I did set this by hand*, starting from White Room (well, the 7-cage version of White Room) and modifying from there. I don't know for sure that 6 is the fewest cages possible, but as hard as this was to find I haven't even tried improving on it... *by hand here means choosing where the cages go and what sums they have, making heavy use of f-puzzles + rangsk's solver to check for solution counts and weak cells. As mentioned in some GAS intro recently, I am usually a setting cyborg. ;)
Very well done, Philip! What a stunning construction/discovery. Thanks also for your long-standing GAS contribution. Your efforts here, and those of your peers, have allowed so many of us to enter the rich and beautiful world of variant Sudoku.
Thanks all! And I want to add now that I've watched the whole thing, what a great solve from Simon. Steady and well-explained progress the whole way, never felt stuck and always focusing on the right cells or digits. (Oh, and apart from just having a Clapton theme with these minimal killer constructions, the "got me on my knees" line definitely was a factor in naming it after the experience of both setting it and solving it afterward. :))
We need like a picture of Simon drinking tea and a jingle and a card that says "Intermission" all cursive to pop up when he steps out for lunch and football 😂
Holding a piece of chalk in his hand, staring at a sudoku on a chalkboard, placing another digit, the whole thing surrounded by color bars. Simon will know what I mean.
dear simon, i understand that in these longer videos it can feel quite daunting to go significant periods of time w/o making what you consider to be progress, but i can assure you as someone who likes to follow along with the logic you present, as well as look for logic on my own, i do not find those parts of the video dull at all! it's fascinating seeing what is going on in your head (what you can articulate of it at least) and in the rare moments where i spot something you've yet to find, it's quite a euphoric experience! overall, i do wish you'd be less focused on these sorts of thoughts tho, your headspace if full enough trying to solve these insanely difficult puzzles!
Agreed. I see every hard puzzle video as a gift to me. They are the ones worth my time to watch! This one had some pretty extreme stretches as far as what is explainable. I followed every deduction Simon made, but I'm certain there are some viewers that can't at this level. I suppose this is the real restriction. If it's just not possible to follow the logic, then it's a problem. The "quiet moments" don't bother me at all on a puzzle like this. In some cases, I had seen the next step and Simon hadn't but then was completely stuck on what was next. No matter how many times I got ahead, I knew that Simon would always catch back up in a minute or two.
This puzzle just blows my mind! I solved it in 77 minutes, but out of absolutely nowhere. At some point, the solve path is just too smooth to be realistic and not thinking I am breaking something! But turns out that's right! Edit: It's amazing that Simon can figure out some complicated logic in it that I haven't thought of, but I would like to show a possibly easier but definitly amazing path after around 59:00 : 1. The main character is r1c8, which is either 7 or 9. Let's call that "X". 2. In column 6, "X" can only go into either r5c6 or r6c6, i.e. box 5, by pure Sudoku. 3. Then because of the 79 pair in row 7, "X" which must appear in the 6-cell 37 cage, must be in either r6c3 or r8c3, i.e. in column 3. 4. Then look at box 1, "X" now is restricted into the 8-cell 37 cage AND box 1. 5. Finally, look at row 4, where can "X" go? By the killer cage, it can't be in r4c123. By point 2 mentioned earlier, it also can't be in r4c456. And by Sudoku, it can't be in r4c89. Hence, the only position that "X" can be is r4c7, which is in a 4-cell 13 cage. Therefore, "X" = 7. Q.E.D! I cannot tell you how excited and satisfied I was when I find this logic because the puzzle just collapsed after that! And it was too good to be true so I just triple checked whether this logic was valid! Therefore I want to share this with you and it would by my pleasure if you read to here and enjoy this comment😄
Yes! I found this in my solve, and it helped a lot. Nice explanation. (Mind you, I was coming up on three hours by this point. Apparently, Simon can break for lunch and a football game, and still beat my time 😂).
I made a minor deduction that you did not in the midgame and it completely changed how the endgame looked, some square had to be one of 2 digits rather than one of 3 digits. Because of it, the piece of logic that gave you that 7 gave me a nearby 9 instead. Ended up in the same place of course. I got to the end of the midgame on my own, then got stuck, so I started watching the video until you had pretty much caught up to where I was. Then any time you said anything I stopped and checked it out. Eventually something twigged and I finished it off, then finished watching how you did it. When I get really stuck I generally go this route. I still mostly solve the puzzle, except for hints from the general direction your thoughts are taking you, which generally are the right directions to go and the right places to look. Less extended frustration for me and more learning better ways to think about things.
Starting from the end, I was amused and filled with enjoyment of your guitar outro as background music - a little louder than purely background - for your commentary about the puzzle. Going back farther, I noted when you had about 17 minutes left in the video that you still had a lot of cells yet to figure out - and so I knew that there would be (another) breakthrough that would bring the puzzle to a close. Going back earlier, you said that you feared that people don't like watching you work out minute bits of logic that take a long time to think about and then explain - I will assure you that, for my part, I never mind that at all. For one thing, I know that you succeed, and I am quite interested to see how you do it. For another thing, you are not boring when you are working it out, even if you are somewhat silent - you always do explain yourself. And going back to the beginning, what a pleasure to see another one of the truly nerdy puzzles that Philip devises - the GAS puzzles are great, but these are beyond belief. Thanks, Simon - and thanks, Philip. (Oh, and good for you, having lunch and football with your kids on school holiday - that is what memories are made of, not sudoku puzzles!)
I've only played normal Sudoku (and slowly at that) Let me say I am AMAZED at these puzzles and really want to give them a go! Maybe starting out a bit easier than this haha
The gas puzzle packs were the best for starting out for me as the variety in there helped me find my favourite variants. My favourites are chess and domino but the variety helps stop me feeling bogged down if i start struggling. The gas playlist is also a nice place to look as the solutions are in video form if you need them :)
Definitely try the gas puzzle pack. I was a total novice when it comes to variant sudoku (and not that great with ordinary sudoku tbh) and the pack was a great introduction.
you should look into killer sudokus!!! my partner whos self-proclaimed "bad" at sudoku loves them! the easier ones just give a quicker way to solve the answers, esp. the ones with very small cages. (since youre kinda given the answers without needing to check number spots)
I love how he logics out the yellow cell in the 16 cage at about 30:00, when it was way simpler. You can see that yellow must be in the 7 cage, but based on the coloring you can clearly see that it can't be the same as red, so it must be part of the orange domino, and thus plonks it into the left side of the 16 cage.
