What Is Bimaru?
Bimaru is a logic puzzle played on a grid. You're given the outline of a naval fleet and a set of number clues along the rows and columns. Your job is to figure out exactly where every ship is hiding — using nothing but deduction.
In English, the same puzzle is usually called Battleship Solitaire. Same rules, different name. Zolelot uses both terms because players find this puzzle under either name depending on where they grew up solving it — in a newspaper, a puzzle book, or an app.
How the puzzle works
The grid is 10×10. Along each row and column there's a number telling you how many ship segments appear in that line. You also have a fixed fleet to place: one battleship (4 cells), two cruisers (3 cells each), three destroyers (2 cells each), and four submarines (1 cell each). That's 10 ships total, 20 cells occupied on a 100-cell board.
The critical rule — the one that makes logical solving possible — is that ships cannot touch each other from any direction, including diagonals. Once you know a ship occupies a cell, all 8 surrounding cells become water. This cascades. One confirmed ship segment produces several guaranteed water cells, which constrain where other ships can go, which reveals more ship segments, and so on until the board is complete.
Every puzzle also has exactly one valid solution. There's no ambiguity to resolve by guessing — the logic always leads to a single correct answer.
Bimaru vs. Battleship Solitaire vs. the board game
This is a solitaire puzzle, not the two-player guessing game. In the board game Battleship, you fire shots at a hidden fleet and rely on luck. In Bimaru / Battleship Solitaire, the entire board is yours to reason through alone. The goal is deduction, not guessing. There's no opponent, no random element, and no way to "lose" by bad luck.
The puzzle originated in newspaper puzzle supplements, which is why it carries the "newspaper-style" label on many sites. In Hebrew, it's simply called "Tzollelot" (submarines) — the name Dan grew up with in Israeli newspaper weekend magazines.
Why it's satisfying
The no-diagonal-touch rule is deceptively powerful. It means the moment you commit to a ship placement, you immediately know the state of up to 8 adjacent cells. This creates a chain reaction of deductions that gives the puzzle a clean, satisfying progression: the board goes from mostly empty to fully solved through a series of logical steps, each one justified, none arbitrary.
Unlike crosswords or Sudoku, you don't need any background knowledge or vocabulary. The rules are self-contained. Every player who learns the rules has everything they need to solve any puzzle.
What the daily version at Zolelot adds
One puzzle per day, the same board for every player. Dan — the creator — plays it himself each day alongside his family. You can compare times, discuss stuck points, and experience the same challenge at the same moment as anyone else who plays. Results reset at midnight local time, so every day starts fresh.
The puzzles are generated nightly by an algorithm, then validated by a tiered solver before publishing. This ensures every puzzle is genuinely difficult (T3–T5 expert difficulty) and genuinely solvable — never recycled, never hand-authored, never requiring a guess.
Frequently asked questions
Are Bimaru and Battleship Solitaire the same puzzle?
Yes. Both names refer to the same family of logic puzzle: a grid with row and column clues, a fixed fleet, and a no-touching rule. The name "Bimaru" is more common in European puzzle books and apps; "Battleship Solitaire" is the standard English name. The rules are identical.
Can I play for free?
Yes. The daily puzzle at zolelot.com is completely free. No account, no registration, no download.
Is every puzzle solvable without guessing?
Yes — every puzzle on Zolelot has exactly one solution reachable by pure logic. A tiered solver validates this before the puzzle is published. You will never need to guess.
How long does a puzzle take to solve?
Most players finish in 5 to 15 minutes. Beginners may take longer on their first few puzzles while learning the logic patterns. With practice, times drop significantly.
How hard are the puzzles?
Zolelot generates T3–T5 difficulty (expert tier). These are harder than typical newspaper puzzles and require multi-step logical chains.
Does everyone get the same daily puzzle?
Yes. One puzzle is published per day, the same board for every player worldwide. This makes your result meaningful to compare with friends.