Araf
Araf was invented by Masatoshi Kengo (Japan) in 2007 and first appeared in the second round of the 2007 Japanese Puzzle Championships. Its original Japanese name, 相ダ部屋 (Aidabeya), is a clever pun on 相部屋 (Aibeya), meaning “shared room,” and 間 (Aida), meaning “between.”
The puzzle was later given the name Araf by Serkan Yürekli (Turkey), who introduced it internationally, including at the 19th World Puzzle Championship in Poland. In Turkish, Araf means “purgatory,” reflecting the puzzle’s thematic idea of being “between” — a fitting metaphor for its core concept of reasoning between numbers.
Combining linguistic playfulness with logical depth, Araf has become a distinctive and creative addition to the world of logic puzzles.
The puzzle was later given the name Araf by Serkan Yürekli (Turkey), who introduced it internationally, including at the 19th World Puzzle Championship in Poland. In Turkish, Araf means “purgatory,” reflecting the puzzle’s thematic idea of being “between” — a fitting metaphor for its core concept of reasoning between numbers.
Combining linguistic playfulness with logical depth, Araf has become a distinctive and creative addition to the world of logic puzzles.
Rules
Split the grid into orthogonally connected areas, such that each area contains exactly two clue cells, and such that the size of each area lies strictly between the values of the two clues that it contains.
Click to see the answer.