If digits are allowed to repeat in cages, the minimum number of cages to ensure a unique solution is ONE. I'm not the one who discovered this, but it's fairly striaghtforward to arrrange a cage with a unique solution and demonstrate that the solution is unique. Make the cage contain a single one, two twos, three threes, etc. up to nine nines, and have it use all nine cells of one row, column and box, exactly eight cells of another, etc. down to one cell of the last row, column, and box. To reach its total in 45 cells, the cage will need to have nine nines, one of which will need to appear in the cage on the row with just one cage cell. Another nine will appear in the cage on the row with two cage cells, but one of those cells will be in the column with nine cage cells, one of which will already be a nine, pushing the second nine into the column with eight cage cells. The third nine will go at the intersection of the row which has three cage cells an the column which has seven, etc. Once all the nines are placed, there will only be one spot for an eight on the row with two cage cells, then three, four, etc. up to nine, Then there will only be one spot for a seven on the row with three cage cells, etc. Eventually, all digits will be placed.
That this puzzle exists is extraordinary (just 6 simple killers) and that Philip Newman "discovered" this puzzle is extraordinary. And this is an incredibly good solve by Simon showing great persistence. I got as far as placing 1 in R7C1 and then had very little idea how to proceed. I just wish Simon would remove the colouring when it has served it's purpose (I'm sure it distracts from scanning) and at the end remove ALL colouring so we can admire the puzzle in its simple beauty.
64:08 actually, I find it more riveting than a thriller. Any moment a new breakthrough could be just around the corner, and the anticipation is ramping up my adrenaline. I love looking at you logicing. That might not be a word, but it should be.
Simon, hell would have to freeze over before I attempted a puzzle like this on my one. But I do hope you know what an absolute delight it is to follow you on these solves. I don't often have the time for what seem to be frequently longer solves. But here I am treating myself on Easter Friday! Thank you! 💙
Man, this took me a 180 minutes while doing other things and coming back to it..... I'm not sure if I technically "cheated" because I just started taking the paths which looked like they would lead to a dead end (e.g., trying to make the 13 killer sudoku fit a 1345 structure) and eventually leading to a contradiction. I know Simon is not a big fan of this method, and really I'm a little tired and don't want to sit through the whole 1 hour and 40 minutes trying to see if there was really another method doing this. In all, I think I took 5 major branching paths: 1) Trying to fit a 1345 combo into the 13 cage, 2) Trying to fit an 8 on the bottom row of the left square. Number 1 and 2 led me to realizing that 7 had to be on the right side of the center square because it ran into the same contradictions that the previous 2 tries ran into. 3) Trying the 7 in the 13 cage on the bottom most space. 4) Trying both 79 in the 6-number 37 cage on the 6th row. 5) From the previous ones, I was left with 3 and 6 in the only square in the 6-number 37 cage in the middle square, and I tried the 3 as it was more limited (as it required the 346789 combo in the killer cage). To be honest, I'm not really sure if some of the methods that Simon does are that much different, but he doesn't seem to like putting the numbers in and then going down that path.
Around the 1 hour something mark on Mark's solve I spotted that the r1c1 cell is extremely restricted since it has to show up on the 8less cage Isn't green, isn't yellow, would make a 136 quadruple on r4, isn't an 8
@LarkyLuna, I'll be watching for something when Simon gets there (because those four cells in box4 - in the 37 cage -- are those four cells in box1 - now that I got the 8 in there @58:00 or something marks). I'll be watching for that r1c1 cell (which is in one of those two in row4 of that 37cage). Thanks I almost wanted to start over there. It's gonna come handy in the end.
17:00 "If 4 is not in it..." says the man and than quickly forgets what he just said and proceeds anyways to analyze whether 1246 would work. Simon, you're truly unique in your weirdness! 😆
I used 174 minutes, and I had at least three 8s, three 7s and a couple 9s way, way before I got my first 1. If you try to make R1C8 an 8, you'll see that the lesser 37 cage won't have anywhere to put 8 because of where 8s have to go elsewhere in the grid. Also, I got the 1234 quad in C6 fast by asking what the low digits in C7 would have to be if I put any high digits in the part of the 13 cage that resides in C6.
Great puzzle, but more frustrating than fun. At some point, around the hour mark in the video, you just have to check every cell and go "if that's blue, then that must be blue, then that must be blue..." and repeat it until you find anything that doesn't work just for a tiny deduction.
Make the best of the situation, before I finally go insane. Please don't say I'll never find a way, and tell me all my sudoku's in vain. Layla, you got me on my knees! (Apologies to Slowhand) That was a toughie, what with the sticky out bits of cages where a tricky digit could hide, and all the subtle interactions going on. I think the main reason this was hard was that, although making each deduction did lead to the next, a lot of the time that next deduction required noticing that a digit had become restricted in some far-flung box/column/row/cage. These are not easy to spot unless you've got Mark's uncanny ability to spot naked singles. Because e.g. making the 13 cage in C7 be 27 or 45 directly affects the placement of four different digits, but it also affects all of the yellows and greens, and they in turn affect the composition of the smaller 37 cage, and each choice has very different impacts around the grid, it's really hard to spot any contradiction. Even though I had made some of the deductions you thought had been available for ages, they didn't really make life much easier. What was really annoying, was that I was 95% sure that yellow was 4, and that R5C1 was yellow, from very early on. Something in my subconscious must have spotted something, but I couldn't summon it to the surface. Each time I tried to make yellow 2, because of the subtlety of the interactions, I couldn't spot how it broke. I'm sure this could be solved much quicker by bifurcating, but we don't do that. @ 29:10 - Two observations: 1) you have noted that yellow cannot go in the small 37 cage, but if yellow is in the 13 cage, you end up with it being forced into the 37 cage (this is a great example of the sort of subtlety at play). 2) Whatever the make-up of the 13 cage, you get a sextuple in C7. The 6 must be in the 16 cage, and the 5 or 7 must be in the 13 cage along with one of 124. The 3 in the 13 cage must therefore be in C6. You now have a 1234 quad in C6. Yellow must be at the bottom of C6, so R9C5 is blue. This means in C7 you have a 36 pair at the bottom, a 124 and a 57 in the 13, and a 124 and a 24 in the 7. @ 45:25 - I knew that was going to happen 🤣 @ 1:23:12 - "I can't see why it breaks" - you're tantalisingly close! In box 1, the 79 pairs would mean only one place for a non-caged 79 - R2C3. That digit would have to go in R6C4 in the smaller 37 cage. However, this creates another 79 pair, so there's nowhere for the second 79 to go. This was a big breakthrough for me. It made R6C7=5, resolving the 13 cage, and green/yellow. @ 1:29:34 - "nope, that doesn't do it" - you now have 3s aligning in C1/2 in boxes 1 & 4, so you can place 3 in R9C3, resolving the 36 pair in box 9. @ 1:31:40 - "which would make that 7, which would be huge" - again, so close. That was if R6C6 is 79. What if it's not? Then it's 6, the cell below is 5, and you still get 7 in R5C6 - which is huge! @ 1:43:04 - "we've got a 147 thing going on - must be resolved" - and is. You're pointing at a 1 next to a 14 pair. I love Philip's puzzles, he always seems to find something new and interesting. This was no exception, fiendish, but very interesting, and very rewarding. The way it lures you in with such apparently useful cages was the work of an evil genius.
