Modern Sliding Puzzles
Sliding Puzzle with rotation
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EASY? 1989
comes with 9 problems
designed by Minoru Abe
Wheels & Arrows
In this puzzle you may rotate the central part of the tray with pieces on it.
Change the arrows as shown in the right figure.
44 moves
Difficulty:easy
Playing Time: < 15 minutes
Dimension: 14 cm * 14 cm
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
Slide & Turn
IPP 16 Exchange / Luxemburg
designed by Herman Witteveen
Uhr / Clock
designed by Jean Claude Constantin
made by Jean Claude Constantin
The Crocs in the Billabong
IPP 27 Exchange / Australia
designed by Michael L. Powell
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Dustin puzzle (US patent: US 1993211)
50 moves
8 pieces
Difficulty: medium - difficult
Playing Time: > 1 hour
designed by F. G. Dustin
Dimension: 12 cm * 12 cm
no copyrights
Dustin puzzle (US patent: US 1993211)
designed by F. G. Dustin
Dimension: 12.5 cm * 13.5 cm
no copyrights
Combination Lock (US patent: US 560197)
5 pieces
designed by Williard E. Dow
Dimension: 14 cm * 14 cm
no copyrights
Keyless Lock
Challenge: Open the lock
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Hexagonal Sliding Puzzles
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Viking's Journey
designed by Tim Snyder
Two Flowers
8 pieces
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 5 minutes
designed by Diniar Namdarian
My Goldfish
designed by Diniar Namdarian
My Goldfish
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Challenges:
Sliding Dissection Puzzles
Two Sliding Squares
IPP 26 Exchange / Boston
Slide the pieces to form a single square
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
made by Walter Hoppe, Laser Perfect
Two Sliding Squares
Slide the pieces to form a single square
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
made by BITS & PIECES
Sliding Metamorphosis
Puzzle Design Competition 2007
Slide the pieces to form the Square from the Cross
designed by Tsugumitsu Noji
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Sliding Square Octagon
Slide the pieces to form a single octagon
51 moves
Difficulty: medium - difficult
Playing Time: > 20 minutes
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 12.3 cm * 12.3 cm
Sliding Perigal
Slide the pieces to form a single square
15 pieces
85 moves
Difficulty: difficult
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 14 cm * 14 cm
Sliding Cross easy Version
14 pieces
six problems
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 17 cm * 11 cm
Sliding Cross Difficult Version
14 pieces
six problems
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 17 cm * 11 cm
Challenges:
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problem 4:
160 moves
Difficulty: easy-medium
Playing Time: 30 minutes
problem 5:
form a T out of the pieces of the square in the middle of the frame
130 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: 30 minutes
problem 6:
34 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 5 minutes (warm up)
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Sliding Letter Puzzles
These sliding puzzles have the sliding pieces cut out as letters or numbers.
The aim is to exchange two letters or numbers.
a.) Serhiy Grabarchuk
These puzzles consist most often of 8 pieces and give the impression to lie on 3 x 3 fields.
But the 8 sliding pieces lie on 9 x 9 fields. The letters can exchange their places by interlocking into each other.
The picture illustrates the interlocking of the sliding pieces
when solving the problem.
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For You, Pa
Exchange the green and orange O as shown on the right
51 moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr.
Dimension: 11 cm * 11 cm
The Sliding Cyrillic Letters Puzzle
56 (54) moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
Dimension: 11 cm * 11 cm
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The Sliding Latin Letters Puzzle
Exchange pieces B and A as shown on the right.
58 (57) moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
Dimension: 11 cm * 11 cm
The Sliding Digits Puzzle
27 moves
Exchange pieces 8 and 7 as shown on the right.
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
Dimension: 11 cm * 11 cm
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MY PUZZLE
Exchange pieces white Z and brown Z as shown on the right
47 (46) moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr.
made by HIKIMI
My Way
Exchange pieces yellow Y and orange Y as shown on the right
71 (57) moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr.
Dimension: 12 cm * 11 cm
b.) Diniar Namdarian
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BE HAPPY
37 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
BY THE WAY
40 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
ENJOY LIFE
43 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
I LOVE dAD
39 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
SOLUTION
47 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
The End
51 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
LET iT GO Problem 1
11 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
LET iT GO Problem 2
49 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
GO FOR iT Problem 1
45 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
GO FOR iT Problem 2
30 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
i LOVE YOU Problem 1
25 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
i LOVE YOU Problem 2
40 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
i LOVE YOU Problem 3
25 moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Sliding puzzles with other tile shapes
a.) Serhiy Grabarchuk
The Windmill Puzzle
The task is to get the windmill blades to have the holes on the outside.
