. But the guessing work is there, and that's what makes the puzzle so difficult and frustrating.

Closing Comments:

Design-wise, the Cast UFO is among the best Hanayama Cast puzzles. The mechanism feels a bit too loose and relies too much on dexterity and trial and error, and not very much on logic, as I am accustomed to see in other Cast puzzles.

Availability: To find a copy of the Cast UFO or any other Cast Puzzle, stop by PuzzleMaster.

Sometimes, the simpler things are the best and the most beautiful - That's exactly what I feel about Vesa Timonen's Symmetrick. Made with only two similar wooden pieces - Emphasis on similar, not identical - solving this puzzle will be anything but simple. The Symmetrick might be one of Vesa's greatest achievements in puzzle design, and already owning many of his incredible puzzles, that says a lot about this one.

The Symmetrick was Tomas Lindén's Exchange Puzzle at the 32nd IPP in Washington D.C., held in 2012. These two designers come from Finland and have collaborated in the past in what I consider one of the hardest puzzles I ever tried to solve, the Double Squared - Yes, I gave up on it and had to look up the solution.

The goal of the puzzle, like its design, it's as simple as it can be: You are asked to make a symmetric shape using the two pieces. The only rule you're told is that both pieces need to be flat on the table, not overlapping or using some kind of trick - It's that simple. Not like the Double Squared - Yes, I'm still pissed about that sneaky solution...

Now, I've had this puzzle probably for about a year - No, it didn't take me that long to solve it. The reason it took me so long to pick it up and try to solve it was exactly for the reasons stated above...that fiendish puzzle... I was just afraid it was going to take forever, again, to solve it like the other one. So, I was always delaying its review until I had the courage to tackle it and be done with it. That happened this week.

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. At first, it was a bit difficult. The fact that both pieces have slightly different shapes is a little confusing, to say the least. My initial efforts were all unsuccessful as I merely joined the pieces at obvious spots. I knew the symmetrical shape would be something much more complex than a simple rectangle or trapezium or something. So, after 15 or 20 minutes I started with another strategy. This might contain minor spoilers: with the pieces joined at a given edge I'd started sliding the pieces slowly along that edge and see if I could spot any symmetrical shape or something closely resembling one. It took me probably another 5 or 10 minutes, but I finally discovered the solution. All I can say is that, you won't probably recognize it as a symmetrical shape right away, but don't dismiss it immediately. To my knowledge, only one line of symmetry is possible on the solution. Take some time to analyse the shapes you'll be creating and you'll eventually find it. I'm just glad it didn't take me forever.

Solution: This time, I won't publish here the solution, not even behind a button click. I believe you need to figure this one on your own and I don't want you to give up that easily. I will, however, send you a picture of the solution on request, but only if you can prove you're beyond frustrated...

Closing Comments:

Vesa's Symmetrick puzzle is superb, incredible and anything in between. It's definitely a hard puzzle, but not frustratingly hard. I know that some people will still find it frustrating. I know I was intimidated by it, and it's the designer's fault for designing some of the hardest puzzles around, but the Symmetrick is just not one of them. The solution is very elegant and I'm sure you'll love it as well.

Availability: You can get a copy of the Symmetrick puzzle at Sloyd for just €7.

Update: My puzzle friend Dimiter came up with a clever analysis for the Symmetrick puzzle and was able to solve it without resorting to simple trial and error. You can get a clue with the picture below left. Notice the lines marked denoting two different sized triangles. Dimiter also came up with a new puzzle, based on the same principle as the Symmetrick, but instead of using two pieces, you now have to make a symmetric shape with three pieces. See picture below on the right. Let me know in the comments or e-mail me if you can solve it.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Cylinder is presented in a chrome color and consists of two rings that rotate freely in 360º. Within the rings are three apparently similar pieces that don't appear to be affected by the rotation of the disks. These pieces don't move up or down, and the rings can't be separated either. With a little persistence, however, you'll see that the pieces can actually be moved.

That's when the Hanayama hint in the puzzle's description comes in handy. This is a quote from the actual description: "go about it as if you were cracking open a safe". That's also why I mentioned this is unlike Hanayama. They don't usually give out hints for solving their puzzles, so I was a bit surprised by it. Following this important piece of information I proceeded slowly by rotating one of the disks until I saw something that could indicate I was on the right path. I'm not sure how many complete turns I made with the ring, but it took me a while to finally see some progress.