Looked up the Eric Clapton/Duane Allman album - will listen soon. Noted that Eric, Duane and George Harrison are all included in 100 greatest guitarists! 🎸🎸🎸
@@davidrattner9 looking forward to it!!! Currently on storm watch and power going off and (so far) back on. Temps in high 90’s F today. Sweltering. Hoping it’s a gentle storm and only cools the temp! 🙏🏻. ❤️❤️❤️
There could be some massive shortcuts via uniqueness in this puzzle. This is not a complaint or a claim that Simon should use this, just pointing it out. If the 13 cage doesnt' have 7 in it, then nothing in the puzzle could possibly differentiate the 7s and 9s, therefore the 13 cage must be 1237. Then, you have a 7, 13, 16, and 37 cage all with 1 and 2 in them. So the only way to differentiate 1 and 2 is if one of them is in the other 37 cage. Therefore the smaller 37 cage must be 125.
From 56 minutes onwards, r1c8 (79) must come in row 5 or 6 in column 6, making the 79 an x-wing in rows 5+6, placing the 79 (from r1c8) in r8c3. I believe that would have helped out a bit. Anyway, I enjoyed the long film!
Philip Newman also created my nemesis puzzle, Regions for the stars. It features 8 cages plus 1-9 on the negative diagonal. I have been on it for two years and will one day…
I'm extremely surprised to hear that Quite a Mouthful is in your queue. That puzzle is something I'd describe more as a novelty than as a thing of beauty. I remember having around a 4-5 hour solve time on it, and I'm not convinced that I missed any clever shortcuts.
I'm kind of proud that I solved it. And I think it's great that it exists, as a bit of a Leviathan of the Sudoku world. But I wouldn't exactly describe it as a fun experience.
Hello! Love this solve. One question, hopefully someone can help. At 35:00 Simon says yellow cannot appear in the 37 cage as green definitely does appear, but I’m not sure how he concluded green definitely appears? Couldn’t green be the ‘1’ digit in r7c1?
Great solve from Simon and a puzzle far too difficult for me. In one case, Simon could have done himself a favor: @ 29-30 minutes into the video, just continuing with three colors representing the 1,2,4 triple. Then, assuming that the yellow one would go to r8c7 or r9c7, immediately breaking the puzzle, because the 13-cage does not have room for a 2 or a 4 anymore. Or did I miss something? Again, for the remainder of the solve (I did not get much further than this), I had to rely on watching the video 🙂
Very clever, and credit to Philip for his minimalist construction, but this isn't the kind of video I get any real enjoyment out of watching. Nothing wrong with your solve, it's just not an engaging puzzle where all the way through it's a case of try placing _this_ digit _here_ and follow the logic chain to reach a clash, whittle it away, place _that_ digit _there_ and follow the logic chain to reach a clash, whittle it away. Don't get me wrong, I love long videos when there is elegant logic or a beautiful trick or even just a sense of fun ... but not when it's just a war of attrition like this. Sorry if that sounds like I'm being a negative nancy and I hope you will take this in the constructive way it is meant.
Philip Newman puzzles are certainly not for everyone. While following an "intended" solve path is fun in its own way, solving a Philip Newman puzzle often means forging my own path, adamantly refusing to bifurcate, fighting tooth and nail for one digit at a time. I'm almost confident that some of his puzzles don't even *have* intended logic. The beauty lies in the agony of the solvers.
Fascinating. I love watching through these long ones even if I skip through and don't watch every minute of them... It's really fun to have the opportunity to attack these out-of-my-league puzzles bit by bit even when the CtC boys do most of the heavy lifting.
Very, very impressive. And I don't mind the deep thought's silent voice. It's just the nature of things and certainly the nature of the Kracken. Btw. The Thinker by Rodin has never uttered a single word - but we have all felt that word nonetheless. The only difference here being we're talking about a number. Shouting is nothing but noise, this world's Mavericks of flying clay. I enjoy your videos. Sincerely Poul, Denmark. Subscriber.
I have no idea if I spotted some logic earlier in the solve than Simon did, or if I made some illogical assumptions that happened to give correct conclusions - possibly a bit of both. I tried to color the cells either high (56789) or low (1234) from nearly the start and concluded way earlier that r6 c1-2 had to be low before even looking at 8's. But I'm not sure if I got there via logic or not. I suspect not, because I had 6789 penciled into the non-r7 cells of the 37-cage for a long time. I might have forgotten that I was including 5 as a "high" digit and thought "I have three high digits in row 7, looking at the 37 cage; they all need to be in it somewhere." Either way, I needed a lot of help from the video to get through this
I'm pretty sure that you can't logic through that without going down a branch. As the 8 COULD be there unless you follow the branching as the 6-number 37-killer cage could contain a 3 with the 7 or 9 instead of a 5 or 6 on r6. There was another comment which seems a more detailed way of finding the contradiction instead of the branching, but I'm pretty sure you can't figure out that those 2 cells have to be low as up until my last branch, I still had a 3 being a viable possibility on r6 in that cage.
An amazing solve as always ❤ Only Simon can give excellent points on a logic and then not use it but later solving it in a completely different route😅 I'm talking about the logic around the 1's around 45 minutes in which deducted the blue 1 from R5C3 which would have given some digits in the 13 cage and box 6. 1hour later Simon finds another way to do it not using the logic he found at all 😂
And I could only stop my timer at 359 minutes. I did restart after a couple of hours, not because I made an error but because I was stuck and wanted to see if I got a new perspective by restarting... Generally had the same solve path as Simon.
This one might have been too tough for me. Progress felt like I'd get one or two breadcrumbs and then grind to a halt again. I found this one a bit annoying at times
This is last sudoku I solved before going on vacation ... and I got my time's worth, to say the least. I spend an hour on this one, only to break and restart (I made a boo-boo fairly early); took almost an *additional* hour and a half, before FINALLY finding my way through. Total time: 2:26:59 (over multiple sessions) This, for me, was One. Tough. Puzzle!
I know I’m late to this but dear god my solve of this was the epitome of right answer, wrong equation. I did this one over several days, bit by bit, usually before bed so that’ll be my excuse but my logic was just non existent. I kept making false assumptions that allowed me to deduce things that somehow were just correct. For instance I don’t remember why but I just never had 6 as an option for the 37 cage in row 7. In my mind I was just “okay so there must be a 679 triple” which was correct but I definitely didn’t find myself there logically.
The moment you placed the first 1, couldn't you have placed it at c3r5? If it can't be in c2r6 because of tetris logic, doesn't that mean it can't be a row above either?
Just for the record: While it would take me several days to finish watching, I would watch a video of you solving and explaining a puzzle that took you 8 hours to solve. Sure, it would be lovely if it was editted to times you at least thought you were onto something, but even that isnt necessary. I tend to watch videos in 15-30min increments no matter the length (often because I'm watching on my lunch break), so a really love solve like that would just be
I've been doing the puzzles for a few months, slowly being able to do them. Tried doing this and couldn't, started watching this. Holy gods that first deduction is so fast and subtle I was once more in awe of simon.