66 moves
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk
Dimension: 12 cm * 15.75 cm
b.) Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
Hexangular Jam
designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
Rectangular Jam
It consists of a square frame and four equivalent sized and shaped rectangles.
Beginning: Put the four rectangular pieces in the starting position.
During the game: Slide the pieces without picking them up.
End: Slip the green piece through the hole in the front of the frame
(Only the green piece can go through).
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: 20 – 30 minutes
designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
Pentangular Jam
designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
Triangular Jam
Unlike the orthodox puzzles of this genre,
where you can only slide the pieces in straight directions,
"Triangular Jam" requires to move the pieces diagonally and rotate them.
Moreover, consisting of only four equivalent sized
equilateral triangles in a square,
"Triangular Jam" is mathematically very simple.
Beginning: Put the four triangular pieces in the starting position.
During the game: Slide the pieces without picking them up.
End: Slip the red triangle through the hole in the front of the frame
(Only the red one can go through).
designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
Rightangular Jam
Yen in a Jam
designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro)
c.) Diniar Namdarian
Central Slider
My Tower of Hanoi
5 problems
8 + 1 pieces + central slider
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 13 * 18 cm
Challenges:
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problem 2:
112 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 10 minutes
problem 3:
109 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 20 minutes
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problem 4:
124 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 20 minutes
problem 5:
82 moves
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 5 minutes
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Switch Side
46 moves
9 pieces + Slider
Difficulty: medium
designed by Diniar Namdarian
H-Slider II
exchanging the numbers up to bottom
93 moves
9 pieces + Slider
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: < 30 minutes
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 12.5 cm * 15 cm
H-Slider
10 problems
7 pieces + H-slider
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 13 cm * 13 cm
Challenges:
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problem 4:
36 moves
problem 5:
68 moves
problem 6:
46 moves
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problem 7:
46 moves
problem 8:
57 moves
problem 9:
37 moves
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problem 10:
59 moves
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Magic Hat
76 moves
11 transparent pieces + rabbit + 2 hat pieces
Difficulty: easy
Playing Time: 20 – 30 minutes
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 17cm * 12 cm
Internal locking mechanism
Flutter of Butterflies
8 pieces
Difficulty: easy - medium
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 12.5 cm * 12.5 cm
Challenges:
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problem 1:
make all the butterflies fly outwards instead of inwards
36 moves
problem 2:
50 moves
problem 3:
40 moves
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problem 4:
38 moves
Two Layer Sliding Puzzles
Football match
Puzzle Design Competition 2014
IPP 34 Exchange / London
comes with 22 problems
The football should be moved in order
to score a goal.
Amongst the latter ones there are two players
who can fetch and transfer the ball
from one to another or from player to goal.
So you will have to collect the ball with the correct orientated player
in phase one at the goal on the right hand side,
transfer/pass it on to the second player of the same team
which is oriented to the left hand side on the grid (phase two)
and finally score at the goal to the left (third and final phase).
9 pieces + football
3 phase
problem 1:
61 moves
Difficulty: medium
Playing Time: around 45 minutes
problem 2:
75 moves
Difficulty: medium
Playing Time: around 45 minutes
problem 3:
85 moves
Difficulty: medium
Playing Time: around 45 minutes
Dimension: 11.5 cm * 17 cm
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Football Match
IPP 34 Exchange / London
designed by Diniar Namdarian
made by Dr. Hiren Shah
Challenges:
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Two Eggs
This is a double layered puzzle in the sense that the three pieces of the egg are two units big and are glued to one unit underneath.
That leaves room for a number of ‘loose’ units, which play an important role.
Furthermore two pieces cannot pass each other everywhere. Some careful planning is needed if you don’t want to lose your eggs!
78 moves
11 pieces (5 identical pieces)
Difficulty: medium
Playing Time: 45 minutes
inspired by Grabarchuks The Two Butterflies Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 14 cm * 11 cm
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Get My Sheep
70 moves
10 pieces
Difficulty: difficult
inspired by Get My Goat Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 14 cm * 11 cm
Moon and Star
7 pieces
3 problems
problem 1:
40 moves
inspired by Get My Goat Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 9 cm * 16 cm
Challenges:
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problem 1:
move the star up into the moon
40 moves
problem 2:
27 moves
problem 3:
12 moves
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problem 4:
25 moves
problem 5:
38 moves
Fence The Sheep Difficult Version
Get the sheep into the fenced area
10 pieces
168 moves
inspired by Fence The Cow Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 12 cm * 14.5 cm
geometry dissections
other tile shapes
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Train Puzzle
flip the position of the train and carriage
several hundred moves
11 pieces
moves: interlocked moves
Difficulty: Extremely difficult
Playing Time: around 1 week
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 13.9 cm * 9 cm
My Dog
53 moves
8 pieces
moves: interlocked moves
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 14 cm * 12 cm
Two Dogs
Puzzle Design Competition 2014
comes with 11 problems
8 pieces
moves: interlocked moves
You are given a certain starting position
where the dogs can not see each other and looking to opposite sides.