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Now, all I had to do was putting the puzzle back together again. You'd think that'd be easy after seeing the internal mechanism, wouldn't you? Well, all I can say is that this task is even harder than taking it apart. I can't remember the order in which the pieces were removed, and the process is anything but straightforward. I tried to follow a solution guide, but that only includes the description of the solving process and doesn't show which piece is first removed. Note that two of the pieces are identical. So, as of now, the puzzle hasn't still returned to its former glory.

Solution: If you find yourself stuck you can download the solution here.

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The Cast Cylinder is quite difficult to solve but, to my surprise, I'm finding it ten times harder to put it back together. This is classified as a difficulty level 4/6, and I agree with it if you're only taking it apart. However, doing the reverse is as difficult as any of the 6/6 level puzzles. Prepare for some frustration with this one.

Availability: You can find the Cast Cylinder and all the others in the Hanayama series at PuzzleMaster.

Trick Lock puzzles are so abundant and varied in their designs that it's hard to keep up by just being aware of their existence, much else purchase all of them. I have several of these lock puzzles in my collection, and even though it's lacking the presence of the fancier and more expensive designs, like the Popplocks, I'm still proud to own a nice selection of them.

I've recently added another interesting design to my Trick Lock collection, by Vesa Timonen, the Lock Puzzle - Could have had a better name though. This would've been a brilliant puzzle if not by the lack of quality Bits and Pieces puts in all their puzzles. I've reviewed several puzzles from them before and every single one has multiple flaws. This is truly sad for the designers, who envisioned their creations in one way, but the final product doesn't correspond to what they had in mind.

The puzzle is built from a plated nickel alloy, which is not the best choice if you want your puzzle with a clean and smooth look. It's also quite small actually, measuring only 4.3 x 4.2cm (1.69" x 1.65"), but it's still heavy considering its size and fits comfortably in your hands.

The Lock Puzzle has a very intriguing mechanism, which again, is almost ruined by its low quality. The pieces are somewhat loose and shouldn't move so freely, because it will easily reveal the inner mechanism that should have been hidden in the first place. The idea of the puzzle is to free the two keys from the lock, and even without the puzzle in front of you, you can easily see that the keys are not the "key" to solve the puzzle. If you press both sides on the bottom of the lock, you'll notice that it tries to open itself in half, but the keys maintain it from doing so. You just need to figure out the way to make the keys unlock the mechanism.

PuzzleMaster has rated the puzzle as a level 8/10, and ideally I would agree if it was properly built, but seeing how the puzzle was put together and how easy it was to figure out its mechanism, I would only rate it as a level 6. I managed to solve it within a couple of minutes, which for a Trick Lock is rather disappointing, as I expected it to be much more challenging than that. Reassembling it wasn't difficult, but required a bit of dexterity to get the pieces where they belonged. All in all, a very interesting puzzle that turned out to be very easy to solve due to its lack of quality.

Closing Comments:

Vesa's design is quite original for a Trick Lock, and that's why I was interested in trying it, even though I knew what I was getting into by ordering a Bits and Pieces puzzle. It's a great design, but with poor execution. If you're interested in getting one, just don't expect a great quality and enjoy the puzzle purely for its mechanism. The mechanism itself is what makes the puzzle so interesting and even with all its flaws, I think it's worth a try.

Availability: You can buy the Lock Puzzle at PuzzleMaster for $10 CAD. You can check out other Trick Locks here.

Links:

Vesa's Shapeways Shop

Tilt is yet another gem just like Rush Hour - Addictive and extremely fun to play with. This logic puzzle game was invented by Vesa Timonen and Timo Jokitalo, and it's manufactured by ThinkFun since 2010.

The game is brilliantly designed to provide a wonderful experience, like no virtual game can ever achieve. I remember playing something on the computer long ago, with a similar concept, but can't remember its name. What I can say, though, is that I enjoy much more a hands-on approach.

Tilt consists of a square grid with a round base. You tilt the board in the four basic directions so the green sliders can drop through the center hole. To make things a bit more complex, you have to worry about the blue sliders and not let them drop in the center hole as well. Square blockers are placed around the grid to get different outcomes. Included in the game are 40 challenge cards with four levels of difficulty.

Setting the game to play is very easy: You choose any of the challenge cards (if you're an experienced puzzler, I recommend skipping to the harder levels), and place the corresponding sliders and blockers in place. After solving a challenge remove the sliders from the bottom of the grid and set another one.