I don't care how "secure" they make recall. I am not willing to cross this bridge and I don't think anyone who is in tech should comply with this. At the end of the day this is a surveillance tool and if we allow it into all of our lives it will be used for some awful things in the future.
I just "solved" this puzzle while under the false assumption the top left cage was missing a '9' instead of an '8'. It led me to the actual solution except all the 8's and 9's are swapped! Every cage either contains both 8 and 9, or neither, with the exception of the one I misread, so I believe it works as the only thing to disambiguate 8's and 9's in this puzzle. How curious!
132:11 with a lot of checking of the video. I thought I was doing great 50 minutes in, but then hit a wall, looked at the solution, and saw that I made a horrible assumption in the 13 cage. Was very hesitant with every step that I took after that and I still had a really hard time disambiguation the options. I definitely needed to look at how a 7 could be in r5c6 and I doubt I ever would have gotten that on my own. I just couldn't put it down after all the work I put in.
36:30 Yellow in R9C6: I called yellow D, and the blue-green 2-or-4 B. I placed D there (1 in R9C5) to avoid a 1B deadly pattern. Normally, I don't use uniqueness, but this has been long and hard enough for me that I'll take any advantage I can. 1:03:00 In the 13 cage, green and 5-or-7 add to 9. In the smaller 37 cage, green and 3-or-5 add to 7. One is two less than the other. I have not yet figured out what to do with this. 1:08:00 If R5C9 is 8, then 7 is forced into the 13 cage, but 3 is forced into the smaller 37 cage, violating the requirement. I'll see what comes of this.
I did set this by hand*, starting from White Room (well, the 7-cage version of White Room) and modifying from there. I don't know for sure that 6 is the fewest cages possible, but as hard as this was to find I haven't even tried improving on it...
*by hand here means choosing where the cages go and what sums they have, making heavy use of f-puzzles + rangsk's solver to check for solution counts and weak cells. As mentioned in some GAS intro recently, I am usually a setting cyborg. ;)
Just an absolute incredible puzzle and delightful setting from you!
Very well done, Philip! What a stunning construction/discovery.
Thanks also for your long-standing GAS contribution. Your efforts here, and those of your peers, have allowed so many of us to enter the rich and beautiful world of variant Sudoku.
@@davidrattner9ditto!
Thanks all!
And I want to add now that I've watched the whole thing, what a great solve from Simon. Steady and well-explained progress the whole way, never felt stuck and always focusing on the right cells or digits.
(Oh, and apart from just having a Clapton theme with these minimal killer constructions, the "got me on my knees" line definitely was a factor in naming it after the experience of both setting it and solving it afterward. :))
I wonder how often you sang along with the words "got me on my knees..." while setting.
We need like a picture of Simon drinking tea and a jingle and a card that says "Intermission" all cursive to pop up when he steps out for lunch and football 😂
Holding a piece of chalk in his hand, staring at a sudoku on a chalkboard, placing another digit, the whole thing surrounded by color bars. Simon will know what I mean.
dear simon, i understand that in these longer videos it can feel quite daunting to go significant periods of time w/o making what you consider to be progress, but i can assure you as someone who likes to follow along with the logic you present, as well as look for logic on my own, i do not find those parts of the video dull at all! it's fascinating seeing what is going on in your head (what you can articulate of it at least) and in the rare moments where i spot something you've yet to find, it's quite a euphoric experience!
overall, i do wish you'd be less focused on these sorts of thoughts tho, your headspace if full enough trying to solve these insanely difficult puzzles!
Agreed. I see every hard puzzle video as a gift to me. They are the ones worth my time to watch!
This one had some pretty extreme stretches as far as what is explainable. I followed every deduction Simon made, but I'm certain there are some viewers that can't at this level. I suppose this is the real restriction. If it's just not possible to follow the logic, then it's a problem.
The "quiet moments" don't bother me at all on a puzzle like this. In some cases, I had seen the next step and Simon hadn't but then was completely stuck on what was next. No matter how many times I got ahead, I knew that Simon would always catch back up in a minute or two.
I am pleased with the way Simon speeds up his explanations of certain concepts when he is aware that he is solving a complicated puzzle.
"Green is red, we've proved that". This might be the only place on the Internet where that statement makes any sense. 🤣
This puzzle just blows my mind! I solved it in 77 minutes, but out of absolutely nowhere. At some point, the solve path is just too smooth to be realistic and not thinking I am breaking something! But turns out that's right!
Edit: It's amazing that Simon can figure out some complicated logic in it that I haven't thought of, but I would like to show a possibly easier but definitly amazing path after around 59:00 :
1. The main character is r1c8, which is either 7 or 9. Let's call that "X".
2. In column 6, "X" can only go into either r5c6 or r6c6, i.e. box 5, by pure Sudoku.
3. Then because of the 79 pair in row 7, "X" which must appear in the 6-cell 37 cage, must be in either r6c3 or r8c3, i.e. in column 3.
4. Then look at box 1, "X" now is restricted into the 8-cell 37 cage AND box 1.
5. Finally, look at row 4, where can "X" go? By the killer cage, it can't be in r4c123. By point 2 mentioned earlier, it also can't be in r4c456. And by Sudoku, it can't be in r4c89. Hence, the only position that "X" can be is r4c7, which is in a 4-cell 13 cage. Therefore, "X" = 7.
Q.E.D!
I cannot tell you how excited and satisfied I was when I find this logic because the puzzle just collapsed after that! And it was too good to be true so I just triple checked whether this logic was valid! Therefore I want to share this with you and it would by my pleasure if you read to here and enjoy this comment😄
Good explanation (especially calling the 7/9 "X" nicely).
I'll look for it.
Thank you.
That did it.
Very cool.
Thank you
Wow, this is cool! And great explanation, too. Thanks for commenting! ❤
I think he focused too much on 124 at the start, but if he had used 789, it would have been easier to achieve some results.
Yes! I found this in my solve, and it helped a lot. Nice explanation.
(Mind you, I was coming up on three hours by this point. Apparently, Simon can break for lunch and a football game, and still beat my time 😂).
I made a minor deduction that you did not in the midgame and it completely changed how the endgame looked, some square had to be one of 2 digits rather than one of 3 digits. Because of it, the piece of logic that gave you that 7 gave me a nearby 9 instead. Ended up in the same place of course.
I got to the end of the midgame on my own, then got stuck, so I started watching the video until you had pretty much caught up to where I was. Then any time you said anything I stopped and checked it out. Eventually something twigged and I finished it off, then finished watching how you did it. When I get really stuck I generally go this route. I still mostly solve the puzzle, except for hints from the general direction your thoughts are taking you, which generally are the right directions to go and the right places to look. Less extended frustration for me and more learning better ways to think about things.
