Nine Halves

NINE HALVES

This time I am reviewing another puzzle produced by Philos in their usual great quality but this time designed by the Dutchman Wim Zwaan. It was his entry puzzle for the IPP 2006 and it is still widely available (I bought mine on Ebay for Euro 19,95 which I think is absolutely worth it).

The puzzle consists out of a square frame and 6 rectangular pieces with 3 "openings" each. 3 of them will fill the square so that you are able to put all 6 pieces in the frame (2 layers -"criss cross wise"). The task is now to achieve that all holes are closed and the second one is that all holes are open. This one is really difficult and whilst Philos rated it a 3/4, Puzzle Master rated it 8/10. I needed 30 minutes for each task to solve and assume that this was not so bad this time. If you do not put the rectangular pieces in the case it might be easier for you to exchange parts and try something different and also "notice more".

Finally this was for me a very innovative puzzle and made me feel I got an achievment after solving it. My recommendation is that non-experienced puzzlers should not buy it because it can quickly frustrate you. On the contrary it is recommended for experienced puzzlers and for puzzle collectors of course.