There's another thing you need to keep in mind when playing: with each move the sliders need to go from one side of the grid to the other. You can't just stop in mid way and change the direction of movement. You'll get used to the play mechanics if you start by the easier levels.

The game isn't that hard, actually, even on harder levels. As you progress through the challenges you start seeing more sliders and blockers being used. The number of possible moves also rises, but by that time you're already acquainted with the game's mechanics, and you should solve each level within a few minutes or less. If you get stuck at a particular level, just reset it and try again. It's better than constantly going back and forth.

Closing Comments:

I absolutely loved Tilt and its ingenious design. My only gripe is that you can breeze through the 40 levels in no time. I would've loved extra challenge cards like they did for Rush Hour. The game is for 1 player only, but since each challenge can be solved rather quickly, it can be easily shared by multiple players taking turns.

Availability: Tilt is available from Sloyd, in Finland, for about €24. As part of the Deal of the Week, you can get this game with a 15% discount just by mentioning the name of my blog when you place your order. Offer available only until May 3.

My latest reviews for Sloyd's puzzles led me to the conclusion that this store is the ultimate one-stop shop for the most difficult puzzles you will ever encounter. My latest fiend is Vesa Timonen's High H. In fact, this has little to do with "latest", as I got this puzzle almost a year now, and I've been saving it all this time, waiting to be able to solve it, to write its review.

High H is like your typical puzzle, where you're given a set amount of pieces and you have to build a simple and recognizable shape from all of them. In this case, the shape you're asked to build is the capital H (not so simple as the one in the picture above) and to do so you have at your disposal only 5 pieces. Two of these pieces are identical and the rest have different lengths and shapes. The most intriguing is the T-shaped piece, and definitely the most deceiving, for obvious reasons.

There's no fancy design or anything like that. Just pure puzzle genius... Or madness, depending on your level of patience after (if) you solve it. The material is Sloyd's characteristic Finnish birch wood, and in terms of dimensions the lengthiest pieces measure 8.6 x 1.7cm (about 3.4" x 0.7").

So, what makes this puzzle so damn difficult? - It's hard to explain, but my theory is, what the designer makes you think to take you away as far from the real solution as possible... And there's some evidence that points to that conclusion: The vague explanation - "Make the letter H from the five pieces"; The T-shaped piece itself. All of this to make your task one hell of a challenge.

Another question you may be asking is "how did you solve the puzzle"? - First, this may be the biggest "a-ha moment" I have ever experienced with a puzzle. Second, I solved it almost by accident by leaving a couple of pieces, apparently in the right position, for a while and when I returned I looked at the puzzle in a different angle. I placed the rest of the pieces and to my surprise I had the exact shape seen in the package. Obviously, I won't reveal much of the solution, because this is one of those puzzles you want to discover it for yourself.

Closing Comments:

Vesa is a master of illusion and the High H, in my opinion, may be one of his masterpieces. This is coming from someone who has reviewed several of his designs, but this one is borderline genius. You must experience this puzzle.

Availability: Sloyd.fi in Finland is the place to get this amazing puzzle. For just €7.06, this is great value for money, as you probably won't solved it right away.

Little things can be deceiving, and Timonen Burr is a good proof of that. This 5cm length burr puzzle will have you screaming obscenities at it in no time, as you try to remove the very first piece. The puzzle is named after its Finish designer, Vesa Timonen, who created it in 2007.

Timonen Burr is made from Sloyd's trade mark birch wood, present in all their puzzles, which gives it this beautiful light tone. The design is also a bit different from the classic burrs with six squares intercepting each other in the middle.

The puzzle is comprised of six pieces with two distinct groups: the first group of three pieces is somewhat similar to the type of pieces you're used to see in the traditional burr (two C's and one G). The second group of pieces, however, is what makes Timonen Burr so unique: three pieces and all different from each other (although one of them is a variation).

When it comes to the difficulty level, Timonen Burr is everything you'd expect from an extremely  challenging burr. Sloyd's own rating system, from 1 to 5, classifies it as a level 5 and I completely agree. It took me about 45 minutes to completely disassemble it, and 15 of them were just to remove the first piece. After that, it was a series of seemingly endless sequential movements that always led me to the same starting point. I was eventually able to remove the second and third pieces, almost at the same time, and the remaining larger three pieces followed right after with very little effort.

If the challenge of disassembling the puzzle wasn't enough, you're supposed to put it back together to fully solve it. Just like my love/hate towards string puzzles, the burrs seem to fall in the same category - A pain to take apart and an even bigger pain to put it back.