Starting from the end, I was amused and filled with enjoyment of your guitar outro as background music - a little louder than purely background - for your commentary about the puzzle. Going back farther, I noted when you had about 17 minutes left in the video that you still had a lot of cells yet to figure out - and so I knew that there would be (another) breakthrough that would bring the puzzle to a close. Going back earlier, you said that you feared that people don't like watching you work out minute bits of logic that take a long time to think about and then explain - I will assure you that, for my part, I never mind that at all. For one thing, I know that you succeed, and I am quite interested to see how you do it. For another thing, you are not boring when you are working it out, even if you are somewhat silent - you always do explain yourself. And going back to the beginning, what a pleasure to see another one of the truly nerdy puzzles that Philip devises - the GAS puzzles are great, but these are beyond belief. Thanks, Simon - and thanks, Philip. (Oh, and good for you, having lunch and football with your kids on school holiday - that is what memories are made of, not sudoku puzzles!)
I've only played normal Sudoku (and slowly at that)
Let me say I am AMAZED at these puzzles and really want to give them a go! Maybe starting out a bit easier than this haha
I recommend their Chess and especially recommend their thermo apps for variant sudoku.
@@tzeneth oooh thank you! I'll give them a try
The gas puzzle packs were the best for starting out for me as the variety in there helped me find my favourite variants. My favourites are chess and domino but the variety helps stop me feeling bogged down if i start struggling. The gas playlist is also a nice place to look as the solutions are in video form if you need them :)
Definitely try the gas puzzle pack. I was a total novice when it comes to variant sudoku (and not that great with ordinary sudoku tbh) and the pack was a great introduction.
you should look into killer sudokus!!! my partner whos self-proclaimed "bad" at sudoku loves them! the easier ones just give a quicker way to solve the answers, esp. the ones with very small cages. (since youre kinda given the answers without needing to check number spots)
Not a hope in hell of solving this for me. Bravo Simon. And Mr Newman is a mad genius.
Let's Get Cracking: 04:10
Simon's time: 1h41m14s
Puzzle Solved: 1:45:24
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
The Secret: 4x (06:30, 06:38, 06:45, 06:46)
Maverick: 3x (07:35, 1:29:11, 1:29:14)
Bobbins: 2x (45:46, 1:14:27)
Three In the Corner: 2x (1:41:56, 1:42:03)
The Raven: 1x (1:04:34)
Scooby-Doo: 1x (1:18:06)
Schrödinger Cell: 1x (1:07:28)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 32x (05:20, 07:58, 09:01, 16:02, 20:12, 22:09, 29:35, 30:03, 30:39, 32:47, 36:23, 43:36, 47:41, 52:38, 54:15, 55:26, 56:20, 57:10, 1:01:12, 1:12:28, 1:23:35, 1:23:35, 1:27:39, 1:27:39, 1:27:52, 1:29:07, 1:29:38, 1:35:30, 1:35:55, 1:37:40, 1:40:06, 1:40:16)
Sorry: 15x (12:38, 14:57, 18:15, 23:57, 32:09, 40:36, 45:46, 49:01, 58:54, 58:54, 1:04:06, 1:07:05, 1:07:05, 1:16:57, 1:30:09)
Hang On: 15x (20:15, 57:10, 57:10, 1:14:22, 1:15:01, 1:18:53, 1:19:30, 1:24:35, 1:33:01, 1:35:15, 1:39:00, 1:39:38, 1:39:38, 1:42:41, 1:45:33)
By Sudoku: 14x (06:01, 09:46, 12:58, 42:38, 43:07, 53:02, 1:09:42, 1:12:32, 1:33:49, 1:37:24, 1:37:30, 1:37:40)
Pencil Mark/mark: 6x (11:52, 11:57, 34:27, 34:31, 1:12:58, 1:28:35)
Goodness: 5x (43:18, 51:13, 52:38, 1:02:33, 1:35:33)
Surely: 5x (31:44, 31:44, 1:27:24, 1:41:15, 1:43:19)
In Fact: 5x (38:23, 43:57, 1:31:41, 1:39:10, 1:43:14)
Whoopsie: 5x (11:20, 56:35, 56:35, 56:35, 56:35)
Clever: 4x (33:19, 35:23, 1:46:38, 1:47:29)
Obviously: 4x (06:43, 1:13:33, 1:26:17, 1:45:27)
Good Grief: 3x (52:38, 54:55, 1:00:47)
Progress: 3x (22:14, 22:22, 55:12)
Wow: 3x (48:16, 1:08:30, 1:27:03)
What on Earth: 2x (1:04:23, 1:16:34)
Brilliant: 2x (00:40, 00:40)
Incredible: 2x (00:20, 01:31)
Approachable: 2x (00:45, 00:48)
We Can Do Better Than That: 2x (46:06, 1:02:20)
Pregnant pause: 2x (18:15, 20:30)
Let's Take Stock: 2x (1:43:14, 1:45:47)
Apologies: 1x (1:16:04)
The Answer is: 1x (1:01:23)
Out of Nowhere: 1x (1:27:15)
Nonsense: 1x (58:44)
Recalcitrant: 1x (1:29:07)
Naughty: 1x (1:19:17)
Off to the Races: 1x (1:27:10)
Lovely: 1x (57:03)
Extraordinary: 1x (55:04)
Deadly Pattern: 1x (1:08:59)
Shouting: 1x (1:30:14)
Marries Up: 1x (51:41)
What Does This Mean?: 1x (1:18:03)
That's Huge: 1x (42:55)
Nature: 1x (33:51)
Unique: 1x (01:28)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Thirteen, Thirty Seven (38 mentions)
One (223 mentions)
Yellow (91 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
Low (3) - High (1)
Even (6) - Odd (1)
Row (46) - Column (30)
FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
Lots of Ah today, it seems :D
I like to humblebrag just a little bit that my father played with Clapton. What a legend he was.
Clapton's pretty good too
Always love watching these. Great to listen in while i do house chores
I love how he logics out the yellow cell in the 16 cage at about 30:00, when it was way simpler. You can see that yellow must be in the 7 cage, but based on the coloring you can clearly see that it can't be the same as red, so it must be part of the orange domino, and thus plonks it into the left side of the 16 cage.
Made it to through and was rewarded with Simon playing the song “Layla”. ❤️❤️❤️
Absolutely wonderful bonus and special treat for us. ❤❤😊
@@davidrattner9 yes!
If digits are allowed to repeat in cages, the minimum number of cages to ensure a unique solution is ONE. I'm not the one who discovered this, but it's fairly striaghtforward to arrrange a cage with a unique solution and demonstrate that the solution is unique. Make the cage contain a single one, two twos, three threes, etc. up to nine nines, and have it use all nine cells of one row, column and box, exactly eight cells of another, etc. down to one cell of the last row, column, and box. To reach its total in 45 cells, the cage will need to have nine nines, one of which will need to appear in the cage on the row with just one cage cell. Another nine will appear in the cage on the row with two cage cells, but one of those cells will be in the column with nine cage cells, one of which will already be a nine, pushing the second nine into the column with eight cage cells. The third nine will go at the intersection of the row which has three cage cells an the column which has seven, etc. Once all the nines are placed, there will only be one spot for an eight on the row with two cage cells, then three, four, etc. up to nine, Then there will only be one spot for a seven on the row with three cage cells, etc. Eventually, all digits will be placed.
