Merry Christmas from Australia (Christmas Morning here as this video is released), and it's always great to see another amazing construction from Aad. I hope everyone at CtC and in the Sudoku Community have a great holiday season, however you celebrate it, and that the New Year and 2025 is full of joy, puzzles, and not too many Bobbins'.
Magical , special wonderful guitar intro from you Simon!!! For all those celebrating today , Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone! Blessed to be part of this amazing community. What a treat to get the fabulous AAD presenting a puzzle to us today.
I finished in 45:32 minutes. This was another excellent showcase of a puzzle by Aad. This one was such a clean one too. I really like how I had to think about the digits below any number on a thermo combined with the arrows to create a maximum number of those digits. Using that helped me solve the break-in at column 9. That was so cool to spot. I think my favorite part was thinking about column 3. Asking if r3c3 could be a 4 or higher really kicked things off for me to finish the puzzle. Fantastic work as expected from Aad. Great Puzzle!
Thank you for the birthday shout out! Glad I could give you a nice segue into promoting the upcoming Hobbit themed pack (which I am looking forward to!)
Merry Christmas Simon and Mark. Thank you for all of your amazing solves, quick wit and great consistency! I look forward to another year of amazing puzzles 🎄
After stumbling through the early bits of the 500k puzzles (with some success, terrible time), I gave myself the approachable sudoku pack for Christmas. 😊 Enjoying very much.
Thanks you, Aad and Simon for the puzzle. And Merry Christmas to Simon, Mark, and the whole CtC community. 00:29:50 for me. It was a nice puzzle. Mine was full of pencilmarks :)
The trick with the arrow/thermo bits that Simon /almost/ got is that the circle has to be the Biggest Digit on both the arrow AND the thermo, and is therefore quite chunky. Once he had his coloring in columns 1 and 9, he could have asked what the circles were in columns 3 and 7. Since they're both bigger than the six other digits on their line pairs (thermo+arrow), the minimum they can each be is a 7. Column 3's couldn't be a 7 or an 8 for sudoku and coloring reasons, unwinding his colors, and then the circle in column 7 must now be a 7. Quite genius setting, once again proving why Aad is one of the all time greats.
Thanks for the very nice guitar intro, and Merry Christmas Simon! I hope you can find time for family and relatives amidst this daily-paced channel (and don't worry, we love pre-recorded videos as well, yet we sometimes worry nothing bad happened to you, if we're not sure you're on holidays).
On the night before Christmas, Aad van gave to me: A puzzle solved in 17:30!! Merry Christmas all, and thank you for the puzzle, and for all the fun over the years!
Level of variant sudoku is absolutely brilliant these days with lot of new creative setters popping up. Somehow Aad manages to remain at the very top level of setters year after year.
_"We doubt Santa will bring you anything better!"_ Confirmed. Santa gave up‼ I have seen him singing a different song for every new digit he entered in Aad's sudoku and he told me he will watch Simon's video after solving himself. This is another memorable CTC milestone. Truly *exquisite* logic from start to end.
I always love your guitar intros, and this one brought home to me just how much more fluent and emotive your playing has become over the years. That, and it brought me back to childhood with my parents playing their own guitars from the Achtung Baby songbook
Merry Christmas, Simon and Mark, and all the joys of whatever holidays anyone might be celebrating. Also good wishes for anyone who's not really up for celebrating right now: may all your troubles be resolved fairly, peacefully, and well. 😻💜🎄
I found a more direct way of getting to the restrictions on the thermo tips in c 1, 3, 7 and 9 to be asking the question of "how many digits in the column must be lower than this digit?". Simon got to the same conclusions, but through a much more convoluted path.
The digit in the circle must be larger than everything on its thermo and its arrow. So in column 3 that's six digits plus the given 7 gives a trivial 89 in the circle.
The way to limit the thermos and arrows easily is to note that both need to be using only smaller numbers than what's in the circle. You can't have a 6 in a circle that needs 6 digits lower than itself.
My silly brain had a conversation with itself. "A Christmas puzzle, less than an hour. Let's do it." "It's Aad." "I expect it's a little difficult." "Not hard, AAD."
Another way to look at it is to say that the circles in column 1 and 9 are the biggest numbers in said column, except for the one digit that isn't on the arrow or thermo.