If you ever tried to solve a burr puzzle, then you know you have to follow a strict sequence of moves: backwards from the ones you did to take it apart. Well, this wouldn't be a problem if I could remember exactly which moves I did to disassemble it, which I don't... After the initial trial and error to see which piece would fit, I saw that I wasn't going anywhere without instructions. It still took me about 20 minutes to put the puzzle back to its original form, so you can see that even when you're following instructions, it can still be quite tricky.

Closing Comments:

Timonen Burr is a "little" devil to solve, but I enjoyed particularly taking it apart. Maneuvering the small pieces might take a while to get used to, but other than that it's a highly recommended puzzle for burr lovers.

Availability: You can get a Timonen Burr at Sloyd's for about €19. For other exclusive Sloyd puzzles check out their wide selection.

Links:

Vesa Timonen's Shapeways Shop

When you think of a good Cast Puzzle, the hardest ones are the first that come to mind (Cast News, Cast Enigma, for example). However, a good puzzle doesn't necessarily need to be hard to be fully enjoyed. Vesa Timonen's Cast Loop, released by Hanayama in 2007, is one of such puzzles. Also, the folks at the 27th IPP seem to think the same thing as well, as they awarded it the Jury First Prize and the Puzzlers' Award. The key word for the Loop is "Synthesis".

The included description of the puzzle is quite interesting, because it tells us that the design is based on an actual puzzle ring Vesa created for his girlfriend. It's amazing what you can come up with when you have motivation. The description also indicates that the puzzle can be used as an accessory when solved - a pendant, maybe?

What's interesting about the Loop is that it's presented in a different way. In other words, it has a different approach, solving wise: Instead of the usual presentation, where you first see the puzzle in its solved state and you need to take it apart, the Loop is the exact opposite. Right out of the box you see the loop in a state where it appears to be impossible to close it (see photo below). The first tries to solve the puzzle seem to end in the same position, over and over again, and closing the Loop looks like an impossible task - That's the beauty of it, because you're led to think the two parts only interact that way. There's more to it than meets the eye, though...

After some unsuccessful attempts, you begin to realize that in order to solve the puzzle you need a different approach. What intrigued me the most when I first tried to solve it was that this was a level 1 difficulty out of 6, and there I was, completely confused, trying to make sense of it. It took me almost 10 minutes to have that aha moment, when you finally discover the correct way to join the two pieces.

The simple and yet genius concept is accomplished by this spiraling, corkscrew-like mechanism where the two parts - they're identical, by the way - are joined together. The finishing touch is done by two small magnets at the ends that keep the loop closed. Mine doesn't close perfectly, though. The two parts are slightly offset, maybe due to a bad positioning of the magnets. It's not clearly visible from the photo, but it's there.

The trick to solve the puzzle lies in where you meet the two pieces in order to spiral them into a closed loop. It looks easy when you finally know how it's done, but I reckon it's not that simple. I would be surprised if you actually solved this within the first minute... Or even second.

Hanayama released a couple of years later, a Disney version of the Loop, although the concept is exactly the same. It's the perfect gift to get your kids initiated into the wonderful puzzle world, though.

Video: Click here to see a video solution of the Cast Loop.

Closing Comments:

Surprisingly harder than I was expecting, the Loop is a brilliant concept made simple. Don't let the level 1 difficulty keep you away from a definitely enjoyable experience, despite the apparent easiness of it. Even if you're an experienced puzzler, I guarantee it, you'll love it.

Availability: The Cast Loop is available at the Finish puzzle store Sloyd, as well as the others in the Hanayama collection. Worldwide shipping available.

Links:

Vesa Timonen's Shapeways Shop

Hanayama Cast (in English) - Very useful website in English, with plenty of information on all things Cast.

Hanayama's Factory Visit (Many thanks to Roxanne Wong for sharing these pictures)

Released over two and a half years ago, in January 2010, Vesa Timonen's Square is among the most stunning puzzles in the Hanayama Cast series, looking more like a work of art than a puzzle. The theme for the Cast Square is "Orientation".

Comprised by four apparently "identical" pieces, the puzzle has an internal mechanism that prevents it from being taken apart just by sliding its pieces. While they appear to be identical in the outside, their true nature lies beyond the hidden locking mechanism. After you solve the puzzle, you'll see what's really going on...

The Cast Square is relatively small, only 4.8cm (1.9"), but it's quite a hefty object. It's beautifully presented in a two-color coating finish in silver and gold, although it scratches pretty easily and your fingertips will be noticeable all over it. After playing with it, clean it up with a fiber cloth to prevent stains in the metal.