Solved with a little help from the guru. Loved the outro of Layla to end the vid. Nice touch Simon
That this puzzle exists is extraordinary (just 6 simple killers) and that Philip Newman "discovered" this puzzle is extraordinary. And this is an incredibly good solve by Simon showing great persistence. I got as far as placing 1 in R7C1 and then had very little idea how to proceed. I just wish Simon would remove the colouring when it has served it's purpose (I'm sure it distracts from scanning) and at the end remove ALL colouring so we can admire the puzzle in its simple beauty.
64:08 actually, I find it more riveting than a thriller. Any moment a new breakthrough could be just around the corner, and the anticipation is ramping up my adrenaline. I love looking at you logicing. That might not be a word, but it should be.
Flipping heck. That looked incredibly difficult. Well done Simon.
I'm home alone and I'm scared of the dark. I could not be happier to see such a long video for me to get comfy in bed with my iPad.
Simon, hell would have to freeze over before I attempted a puzzle like this on my one. But I do hope you know what an absolute delight it is to follow you on these solves. I don't often have the time for what seem to be frequently longer solves. But here I am treating myself on Easter Friday! Thank you! 💙
A long video Huzzah! Let me grab my tea and sit down to watch
Man, this took me a 180 minutes while doing other things and coming back to it.....
I'm not sure if I technically "cheated" because I just started taking the paths which looked like they would lead to a dead end (e.g., trying to make the 13 killer sudoku fit a 1345 structure) and eventually leading to a contradiction. I know Simon is not a big fan of this method, and really I'm a little tired and don't want to sit through the whole 1 hour and 40 minutes trying to see if there was really another method doing this.
In all, I think I took 5 major branching paths:
1) Trying to fit a 1345 combo into the 13 cage,
2) Trying to fit an 8 on the bottom row of the left square. Number 1 and 2 led me to realizing that 7 had to be on the right side of the center square because it ran into the same contradictions that the previous 2 tries ran into.
3) Trying the 7 in the 13 cage on the bottom most space.
4) Trying both 79 in the 6-number 37 cage on the 6th row.
5) From the previous ones, I was left with 3 and 6 in the only square in the 6-number 37 cage in the middle square, and I tried the 3 as it was more limited (as it required the 346789 combo in the killer cage).
To be honest, I'm not really sure if some of the methods that Simon does are that much different, but he doesn't seem to like putting the numbers in and then going down that path.
I think that he’s very skilled at visualising several steps ahead, whereas I need to write it out in front of me
What a coincidence, I was listening to the song Layla while solving a regular killer sudoku on an app on my phone!
I'm pleased with under five hours. We love these monstrous puzzles.
Simon : and it is for a weird reason
me : it's probably Sudoku
*Simon does sudoku* "and that's why it doesn't work
me : nailed it.
LOVING the blue green yellow orange color scheme rn this is just a true statement
Around the 1 hour something mark on Mark's solve I spotted that the r1c1 cell is extremely restricted since it has to show up on the 8less cage
Isn't green, isn't yellow, would make a 136 quadruple on r4, isn't an 8
Simon appears in this video, not Mark
@LarkyLuna, I'll be watching for something when Simon gets there (because those four cells in box4 - in the 37 cage -- are those four cells in box1 - now that I got the 8 in there @58:00 or something marks).
I'll be watching for that r1c1 cell (which is in one of those two in row4 of that 37cage).
Thanks
I almost wanted to start over there.
It's gonna come handy in the end.
Lol I wrote mark as in timeframe and repeated Mark as a name
No idea why pffft
At 1:23 I noticed you can eliminate a 79 from row 2 column 3. That might have set him up easier if it flows farther.
17:00 "If 4 is not in it..." says the man and than quickly forgets what he just said and proceeds anyways to analyze whether 1246 would work. Simon, you're truly unique in your weirdness! 😆
The Fun thing that the numbers with the colors used by Simon form a geometric progression 1, 2, 4, 8
I used 174 minutes, and I had at least three 8s, three 7s and a couple 9s way, way before I got my first 1. If you try to make R1C8 an 8, you'll see that the lesser 37 cage won't have anywhere to put 8 because of where 8s have to go elsewhere in the grid. Also, I got the 1234 quad in C6 fast by asking what the low digits in C7 would have to be if I put any high digits in the part of the 13 cage that resides in C6.
Great puzzle, but more frustrating than fun. At some point, around the hour mark in the video, you just have to check every cell and go "if that's blue, then that must be blue, then that must be blue..." and repeat it until you find anything that doesn't work just for a tiny deduction.
Great compilation well done Philip.
“Yellow is very….”
Me, an American: independent
Simon: Unneighborly
❤ that British charm!
Make the best of the situation, before I finally go insane. Please don't say I'll never find a way, and tell me all my sudoku's in vain. Layla, you got me on my knees! (Apologies to Slowhand)
That was a toughie, what with the sticky out bits of cages where a tricky digit could hide, and all the subtle interactions going on. I think the main reason this was hard was that, although making each deduction did lead to the next, a lot of the time that next deduction required noticing that a digit had become restricted in some far-flung box/column/row/cage. These are not easy to spot unless you've got Mark's uncanny ability to spot naked singles. Because e.g. making the 13 cage in C7 be 27 or 45 directly affects the placement of four different digits, but it also affects all of the yellows and greens, and they in turn affect the composition of the smaller 37 cage, and each choice has very different impacts around the grid, it's really hard to spot any contradiction.
Even though I had made some of the deductions you thought had been available for ages, they didn't really make life much easier. What was really annoying, was that I was 95% sure that yellow was 4, and that R5C1 was yellow, from very early on. Something in my subconscious must have spotted something, but I couldn't summon it to the surface. Each time I tried to make yellow 2, because of the subtlety of the interactions, I couldn't spot how it broke. I'm sure this could be solved much quicker by bifurcating, but we don't do that.
@ 29:10 - Two observations: 1) you have noted that yellow cannot go in the small 37 cage, but if yellow is in the 13 cage, you end up with it being forced into the 37 cage (this is a great example of the sort of subtlety at play). 2) Whatever the make-up of the 13 cage, you get a sextuple in C7. The 6 must be in the 16 cage, and the 5 or 7 must be in the 13 cage along with one of 124. The 3 in the 13 cage must therefore be in C6. You now have a 1234 quad in C6. Yellow must be at the bottom of C6, so R9C5 is blue. This means in C7 you have a 36 pair at the bottom, a 124 and a 57 in the 13, and a 124 and a 24 in the 7.