18:16 for me. honestly, halfway through the sudoku, i had a feeling i solved this already several years ago. Must be some part of the logic that was similar.
19:40 Merry Christmas! One can whittle down the two circles in row 6 as well. One to 89, the other to 789. That allowed me to place the digits of the X-wings. 21:40 Can the circle in R6C3 be 5? What about 6?
* * * CAN YOU JUST MAKE SOME GUITAR VIDEOS ALSO.. SO SOOTHING.. WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE THOSE PLAYING THROUGHOUT THE DAY. GUITAR MUSIC SO CALMING TO THE HEART YOU KNOW. WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THOSE IN MY PLAYLIST.
Made a good start on this, got a bit stuck and watched Simon's solve for a few until the point of 'where is 2 in column 3?' and realized I should have seen that. 😛 From there the rest of the puzzle went smoothly, finished in 25:22 (conflict checker off), many thanks to Aad for yet another wonderful puzzle!
_"What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than with a new puzzle from the Dutch setter Aad van de Wetering"_ Perfect way to celebrate‼ Elegantly elegant logic from start to end, without multicoloured childish drawings that so often clog the grid with redundant information leaving no room for cool logic. Thank you *Aad.* Thank you *Simon.* Merry Christmas to everybody. 🥂😏👍👍👍
The 24th, which is the big day in sweden, unless you're religious, is over. But I know you Angloi-Saxon weirdos celebrate on the 25th, so Merry Christmas to you Simon and Mark and everybody else on the channel!
@@Rocky712_ Well, they generally do in sweden as well, but 25th is the more religious day, just as Sunday is more a religious day than Saturday. 24th is more of family celebration, but for religious people 25th is a more solemn day, with early morning Christmas Mass in Church.
@@dolf370 We got some people that mainly celebrate on the 25th, but most celebrate on the 24th big time, including going to church at lunch time or afternoon at the 24th, even for religious families. 25th and onwards seem mostly to be a way to celebrate with other parts of your family.
Merry Christmas from Australia (Christmas Morning here as this video is released), and it's always great to see another amazing construction from Aad.
I hope everyone at CtC and in the Sudoku Community have a great holiday season, however you celebrate it, and that the New Year and 2025 is full of joy, puzzles, and not too many Bobbins'.
10:59 "Pencillification?" Beautiful :-) Maybe, if Mark is ever going to spend a holiday in the USA, his favourite region will be Pencilvania!
80 years! Amazing longevity. Congrats, Aad.
Beautiful puzzle. Pure joy to solve.
Magical , special wonderful guitar intro from you Simon!!!
For all those celebrating today , Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!
Blessed to be part of this amazing community.
What a treat to get the fabulous AAD presenting a puzzle to us today.
Wonderful comment, David!❤
I finished in 45:32 minutes. This was another excellent showcase of a puzzle by Aad. This one was such a clean one too. I really like how I had to think about the digits below any number on a thermo combined with the arrows to create a maximum number of those digits. Using that helped me solve the break-in at column 9. That was so cool to spot. I think my favorite part was thinking about column 3. Asking if r3c3 could be a 4 or higher really kicked things off for me to finish the puzzle. Fantastic work as expected from Aad. Great Puzzle!
Ah Simon never change. I love watching Simon at work on a thermo. And I love the combination of the solid logic and missing things like the 4 in C7.
"We wish you a 3 in the corner" is the most CtC greeting ever! Happy Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Simon! Thanks for all you do.
Merry Christmas, Santa Simon, and all of CtC!! Happy belated birthday, Aad!! ❤ the guitar intro!!
Tipsy Simon and a guitar intro - be still my heart ❤ What a wonderful gift
Thank you for the birthday shout out! Glad I could give you a nice segue into promoting the upcoming Hobbit themed pack (which I am looking forward to!)
Merry Christmas Simon and Mark. Thank you for all of your amazing solves, quick wit and great consistency! I look forward to another year of amazing puzzles 🎄
Merry Christmas Simon, Mark and the whole CtC community.
Wonderful guitar intro, Simon. Absolutely lovely!
After stumbling through the early bits of the 500k puzzles (with some success, terrible time), I gave myself the approachable sudoku pack for Christmas. 😊 Enjoying very much.
