Aracna

Designer: Alfons Eyckmans

This puzzle measures: 96 mm x 96 mm x 96 mm

Material: depends on product variant below

Moves: 27 (13.2.3)

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“The Aracna is a stunning 12 piece burr made from Walnut with a hidden interior piece crafted from Wenge and Maple. The grain in the wood is gorgeous and, with the smooth finish and lovely bevelling, it is a fabulous puzzle to hold and play with. This puzzle was designed by the incredibly prolific and talented Alfons Eyckmans and is part of what my friend Goetz calls the Burr zoo. Jakub and Jaroslav have really great taste when choosing the puzzles to produce – they home in on puzzles that are both beautiful and also solvable without being resorting to the computer. This is one perfect example. Despite having a relatively easy disassembly level (13.2.2), I seemed to struggle for quite some time. There are only a few possible moves early on and then suddenly about 6 or 7 moves in, the decision tree rapidly opens up and there are quite a lot of possibilities available to choose from. I sheepishly have to admit that I got stuck for a while at this point – I became obsessed with one particular option and kept trying to follow this path without making any headway for a good week or so. A systematic review of the possible moves might (just possibly if you are lucky) allow you to hold this puzzle just perfectly and then a very clever multi-piece move can occur. Once you have found the clever move then all of a sudden a whole bunch of new possibilities appear and it is only another couple of moves to remove the first piece. From this point, it is fairly trivial to disassemble the rest but is still enjoyable as the puzzle remains very stable in one piece as you remove more and more pieces.”