@ 45:25 - I knew that was going to happen 🤣
@ 1:23:12 - "I can't see why it breaks" - you're tantalisingly close! In box 1, the 79 pairs would mean only one place for a non-caged 79 - R2C3. That digit would have to go in R6C4 in the smaller 37 cage. However, this creates another 79 pair, so there's nowhere for the second 79 to go. This was a big breakthrough for me. It made R6C7=5, resolving the 13 cage, and green/yellow.
@ 1:29:34 - "nope, that doesn't do it" - you now have 3s aligning in C1/2 in boxes 1 & 4, so you can place 3 in R9C3, resolving the 36 pair in box 9.
@ 1:31:40 - "which would make that 7, which would be huge" - again, so close. That was if R6C6 is 79. What if it's not? Then it's 6, the cell below is 5, and you still get 7 in R5C6 - which is huge!
@ 1:43:04 - "we've got a 147 thing going on - must be resolved" - and is. You're pointing at a 1 next to a 14 pair.
I love Philip's puzzles, he always seems to find something new and interesting. This was no exception, fiendish, but very interesting, and very rewarding. The way it lures you in with such apparently useful cages was the work of an evil genius.
That ending... haha. Half expected a fade...
Awesome solve. Awesome puzzle. Good jobs all round. Thank you
The orange 9 in box six bothered me terribly Simon!!
Fantastic job mate, some of the logic you pulled off was incredible!
"Yellow is very unneighbourly, it does not like being in cages with people"..... not the sort of thing I'd expect to hear from Simon! :-p
Looked up the Eric Clapton/Duane Allman album - will listen soon. Noted that Eric, Duane and George Harrison are all included in 100 greatest guitarists! 🎸🎸🎸
It’s an album of transcendental genius. I hope you like it! Perhaps try the track Anyday first.
@@simonanthony8961great! Thanks for the suggestion!!
@longwaytotipperary ❤❤❤ the album is indeed fantastic.
@@davidrattner9 looking forward to it!!! Currently on storm watch and power going off and (so far) back on. Temps in high 90’s F today. Sweltering. Hoping it’s a gentle storm and only cools the temp! 🙏🏻. ❤️❤️❤️
@@longwaytotipperaryhope that storms passed over and losing power wasn't an issue.
There could be some massive shortcuts via uniqueness in this puzzle. This is not a complaint or a claim that Simon should use this, just pointing it out. If the 13 cage doesnt' have 7 in it, then nothing in the puzzle could possibly differentiate the 7s and 9s, therefore the 13 cage must be 1237. Then, you have a 7, 13, 16, and 37 cage all with 1 and 2 in them. So the only way to differentiate 1 and 2 is if one of them is in the other 37 cage. Therefore the smaller 37 cage must be 125.
From 56 minutes onwards, r1c8 (79) must come in row 5 or 6 in column 6, making the 79 an x-wing in rows 5+6, placing the 79 (from r1c8) in r8c3. I believe that would have helped out a bit.
Anyway, I enjoyed the long film!
This doesn't sound correct. In the solved puzzle r1c8 != r8c3
I definitely didn't manage to solve this one, but enjoyed seeing a solve of it immensely. Brutal but beautiful puzzle, for sure!
Same here 🙂
Philip Newman also created my nemesis puzzle, Regions for the stars. It features 8 cages plus 1-9 on the negative diagonal. I have been on it for two years and will one day…
Missed opportunity for "Red 5 standing by". Too bad you deleted the color at the end. Great solve!
I'm extremely surprised to hear that Quite a Mouthful is in your queue. That puzzle is something I'd describe more as a novelty than as a thing of beauty. I remember having around a 4-5 hour solve time on it, and I'm not convinced that I missed any clever shortcuts.
I'm kind of proud that I solved it. And I think it's great that it exists, as a bit of a Leviathan of the Sudoku world. But I wouldn't exactly describe it as a fun experience.
This is like watching someone hiking the Everest. You perfectly understand the little steps, but you just can't do it all.
Hello! Love this solve. One question, hopefully someone can help. At 35:00 Simon says yellow cannot appear in the 37 cage as green definitely does appear, but I’m not sure how he concluded green definitely appears? Couldn’t green be the ‘1’ digit in r7c1?
Great solve from Simon and a puzzle far too difficult for me. In one case, Simon could have done himself a favor: @ 29-30 minutes into the video, just continuing with three colors representing the 1,2,4 triple. Then, assuming that the yellow one would go to r8c7 or r9c7, immediately breaking the puzzle, because the 13-cage does not have room for a 2 or a 4 anymore. Or did I miss something? Again, for the remainder of the solve (I did not get much further than this), I had to rely on watching the video 🙂
As The Beatles "Something" is also about Pattie Boyd, there should be a Sudoku by Philip titled "Something", right?
Simon if we found it boring to watch you staring with a frown I don’t think any of us would be subscribed 😂
Very clever, and credit to Philip for his minimalist construction, but this isn't the kind of video I get any real enjoyment out of watching. Nothing wrong with your solve, it's just not an engaging puzzle where all the way through it's a case of try placing _this_ digit _here_ and follow the logic chain to reach a clash, whittle it away, place _that_ digit _there_ and follow the logic chain to reach a clash, whittle it away. Don't get me wrong, I love long videos when there is elegant logic or a beautiful trick or even just a sense of fun ... but not when it's just a war of attrition like this. Sorry if that sounds like I'm being a negative nancy and I hope you will take this in the constructive way it is meant.
Philip Newman puzzles are certainly not for everyone. While following an "intended" solve path is fun in its own way, solving a Philip Newman puzzle often means forging my own path, adamantly refusing to bifurcate, fighting tooth and nail for one digit at a time.
I'm almost confident that some of his puzzles don't even *have* intended logic. The beauty lies in the agony of the solvers.
Fascinating. I love watching through these long ones even if I skip through and don't watch every minute of them... It's really fun to have the opportunity to attack these out-of-my-league puzzles bit by bit even when the CtC boys do most of the heavy lifting.
Very, very impressive. And I don't mind the deep thought's silent voice. It's just the nature of things and certainly the nature of the Kracken. Btw. The Thinker by Rodin has never uttered a single word - but we have all felt that word nonetheless. The only difference here being we're talking about a number.
Shouting is nothing but noise, this world's Mavericks of flying clay.
I enjoy your videos. Sincerely Poul, Denmark. Subscriber.
With big enough cages stretching across multiple boxes with minimized and maximized totals, I think you can create one with fewer than 6 cages.
I love the way we go from utterly brilliant logic to not being able to disambiguate the 14 pairs at 1:43ish with 1s looking at both of them! 🤣
I solved this puzzle a few months ago and man it was difficult. So glad I get to see how to properly solve it.
After many years of practice, I too have mastered the art of forgetfullness. I didn't realise I was training myself at the time, though.
Wow, that's long for just normal rules and cages.