Your goal is to move both dogs in a way that they look at each other.
There is a lot of freedom to move the small pieces from the upper area at the beginning.
So you can sort them nearly anyway you like but when you start to move one of the dogs,
the freedom of movement shrinks very fast. The order you choose
at first must be the right one, otherwise you have no chance to change the two dogs.
If you place a grid over the puzzle with 9 rows and 8 columns,
the dogs are each almost as large as 4 rows and 4 columns.
So if you places them side by side, there is no free column left.
If you places them one above the other, there is only one free row left.
This is the reason why it is so hard to move the smaller pieces alongside the dogs.
Of course you have to wedge the two dogs into each other but at one Moment
they have to be one above the other and at this point, it is impossible
that all smaller pieces already have passed the two dogs
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 10 cm * 11 cm
Challenges:
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37 moves
125 moves
80 moves
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72 moves
92 moves
83 moves
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six or fewer pieces
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Just Six Pieces
41 moves
6 pieces
moves: interlocked moves
inspired by Minoru Abes Egg Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Dimension: 11 * 14 cm
sliding magic squares
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Sliding Magic Square
around 91 moves
12 pieces
inspired by Minoru Abes Slide 9 Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
Sliding Magic Square II
47 moves
12 pieces
inspired by Minoru Abes Slide 9 Puzzle
designed by Diniar Namdarian
sliding maze puzzles
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Sliding Maze
78 moves
9 pieces + Slider
designed by Diniar Namdarian
sliding and rolling puzzles
Two Real Dice / Slide' N' Roll
80 moves
change the positions of the two dice by sliding the pieces
and by rolling the dice over any of their edges
on to the neighbour vacant cell.
IPP 20 Exchange
designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk / Serhiy Grabarchuk Jr.
made by Dirk Weber
Acrobats
Acrobats
IPP 32 Exchange / Washington, D.C.
Difficulty: easy / easy - medium
Playing Time: < 30 minutes
designed by Diniar Namdarian
The goal is to move some acrobats into target positions.
The puzzle consists of a board, several capping stones, some sliding stones and a few acrobats.
How to play: Rules of the Acrobats Puzzle:
Symbol
Piece
capping stones
sliding pieces with and without openings
4 acrobats (Orange, Yellow, Red, Blue)
Yellow and orange pieces
Associated Rules
Stationary pieces, will be put on board as in challenge and will remain in their positions.
These pieces may be slid like in a sliding pieces puzzle (e.g. "15 game"),
as long as there is no acrobat on the piece to be slid. There are solid
pieces, pieces with slot opening, a piece with a cross-slot opening and
one with a circular opening. On the board there will be one free field to
allow sliding in each challenge.
Acrobats must always be and move on sliding pieces with openings, not
directly on the board. A movement is performed by rolling an acrobat
onto an adjacent piece, e.g. if an acrobat is "standing" with its feet down
in a sliding piece, a possible move would be to roll it so that it is with its
left or right hand in one of the adjacent sliding pieces on the board.
An acrobat on the piece with the circular opening may be turned so that
in the next step it can roll to any of the four directions.
No two acrobats may ever be on two adjacent fields
so that one is in the way of the other (Also during
acrobat moves!). They are allowed on adjacent
fields, when they are parallel, however.
please note small letters for color
On the yellow sliding piece only the yellow acrobat is allowed, on the
orange one only the orange acrobat. Otherwise, these pieces are just
regular sliding pieces.
easy challanges:
difficult challanges:
Two acrobats are in this challenge: the orange and yellow
acrobat. One yellow and one orange piece are involved.
Goal: From the starting position (as shown to the right),
bring the yellow acrobat to the yellow sliding piece and
the orange acrobat to the orange sliding piece.
Remember: The yellow acrobat may not touch the
orange piece, the orange acrobat not the yellow piece.
After setting up the position as shown to the right,
swap the acrobats' positions, i.e.:
Goal: Bring the yellow acrobat to the top-left field
(where the orange acrobat sits at the beginning) and
bring the orange acrobat to the bottom-right field
(yellow's starting position).
Remember the distance rule: Acrobats may not
come too close to each other.
First, set up the puzzle as shown to the right. All
four acrobats will be involved this time, no
stationary pieces, but not many pieces with
openings either. When you set up the acrobats,
please notice that they all have a little head, little
feet and two hands. For this challenge it is
important that you set them up "heads-up", so that
all are standing upright.
Goal:
Bring the red acrobat (that's the one in the bottom
row at the beginning) to the bottom-left field. At the
end, all acrobats must be standing upright again,
i.e. their heads up, feet down under the board.