Sudoku Puzzles

8:58 Maen

Jonah looks like one tough dude to beat

I like the mountains on nz they look very nice

cold here not far of freesing at the moment so well below in the am

Got exasperated with so many possibilities and took 2 guesses to solve. Jonah the pro!

I had it narrowed down to the least number of possibilities, then had to guess!

I'm actually here early, today. I reviewed the information on colours. (Thanks again, Sundance!) I understand it. Is there a way to use this technique online here at this site, or must I do it on paper?

So cute in argyle.

7:49 .. i was racing against jonah! good Maen all

Well, Jonah, the future is yours! I'll move over and let you solve all my TOUGH sudoku's!

Hmmm . . . it would seem I need some lessons from Jonah. Sehr gut, Herr Jonah!

28:35

Hi all.
I started with 23 and UP to 29. How do you geniuses make if from there in about 8 minutes?

11:48 with a guess. mAen, Jonah!

Adorable sudoku master. Made it in 10:31 with only 1 guess.

22:36

Don't know my time, but I did NOT have to guess today. I found a sequence where either way you answered, one block came out to be a '1' and from there it was process of elimination. Go ME!!! :)

1) Start at 23 filled - the given puzzle. Unique Possibilities to 26 filled. (UP 26).
2) Hidden pair 25 at bc9 forbids bc7=25, b9=67, c9=79. UP 28.
3) Hidden pair 25 at hi7 forbids hi7=479. UP 29.
4) Locked 4's at ghi8 forbid ab8=4.
5) Locked 7's at ghi8 forbid abcf=7.
6) a9=7 == More...

14:20
Only one guess
Maen all

Clearly not optimized:
1.UP to 26; ae9=67 excludes bcd9=67; UP to 28; 2.ghi8=479 excludes 479 in the rest of R8 and Bh8; c7=9;
3.a9=7==a9=6--b8=6==b8=8--b2=8==b2=7 excludes a2b7=7; a79=7 excludes a45=7; b4c5=57 excludes b4c5=24; bc6=2 excludes efhi6=2; UP to 31;
4.f78=1 excludes d7=1; More...

No real difference in the main fc's of our proofs, Andrei.

I always find it interesting when the 'main' fc's are looking at most of the same strong sets. I think the puzzle itself often dictates that occurrence.

Not so hard

Good mAen to all. The pro Jonah probably did this one faster than I did I guess??

Jonah's a bright little guy! And a cutie, too!

3.43 Yup I think they get easier each time

Uh, Hello

What a sweet baby! I love his curls. Good maEn everyone.

Hello Jonah, you are one cute sudokuist.
have a great day/night one and all

That was really tough. I ended up having one guess & from there it was easy.
Tried Steve and Andrei's proofs but couldn't see the reasoning in Steve's Steps 7&8 or Andrei's Steps 3 &4. Don't know what I was missing. Maybe I'll try it again later.
Cute little Jonah was worth the struggle!

Guten Tag Jonah; you are very cute and I like your matching socks :)

Larryville,
You can download the simple sudoku software from http://angusj.com/sudoku/ Then you can recreate the day's puzzle there. This takes away the tedium of inserting possibilities (and keeps you from making 'fortuitous errors' in set up). I usually start the puzzle there, then print it and do it on paper when I get stuck. Again, hope this helps.

Pretty easy tough puzzle today!

I think Jonah has a fan club growing here...

Steve, can you explain your method to locate the outcomes of steps 6 & 9 in your solution. Thanks.

Meg,

Andrei's step 3 is something Steve or I would have written as four separate steps. The first part is the chain that is the same as Steve's step 6. The second part is the same as Steve's step 7. (The only possibilites for 7 in Bb8 are in column a, so you can eliminate other 7s in More...

Curly hair!

Jonah is very cute. 29:14 after setup. I don't know why I had such trouble with it, I had to start over 3 times today!!!!

it wasn't Jonah driving the car yesterday was it?

Thanx to Gath for changing the archive to a more user friendly interface.

mAen all.

Hi Shayne!

Step 6 in my proof is a standard xy wing:
It looks only at the possible values of three cells: a9=67, b8 =68, b2 = 79.
Both a9 and b2 share the possible value of 7.
b8 interacts with both cells a9 and b2.
If b8 is 6, then a9 is 7.
If b8 is 8, then b2 is 7.
Thus, More...

Hi Shayne - sorry about the typo in explaining step 6!
Should read: three cells: a9=67, b8=68, b2=78.

Soooo cute! Love the curls.