Simon started playing himself off the stage at the end! As if no one wanted to hear the detailed recap of the solve, even himself! 🤣
Brilliant puzzle.
68:28 for me. That was absolutely brutal, what a puzzle!
I have no idea if I spotted some logic earlier in the solve than Simon did, or if I made some illogical assumptions that happened to give correct conclusions - possibly a bit of both. I tried to color the cells either high (56789) or low (1234) from nearly the start and concluded way earlier that r6 c1-2 had to be low before even looking at 8's. But I'm not sure if I got there via logic or not. I suspect not, because I had 6789 penciled into the non-r7 cells of the 37-cage for a long time. I might have forgotten that I was including 5 as a "high" digit and thought "I have three high digits in row 7, looking at the 37 cage; they all need to be in it somewhere."
Either way, I needed a lot of help from the video to get through this
I'm pretty sure that you can't logic through that without going down a branch. As the 8 COULD be there unless you follow the branching as the 6-number 37-killer cage could contain a 3 with the 7 or 9 instead of a 5 or 6 on r6. There was another comment which seems a more detailed way of finding the contradiction instead of the branching, but I'm pretty sure you can't figure out that those 2 cells have to be low as up until my last branch, I still had a 3 being a viable possibility on r6 in that cage.
I absolutely love it when I can see it coming that Simon's about to talk about the secret jbfbjds It makes me so happy every time
Brilliant and excellent solve from Simon! Thank you so much for the guitar playing.
An amazing solve as always ❤
Only Simon can give excellent points on a logic and then not use it but later solving it in a completely different route😅
I'm talking about the logic around the 1's around 45 minutes in which deducted the blue 1 from R5C3 which would have given some digits in the 13 cage and box 6.
1hour later Simon finds another way to do it not using the logic he found at all 😂
could someone explain to me the logic in 23:21? i am confused yet curious. it seems interesting.
37 cage(6 cells)=45(9 cells)-8(3 cells)
8=1+2+5 or 1+3+4
Therefore 2 and 4 can't be both exist in 37cage
It is either 1/3/4 outside the cage and 2/5 inside the cage.
OR
1/2/5 outside the cage and 3/4 inside the cage
@@khoozu7802 thank you!!
Not my best solve! But still proud I got through it. 164:04
I tried to betray tell Simon's secret but every time I start talking about sudoku everyone leaves
Man, I expected clover from the thumbnail.
From the thumbnail, I expected dominos.
or a Derektionary puzzle perhaps?
And I could only stop my timer at 359 minutes. I did restart after a couple of hours, not because I made an error but because I was stuck and wanted to see if I got a new perspective by restarting... Generally had the same solve path as Simon.
This one might have been too tough for me. Progress felt like I'd get one or two breadcrumbs and then grind to a halt again. I found this one a bit annoying at times
This is last sudoku I solved before going on vacation ... and I got my time's worth, to say the least.
I spend an hour on this one, only to break and restart (I made a boo-boo fairly early); took almost an *additional* hour and a half, before FINALLY finding my way through.
Total time: 2:26:59 (over multiple sessions)
This, for me, was One. Tough. Puzzle!
I know I’m late to this but dear god my solve of this was the epitome of right answer, wrong equation. I did this one over several days, bit by bit, usually before bed so that’ll be my excuse but my logic was just non existent. I kept making false assumptions that allowed me to deduce things that somehow were just correct. For instance I don’t remember why but I just never had 6 as an option for the 37 cage in row 7. In my mind I was just “okay so there must be a 679 triple” which was correct but I definitely didn’t find myself there logically.
The moment you placed the first 1, couldn't you have placed it at c3r5? If it can't be in c2r6 because of tetris logic, doesn't that mean it can't be a row above either?
Nevermind, forgot it could still be at the top
This was brutally hard! Thank you for the soothing music after a stressful solve!
thanks for the video!
Did he say early on that green would be in the 37 cage? How did he know?
After he got blue cell in R7C1, the green cell are forced to be R7C2 or R7C3
1:01:30 for me. had to guess twice but overall was neat.
Oh boy, another big one
Didn't Philip once create a Killer Sudoku that was reckoned to be minimal, yet could be turned into a GAS puzzle with just one extra cage?
My first pencil box 4 cel 3 , goes in box 1 cel 1/2 ! Simon fixes it all at the end 😂
Just for the record:
While it would take me several days to finish watching, I would watch a video of you solving and explaining a puzzle that took you 8 hours to solve.
Sure, it would be lovely if it was editted to times you at least thought you were onto something, but even that isnt necessary.
I tend to watch videos in 15-30min increments no matter the length (often because I'm watching on my lunch break), so a really love solve like that would just be
Simon 1.5 hours in "This is not an easy puzzle innit" 🤣
Why is it called Layla?
Philip is an Eric Clapton fan and names puzzles after Clayton’s songs.
"This is not an easy puzzle, i it?" - he says 90 minutes into the solve ... 😂
wow, what a puzzle
Cleaning up your spent pencilmarks is never a waste of time, Simon.
I've been doing the puzzles for a few months, slowly being able to do them. Tried doing this and couldn't, started watching this. Holy gods that first deduction is so fast and subtle I was once more in awe of simon.
I don't care how "secure" they make recall. I am not willing to cross this bridge and I don't think anyone who is in tech should comply with this. At the end of the day this is a surveillance tool and if we allow it into all of our lives it will be used for some awful things in the future.
I just "solved" this puzzle while under the false assumption the top left cage was missing a '9' instead of an '8'. It led me to the actual solution except all the 8's and 9's are swapped! Every cage either contains both 8 and 9, or neither, with the exception of the one I misread, so I believe it works as the only thing to disambiguate 8's and 9's in this puzzle. How curious!
132:11 with a lot of checking of the video. I thought I was doing great 50 minutes in, but then hit a wall, looked at the solution, and saw that I made a horrible assumption in the 13 cage. Was very hesitant with every step that I took after that and I still had a really hard time disambiguation the options. I definitely needed to look at how a 7 could be in r5c6 and I doubt I ever would have gotten that on my own.
I just couldn't put it down after all the work I put in.
Guitar Simon!!
On Cracking The Cryptic we have proven that red is green😁
36:30 Yellow in R9C6: I called yellow D, and the blue-green 2-or-4 B. I placed D there (1 in R9C5) to avoid a 1B deadly pattern. Normally, I don't use uniqueness, but this has been long and hard enough for me that I'll take any advantage I can.
1:03:00 In the 13 cage, green and 5-or-7 add to 9. In the smaller 37 cage, green and 3-or-5 add to 7. One is two less than the other. I have not yet figured out what to do with this.
1:08:00 If R5C9 is 8, then 7 is forced into the 13 cage, but 3 is forced into the smaller 37 cage, violating the requirement. I'll see what comes of this.
You need a house rule.
DON'T BOTHER ME WHEN I'M RECORDING!
curious he never deleted the aide memoire
Never?
Late, for sure, but at 1:28:34...
love outro