The Square is rated by Hanayama as a level 6/6 along with six other puzzles. It's the level with less puzzles, actually, which gives you a pretty good idea that for a puzzle to be there, it must be extremely hard. Well, not so much... I think this one wasn't crazy hard to be classified as a level 6. In my opinion, it should've been a 5/6.

(Click to Enlarge) - Slightly Opened

The first thing you notice when you attempt to separate the Square's pieces is that it's very easy to open it to a certain amount by pulling on opposite diagonally pieces, but then it stops. There's clearly something blocking the parts from fully separate, and that's obviously related to the rattling you should hear from inside. If you ever solved the Cast News, I believe the movement necessary to separate the pieces is very similar to this. If you remember, the Cast News also had an internal mechanism with pieces rattling inside. The Square has sort of this same type of pieces, so my first thought after hearing them was to perform the exact same movement, when lo and behold, the pieces went flying off in the direction of the four corners of the table.

(Click to Enlarge) - Solved

When I went to analyse the pieces, I could see that my hunch was right; the internal mechanism has similarities with the Cast News. Returning the puzzle to its original position can be either fast or painfully frustrating, depending on your luck. My advice is to pay extra attention to the configuration of the pieces and their correct orientation - Remember the theme word? - If you fail to connect the pieces correctly, they won't fully close into the square shape. Even if you remembered that the pieces fit in an alternating pattern (gold-silver-gold-silver), you can still make the mistake of getting them wrong. If you do, not even the "magic" movement will save you, and separating the pieces could be rather difficult. You know you did well when you see the pieces slide back to their original position in an instant. That's when you'll have the puzzle fully solved.

(Click to Enlarge) - Wrong Arrangement (Pieces won't slide any further)

Solving the Cast News first, clearly was a big help towards solving the Cast Square, as we all learn something from past experiences with other puzzles. Therefore, equally hard puzzles become a lot easier. Had I not solved the Cast News, I wouldn't have solved the Square so fast, but looking at other level 6 and level 5 puzzles, I still think that it should belong in the level 5 category.

Solution: To download a solution, check out the puzzle at Sloyd's. Want a hint that can help you to solve it? - Try using "centrifugal force".

Closing Comments:

As a decorative object, the Cast Square has a wonderful design very pleasant to look at, ensuring intriguing and astonishment looks from friends or co-workers. As a puzzle, the concept was not new to me, but I still enjoyed it very much. Not for a casual player, but a nice challenge for a skilled puzzle aficionado.

Availability: My Cast Square came from the Finish store Sloyd and you can get one for about €15. To browse through all the others in the Cast series, check out their special Hanayama page.

Links:

In an effort to review all Cast Puzzles by the end of the year, this week I bring you yet another one of Hanayama's flagship products, the Cast Donuts. This is the most recent addition to the series, released in September 2011 and it was designed by the Finnish Vesa Timonen. The key word for the Donuts is "string".

The Donuts are, as the name suggests, two intertwined ring shapes that need to be separated. The solved puzzle has four pieces, as each ring is sliced in two. Figuring out how they are interlocked and what movements you need to perform is the hard part, but an experience Cast Puzzle solver will do it in no time.

I was surprised by how small this puzzle is. Most Cast Puzzles are relatively small, but this one is among the smallest ones, measuring 4.7 x 3.5cm (1.9" x 1.4"). If you have big hands, you're going to have trouble manipulating it. Another drawback, at least for me, is that the coating finish combined with its small size made it even harder to solve, as I sweat quite a bit from my hands, making it very slippery at times. Maybe a different coating with a rough surface would've helped.

(Click to Enlarge) - Partially Disassembled

Design-wise, the puzzle looks stunning. Even though it makes it slippery, the coating gives it a shiny appearance and the surface feels very smooth. In order to distinguish both rings, they were coated with two different color tones.

This is a level 4/6 rated by Hanayama and a 8/10 by PuzzleMaster. After solving the puzzle, maybe a little more than half an hour, and looking at the inner structure, I wouldn't disagree if it were classified as a level 5/6. Although experienced puzzlers won't find it that hard, casual players will struggle quite a bit to decode the right movements to separate the rings.

