Sudoku Puzzles

Basically I miss the surprise picture!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Gath has really upped the standard here!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about that....

Small bug with the picture caption caused today's problems.

Sorry again.


Gath

I have a puzzle here don't know if Gath has just fixed it or if I'm just lucky.. my Hard was missing so I'll go back after this Tough and check. Hope you all get your fix soon

5:55 with a few guesses .. wow my record. Now back to hard to see if it has returned

Looks very cool up there in the mountains..
Winter is on it's way here in SE Qld..brrrr

This is the first TOUGH I've tried - only since I couldn't 'see' the HARD puzzle. I haven't solved it yet, but I am still trying....

Now that we have a puzzle: Please let me know if you find less deep proof! (This proof seems too complicated for the puzzle.)

1) Start at 23 filled - the given puzzle. Unique Possibilities to 28. (UP 28)
2) Locked 3's at ac3 forbid 3 from de3.
3) Locked 3's at d56 forbid 3 from More...

Finally got it, but had to get clues. I can't do them this hard without a pencil and a BIG eraser.

To BROCK -- thanks for the info. But I have to admit that I scrolled down through what was unintelligible for me -- I hope we never have to do this again, or rather that you are here to figure it out next time! Thanks again.

Mountains...with some of that white stuff on them! We didn't see much of that this past winter.

Well what ever any body says I enjoy the pic's

I also came up with a proof that seems like it's more complicated than it needs to be.

1) Start 23, UP to 28.
2) x-wing 3s at ef1, ef7 forbid e3=3, f4=3, f5=3. UP 38.
3) Locked 4s at f45 forbid f1=4, f2=4, f7=4, f8=4.
4) g6=1 == c6=1 -- b5=1 == b9=1 -- d9=1 == d8=1 forbids More...

Steve,
Our proofs look similar. We go in different directions (painfully) at 38 filled, but we come back to the same point at 48.

Difficulty rating function I am using:
difficulty of a step is a function only of the depth of the step = number of strong sets considered in the step.
Difficulty of a step = 1/100 * (2**(depth of step) -1).
Difficulty of proof = sum of difficulty of each step.

Suggestions for More...

Steve and Clarke

Call me daft but I can't see how you got the locked 4s at f45. What about d5 which I have possibilities as 3,4,7,8. What have I missed?

Whoops! I take that back- just found my opening!

I take that back too.

Reading the comments, I'm not even going to try it! Hello and goodbye!

fi - at 38 filled I have d5=3.

Way too long to solve.

July 26, 2007.

1.SST to UP=38
2.kraken cell(356)f7 => f5=7 UP=45
(3)f7-(3=4)e7-h7=h5-(4=7)f5
||
(5)f7-(5=1)d9-b9=(1-7)b5=f5
||
(6)f7-(*357)f127=(7)f5
3.( 2=5)b9-c7=f7-(5=1)d9-d8=c8 => c8<>2,c7<>1 STE.