Thanks you, Aad and Simon for the puzzle. And Merry Christmas to Simon, Mark, and the whole CtC community.
00:29:50 for me. It was a nice puzzle. Mine was full of pencilmarks :)
A music intro and an Aad van de Wetering puzzle, what a great early Christmas present from CtC.
That was such a pretty puzzle! Oh, and Aad: Van harte gefeliciteerd met je 80ste verjaardag! :D
Aad is so consistent at generating new ideas. His puzzles are always a joy to solve.
Merry Chrimbo Simon and Mark!
Many thanks for the gifts you give to us each and every day.
All the best.
I have a great bingo card. Straight out the gate I have setter praised and avoiding pencil marking! Fingers crossed!
The trick with the arrow/thermo bits that Simon /almost/ got is that the circle has to be the Biggest Digit on both the arrow AND the thermo, and is therefore quite chunky. Once he had his coloring in columns 1 and 9, he could have asked what the circles were in columns 3 and 7. Since they're both bigger than the six other digits on their line pairs (thermo+arrow), the minimum they can each be is a 7. Column 3's couldn't be a 7 or an 8 for sudoku and coloring reasons, unwinding his colors, and then the circle in column 7 must now be a 7.
Quite genius setting, once again proving why Aad is one of the all time greats.
Thanks for the very nice guitar intro, and Merry Christmas Simon! I hope you can find time for family and relatives amidst this daily-paced channel (and don't worry, we love pre-recorded videos as well, yet we sometimes worry nothing bad happened to you, if we're not sure you're on holidays).
Thank you Simon, and Merry Christmas! This was a wonderful puzzle and I love watching while you solve. Brilliant!
On the night before Christmas, Aad van gave to me:
A puzzle solved in 17:30!!
Merry Christmas all, and thank you for the puzzle, and for all the fun over the years!
A very Happy Christmas to you, Simon and Mark! Thank you for the many hours of delight you bring with your daily videos!
Level of variant sudoku is absolutely brilliant these days with lot of new creative setters popping up. Somehow Aad manages to remain at the very top level of setters year after year.
_"We doubt Santa will bring you anything better!"_
Confirmed. Santa gave up‼ I have seen him singing a different song for every new digit he entered in Aad's sudoku and he told me he will watch Simon's video after solving himself.
This is another memorable CTC milestone. Truly *exquisite* logic from start to end.
I always love your guitar intros, and this one brought home to me just how much more fluent and emotive your playing has become over the years. That, and it brought me back to childhood with my parents playing their own guitars from the Achtung Baby songbook
Christmas Three on Christmas Eve, what a wonderful fit ♥
Merry Christmas, Simon and Mark, and all the joys of whatever holidays anyone might be celebrating. Also good wishes for anyone who's not really up for celebrating right now: may all your troubles be resolved fairly, peacefully, and well. 😻💜🎄
It took me about twice as long as it did Simon, but I got there in the end. Thanks Aad for a crafty and creative sudoku. Merry Christmas everyone!
u2's one, might be one of if not my favorite of u2's songs.
Merry Christmas!
Aad makes so many fun and interesting puzzles!
Merry Christmas to you and family,Simon!
Wonderful puzzle. Merry Christmas from Germany.
I found a more direct way of getting to the restrictions on the thermo tips in c 1, 3, 7 and 9 to be asking the question of "how many digits in the column must be lower than this digit?". Simon got to the same conclusions, but through a much more convoluted path.
35.49 for me. Dankjewel Aad. Everybody Merry Christmas.
Another christmas with another puzzle! Merry christmas!!❤😊
Merry Christmas from China Simon and Mark! Hope to see more of your videos in the following year!
One from U2 is one of my absolut favorits. ❤️
13:37 for me. Nice puzzle! Merry Christmas everyone!!
Wow I’m from Brisbane too that’s amazing. That casino is now closed and they’ve just opened up a brand new massive one.
Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas
what a piece of Aad. Merry Christmas!
Merry christmas and thank you for nice sudoku.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2025 with more sudokus ❤❤❤
The digit in the circle must be larger than everything on its thermo and its arrow. So in column 3 that's six digits plus the given 7 gives a trivial 89 in the circle.
