Hello, and welcome to Puzzles for Progress! Today, we're shining the spotlight on a puzzle type I first discovered in The Wall Street Journal (under the name Cell Blocks), but that is also often called Shikaku (on puzz.link, Nikoli, etc).
But first, speaking of Puzzle Spotlight issues of puzzles with the initials CB, my Chocolate Banana puzzles have been featured on the Indonesian-language channel Crusader Puzzles! If you somehow don't speak Indonesian, then fear not, it's got English subtitles. I thought it was a pretty nice solve-through.
And second, my biweekly custom (seven-letter) wordle, Puzzles fordle Progres. It's kinda like....I'm not sure, solve it and enjoy.
Now that we're past that, the main puzzles! There are four of them instead of three. I could've saved one of them as much-needed backlog, but it just felt aesthetically better, you know? So two of them are 9x9 and two are 10x10. The 9x9s are designed to be more introductory, while the 10x10s are more visually thematic. (Puzzle C is meant to be a tribute to the letter X, not the website...)
Puzzle A: Printable PDF / online with puzz.link
Puzzle B: Printable PDF / online with puzz.link
Puzzle C: Printable PDF / online with puzz.link
Puzzle D: Printable PDF / online with puzz.link
(If you find any errors, it’s possible that I’ve fixed them on the site. If I haven't, please tell me about them!)
I'd like to thank David "djmathman" Altizio and superrabbit for testing, and Pat Scott and Jolson for pointing out an error with the links.
These cell block puzzles are real fun. I picked them up quick, though I'm sure they get harder.