While looking at the puzzle for the first time, it seems pretty obvious that the lines dividing the rings are there for a reason and that they must be aligned somehow. However, it's not that simple. Giving the nature of the puzzle, it's hard to get the two parts of one ring to stay apart, while working on the other ring, without getting your fingernails inside the gaps. The first time I tried this, I ended up hurting one of my fingers with part of my fingernail chipped off. Sounds horrible, but it healed fast.

A few weeks passed before I made another attempt at solving the darn puzzle, but I was determined to get it over with. So, with more caution, there I was trying not to get another fingernail eaten by the mighty donuts. A little more than 30 minutes later, the rings were finally separated. Now, all there was left was getting the rings to their intertwined state again. It was harder than I was expecting, because when I separated them I couldn't pay much attention, as the pieces just fell down on the table. I eventually got it right in less time than I needed to solve it.

After knowing how the puzzle works and looking at the key word (string), which is supposed to be a hint, I honestly don't know how's that supposed to help in the solving process. Maybe I'm still missing something... Want a hint? - Try "slide".

Solution: Click here for a .pdf of the solution, or here for a video solution.

(Click to Enlarge)

Closing Comments:

Great concept by Vesa Timonen. The Cast Donuts is a very welcoming addition to Cast Series family, although with a couple of drawbacks regarding the design. For a level 4 puzzle, it'll put up a fight.

Availability: The Cast Donuts is available at PuzzleMaster for about $13 CAD. Click here to access the entire Hanayama Cast Series.

Solitaire Chess is a logic puzzle/game invented by the Finnish Vesa Timonen and produced by Thinkfun since 2010. Vesa has also contributed with some of his designs for the Hanayama Cast Series, like the Cast Square or the Cast Loop, among others.

The game is for one player only and it's based on the rules of traditional chess. However, even if you don't know how to play chess, you'll most certainly enjoy the Solitaire Chess, as it's very easy to understand the rules. The objective is to capture every piece on the board, according to the challenge cards and following the movement rules, until only one piece remains on the board. There are a few key differences between the two games, but the piece movements remain the same:

- The Solitaire Chess is a simplified version with a quarter of the size of a normal chess board.

- Since the game is for one player only, all the pieces are the same color.

- Every time you perform a move, you must capture a piece.

- Pawns are not promoted when they reach the top row.

- The "check" rule is not applied for the King.

- Every challenge that includes the King will result in it being the last piece on the board (The King is never captured).

With these differences in mind, getting started with Solitaire Chess won't be a problem. Included with the game are 30 double-sided challenge cards (60 challenges in total) divided in four levels of difficulty, ten chess pieces (1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Pawns), a chess board with a storage drawer and an instruction booklet with hints and step-by-step solutions.

(Click to Enlarge)

To set up a game, start by choosing one card with the desired level of difficulty and place the corresponding pieces on the board. You know you've solved the challenge when you have only one piece left. If you are left with more than one piece and there's no more possible moves, you need to reset the challenge and try again.

For someone like me that knows how to play chess, the Solitaire Chess is a surprisingly addictive game. If you're an experienced chess player and think that this game is not worth your time, you couldn't be more wrong. My only advice is to start from the harder challenges and you'll see that there will be times when you have to think very hard in order to know how to solve them. The strategy behind the Solitaire Chess is somewhat similar to the traditional chess in that you have to think many steps ahead.

I haven't played chess for a while now, maybe since I've started collecting puzzles back in 2008, but after playing a few challenges on the Solitaire Chess, I find myself totally immersed in it. The beginner and intermediate challenges are great to get the hang of it, but the serious ones start when you reach the advanced level and of course, the ultimate level, the expert. I can manage to solve the advance levels within 5 or 10 minutes, but the expert ones, can take up to 20 minutes, although I've solved a few within 10 minutes. This goes to show you that every type of player will have challenges that will certainly meet his skills, from novice to pro. After you've solved all challenges, you can try them all again after a while and see what you still remember. Great replay value.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Solitaire Chess is available at Sloyd.fi for €24.

Video: Check out Thinkfun's presentation video for the Solitaire Chess.

Closing Comments:

The Solitaire Chess is a brilliant concept and adaptation of traditional chess. It borrows the essence of chess and turns it into a fantastic and addictive puzzle/game that will be hard to put down until all challenges are solved. This is by far, in my opinion, one of the best puzzle/games from Thinkfun and also from the genre. I recommend it to anyone that is remotely interested in puzzles.

Examples of challenges (one per level of difficulty):

(Click to Enlarge) - Beginner Challenge & Last Piece

(Click to Enlarge) - Expert Challenge & Last Piece