Merry Christmas Sinon and Mark from Queensland Australia
Merry Christmas to everyone. Cheers! 🥂🥂
The way to limit the thermos and arrows easily is to note that both need to be using only smaller numbers than what's in the circle. You can't have a 6 in a circle that needs 6 digits lower than itself.
My silly brain had a conversation with itself.
"A Christmas puzzle, less than an hour. Let's do it."
"It's Aad."
"I expect it's a little difficult."
"Not hard, AAD."
Solved in 21:03. Beautiful puzzle
Merry Christmas Simon, Mark and everybody on CTC! It's funny how Simon pencilmarks the 8 in box 4 (column 1), and than tries to puts an 8 in r6c3!
20:08 ... One fun solve
Nice puzzle!
Another way to look at it is to say that the circles in column 1 and 9 are the biggest numbers in said column, except for the one digit that isn't on the arrow or thermo.
Happy Christmas to Simon, Mark, all the setters and all the puzzle lovers. Hope 2025 is kind to all
Watched this with the Bingo card and it was so much fun :-) sadly no Bingo win 😂 would have got a line if Simon had said “no song”
18:16 for me. honestly, halfway through the sudoku, i had a feeling i solved this already several years ago. Must be some part of the logic that was similar.
Finished in 45:14. Fine puzzle, very tricky. Maybe a bit tedious the way I solved it.
45:52 - great puzzle, thanks!
24:09 for me. I think I could have knocked off 5 minutes if I didn't for some reason just not see the 7 arrow already had a 2 and a 3 in it's column.
19:40 Merry Christmas! One can whittle down the two circles in row 6 as well. One to 89, the other to 789. That allowed me to place the digits of the X-wings.
21:40 Can the circle in R6C3 be 5? What about 6?
happy holidays everyone!!
Great break-in and idea! 00:10:01 for me ^^
26:19 finish. And a Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas to you (both) as well as my fellow viewers :>
Merry Christmas Simon and Mark keep up the good work in 2025 from 🇦🇺
* * * CAN YOU JUST MAKE SOME GUITAR VIDEOS ALSO.. SO SOOTHING.. WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE THOSE PLAYING THROUGHOUT THE DAY. GUITAR MUSIC SO CALMING TO THE HEART YOU KNOW. WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THOSE IN MY PLAYLIST.
What is the melody you play in the beginning called?
Made a good start on this, got a bit stuck and watched Simon's solve for a few until the point of 'where is 2 in column 3?' and realized I should have seen that. 😛 From there the rest of the puzzle went smoothly, finished in 25:22 (conflict checker off), many thanks to Aad for yet another wonderful puzzle!
happy christmas!!
24:05 for me, thank you!
00:24:03
What's Simon got against column 7?
Edit: He started looking at it just after I commented.
30.15 for me
_"What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than with a new puzzle from the Dutch setter Aad van de Wetering"_
Perfect way to celebrate‼ Elegantly elegant logic from start to end, without multicoloured childish drawings that so often clog the grid with redundant information leaving no room for cool logic.
Thank you *Aad.* Thank you *Simon.* Merry Christmas to everybody.
🥂😏👍👍👍
Is it getting better, or do you feel the same...
22:56 for me
16:02 for me :)
got a 31:07. I might've beat Simon on this one
Nvm, he got a 29:53
The 24th, which is the big day in sweden, unless you're religious, is over. But I know you Angloi-Saxon weirdos celebrate on the 25th, so Merry Christmas to you Simon and Mark and everybody else on the channel!
In Germany, even religious people celebrate on the 24th :)
@@Rocky712_ Well, they generally do in sweden as well, but 25th is the more religious day, just as Sunday is more a religious day than Saturday. 24th is more of family celebration, but for religious people 25th is a more solemn day, with early morning Christmas Mass in Church.
@@dolf370 We got some people that mainly celebrate on the 25th, but most celebrate on the 24th big time, including going to church at lunch time or afternoon at the 24th, even for religious families. 25th and onwards seem mostly to be a way to celebrate with other parts of your family.
The title of this sudoku should have been "Merry X-mas", with the X referring to the X-wing!
16:46 for me.
Ooph this was Aad.
Was hoping this could be a letterabled solve but the givens are def needed
„It‘s classic Aad“ - „It‘s classic art“
00:47:11