BBO LOGIC PUZZLE In a recent BBO Team match, the team named Greek Gods decided to take on the Roman Gods. To solve this puzzle one needs to know which gods were Greek and Roman and what gender they were :) Wikipedia might help for those who don't know It was a mixed team match with 2 males and 2 females in each team, the women having the niks of female gods and the men those of male gods, each from a selection of gods from the team they belonged to. The team match had a few peculiarities. All players had a BridgeBase Masterpoints Award which differed from any of the other players in the match and were one of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. All players came from a different country, each included continent being represented by 2 countries :- so, there were Haiti and Jamaica from the Americas, Malaysia and Pakistan from Asia, Albania and Denmark from Europe and Zambia and Zaire from Africa. From the clues below can you work out who sat where, which country they hailed from and what their BridgeBase Masterpoints Award were? Player Niks Countries Awards Athena Jupiter Albania Malaysia 2 6 Ceres Minerva Denmark Pakistan 3 7 Demeter Priapus Haiti Zaire 4 8 Hades Zeus Jamaica Zambia 5 9 N N W TABLE A E W TABLE B E S S Clues on next page
CLUES Clue 1 No player had a nik with the same initial as the country she or he came from. So Priapus cannot come from Pakistan nor Minerva from Malaysia. Clue 2 The total of the BridgeBase Masterpoints Awards of the players on Table A is 2 greater than the total of the BridgeBase Masterpoints Awards of the players on Table B. Clue 3 The total of the BridgeBase Masterpoints Awards of the players in the Greek Gods team is 4 greater than the total of the BridgeBase Masterpoints Awards of the players in the Roman Gods team. Clue 4 Zeus, who is playing with a lady from the same continent as himself (and this is the only case of 2 players from same continent playing together) and who has a lower BridgeBase Masterpoints Award than her, is sat in the same direction as a man who is partnering a woman from Asia. (e.g. If he is South the man in question is sitting South at the other table) Clue 5 On Table A, the lady with a BridgeBase Masterpoints Award of 6, who is not Ceres, is sitting on the immediate right of a West Indian male with a BridgeBase Masterpoints Award of 7. Clue 6 Jupiter is not the player in the Roman Gods team with the lowest BridgeBase Masterpoints Award in his team. Clue 7 The players sitting East at both tables have a difference of 3 in their BridgeBase Masterpoints Awards. So, say, if one East has 6 the other may have 9 or 3. Clue 8 The person sitting North at one of the tables has a nik lower in the alphabet than the player sitting West at the same table and also has a lower BridgeBase Masterpoints Award. Clue 9 The person from Haiti is sitting in the same direction as the person from Zambia.
SOLUTION Table A Direction Nik Country BBO MP Award North Hades Jamaica 7 East Priapus Zaire 2 South Athena Zambia 8 West Minerva Pakistan 6 Table B Direction Nik Country BBO MP Award North Ceres Malaysia 3 East Zeus Denmark 5 South Jupiter Haiti 9 West Demeter Albania 4 SOLUTION WALK-THROUGH ON FOLLOWING PAGE.
SOLUTION WALK-THROUGH The first port of call is to determine the origin of the gods and their genders. This obviously is essential to decrypting the puzzle. Greek God(desse)s Roman God(desse)s Athena Goddess of Wisdom Ceres Goddess of agriculture Demeter Goddess of agriculture Jupiter King of the Gods Hades God of the Underworld Minerva Goddess of Wisdom Zeus King of the Gods Priapus God of fertility Countries Deductions Country Albania Denmark Continent Europe Europe 1) To solve the problem the first step is to determine the BBO Masterpoint Awards for each of the tables and each of the teams. The total of the BBO Masterpoints (2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9) is 44. Haiti Jamaica Malaysia Pakistan Zaire Zambia North America North America Asia Asia Africa Africa 2) From Clue 2, as Table A is 2 greater than table B the total of the 4 BBO Masterpoints Awards for the players on Table A has to be 23 and that of the players on Table B 21. 3) From Clue 3, as the Greek Gods team is 4 greater than the Roman Gods team the total of the 4 BBO Masterpoints Awards for the players on the Greek Gods team has to be 24 and that of the players on the Roman Gods team 20. 4) From Clue 5, irrespective of where the lady with 6 BBO points and the man with 7 BBO are sitting, the two other players on this table must have an aggregate BBO points of 10. As 6 and 7 are already taken this can only be if the other 2 have BBO points of 8 and 2. So the BBO points for Table A are 2, 6, 7 and 8 and for Table B 3, 4, 5 and 9. Continued next page
