Start from the central 'F' and move horizontally or vertically, and collect the letters needed to spell 'FIND' (in any order). How many routes can you take?
D
N
I
D
D
N
D
I
D
D
I
N
F
I
I
N
I
N
D
D
I
D
I
D
N
Note: this puzzle is not interactive, and the letters cannot be clicked.
Hint
The fourth player is the key to this tricky question.
Answer
9 points.
Respectively the scores were 7, 14, 20, 30, 23, 9.
Reasoning
If we label the six players A, B, C, D, E, and F, we know that:
[1] A + B + C + D + E + F = 103
and from the clues:
A = B ÷ 2 B = C − 6 C = D x 2 ÷ 3 E = D − A F = E − 14
Note that it could be E = A − D or E = D − A, but using A − D we'd end up with a negative value for E later, which isn't allowed (so we'd have to try again with D − A anyway).
As we have no information for D, it's best to find all of the other letters in terms of D. These steps are left as an exercise (e.g. use C in the equation for B), but the result is:
A = ( D − 9) ÷ 3 B = (2D − 18) ÷ 3 C = (2D ) ÷ 3 D = (3D ) ÷ 3 E = (2D + 9) ÷ 3 F = (2D − 33) ÷ 3
Writing it as D = 3D ÷ 3 makes things slightly clearer in the next step.
Each empty white square in the grid contains one of the numbers 1, 2, 3, …, 8. Each of the horizontal and vertical equations must be true, and each number must be used exactly once.