5) The next step of determining the BBO points total for the teams is slightly harder, but is easily resolved if we examine the possible sub-totals and eliminate possible pairings. From Clue 5, we know that the lady with 6 BBO points has to be on a different team than the man player with 7 as she is sat on his immediate right. So she must be partnered by a player with 8 or 2 BBO points (4). Similarly, the man player in question, with 7 BBO points, must also be partnered by a player with 8 or 2 BBO points (4). Now, the sum of the 2 BBO points for either of these pairs must be twinned with the sum of 2 other BBO points from the other table to give the aggregate total for the teams 24 for the Greek Gods and 20 for the Roman Gods (4). Now if the lady with 6 BBO points was partnering the player with 8, that would give this pair 14. However, as the BBO points for the other table are 3, 4, 5 and 9 (4) there is no way that a pair at the other table can total 6 to give an overall sum of 20 to be part of the Roman Gods team, nor is there any other way of getting a partnership total of 10 to give the overall total of 24 for the Greek Gods team. So, for a solution to exist, the woman with 6 BBO points must be paired with the 2 BBO point holder. As this partnership total is 8, we need a partnership total of 12 on Table B for her to be a member of the Roman Gods team (total of 20) or a partnership total of 16 at Table B for her to be a member of the Greek Gods team (total of 24). As it is impossible to get a total of 16 from 2 BBO points on Table B the Roman Gods team must be made up of 2, 6 at Table A and 3 and 9 (the only way to get 12 at Table B) and the Greek Gods team, by elimination, 7 and 8 at Table A and 4 and 5 at Table B. This is consistent with the clues :- Roman Gods are 2, 3, 6, and 9 (total 20) and the Greek Gods team is 4, 5, 7 and 8 (total 24). 6) Now, CRUNCH TIME. How can we determine where these players are sitting at the tables? The clue is in Clue 7. the Easts must have a difference of 3 and of course must be on DIFFERENT teams!. Looking at the BBO points for players on Table A - 2, 6, 7 and 8, it can t be 6 as this player would be in same seat as a player on the players own team, and a similar argument exists for 7 and 8 (Greek Gods being 4, 5, 7 and 8). So the East at Table A has to have 2 BBO points and the East at Table B must have 5. As the player with 2 is partnering the player with 6, this player is West and as she is on the immediate right of the player with 7, he is sat at North, leaving the player with 8 sitting South at Table A. As the player with 5 BBO points is sat East at Table B, the player with 4 BBO points is sat West at Table B. As yet, we don't know which of the 3 and 9 BBO points holders are sat in the South and North seats. 7) From Clue 5 and (5) and (6), we know that the lady player with 6 BBO points sat West at Table A is in the Roman Gods Team. She is not Ceres (Clue 50 so must be Minerva. Continued next page
8) From Clue 4, Zeus is playing with a lady from the same continent and who has a LOWER BBO point award. Zeus, who is in the Greek God Team, must be sitting North/South at Table A or East/West at Table B. He cannot be at Table A as he would have to be sat North to be partnering a lady (North is a man with 7 BBO points) and would have a lower BBO Point award than her. So he must be East at Table B. The East at table A must therefore be a man and the lady West must be an Asian female (Clue 4). We established that West is Minerva (7), and as she is Asian she can t be Malaysian (Clue 1) and thus must be from Pakistan. Now, Zeus and his partner are from the same continent. As there are only 2 players from each continent, the pair can t be from Africa (Clue 1, Zeus can t be from Zambia or Zaire) and there is an Asian and a West Indian on Table A, So Zeus and his partner are European (Albania and Denmark.). 9) The West Indian man sat North at Table A is in the Greek Gods team (5). As Zeus is placed (8) he must be Hades. As he is from the West Indies he cant be Haitian (Clue 1) so must be Jamaican. 10) From Clue 9, the person from Haiti is sitting in the same direction as the person from Zambia. Now, this seat cannot be East as Zeus is from Europe (8); neither can it be West as Minerva, from Pakistan, is sitting at West at Table A; nor can it be North as a Jamaican is sat North at Table A (9). So the Zambian and the Haitian are sat South. The Haitian cannot be sat at Table A as s/he would be playing with a Jamaican (contravenes Clue 4) so the Zambian must be South at Table A and the Haitian South at Table B. We are left with 2 countries unassigned Malaysia and Zaire. The Malaysian cannot be playing East at Table A as s/he would be playing with Minerva, a Pakistani. So the Zairian is sat East at Table A and the Malaysian is sat at North on Table B. 11) From Clue 8, the North and West being referenced must be Table B, as Hades on Table A (9) has a higher BBO point award of 7 than Minerva sat West at the same table who has 6. Now, for this person to have a lower BBO point award, North at Table B must have a BBO point award of 3 (not 9 which is the other possibility). So North at Table B has 3 BBO points awards and South at Table B has a 9 BBO points award. From the same clue, North at Table B has a nik lower in the alphabet than West. So West cannot be Athena as this is the lowest nik alphabetically. So, Athena must be sat South at Table A and Demeter must be sat West at Table B. As Demeter is from Europe, she cannot be Danish (Clue 1) so Demeter is from Albania and Zeus, sat East, from Denmark. Also, as Demeter is sat West at Table B, the only possible Roman God to sit North, with a lower nik alphabetically, is Ceres. 12) Jupiter and Priapus are left unassigned. From Clue 6, Jupiter cannot have the lowest BBO point award in his team, so Jupiter cannot be East at Table A, so this person must be Priapus. Jupiter, therefore, by elimination, must be sat South at Table B.