I did a ton of sudoku in the early days and stopped a decade ago. Then life got busy. Now that I'm back I find that easy is so much easier. Hard is so much harder. Thanks for sharing your strategies. I need to up my game to solve the hard.
took me 17:25 to solve #375... Column 7 was the key for me.... if you go to 6:30 in the video... r2c7 is restricted to 69... that interacts with the 69 and 1 in Box 6.... meaning if 6 in r2c7 then 9 in r4c7... if 9 in r2c7 then 6 r5c7... this gives 4 then 5 as naked singles in r1c7 and r3c7 respectively Love the channel👍
My way of doing it seemed a lot easier. You just have to misread the board erroneously and place a pointing pair that doesn't really exist, that luckily places a correct digit in another box, that somehow unlocks the entire puzzle. Got it done in ~8 min and came here to check the comments. Couldn't figure out how I got it done that much easier than the majority in here so backtracked my steps and found the one wrong (luckily right) deduction. Thanks for posting all these videos Ransk!
I got it done in about 15 1/2 minutes, and didn't remember anything terribly remarkable. Then I watched your solve to see why it took so long. Turns out I make a lucky mistake fairly early on that wasn't supported by any logic but happened to be correct. Well done for sticking with it to get to a solve.
After spotting the two naked single 8's, I found the typical NYT Hard trick of the hidden triple on 238 in Column 7. With that the puzzle broke instantly for me
Took me 15:50 (solver # 116) with conflict checker off. Definitely not an easy one, also why I liked this puzzle the most. Spoiler: The break-in for me was by eliminating 1 in r5c3, since making it 1 would result in a 2nd 1 in the same row. I should've spotted it sooner as I was entering pencil-marks for the 1 in box 3 and 6, I knew this was it, but then I totally forgot about it. (Apologies for my weak English btw.)
With the near 156 triple in column 8 I started looking at row 5 and figured out that if column 7 was a 5 it breaks the puzzle. Nice solve. I've got to look at geometry more.
According to Simon of Cracking the Cryptic this type of hidden triple is often the key to the NYT hard. He calls the three empty cells pointing into the rest of the row or column the "open flank" (can also be straight through the middle.)
My approach was , after finding the naked 8 in box 5( r5c5), candidates 56 in r5c7 and given 1 r7c7, are the only candidates in box 3, that is 1 or 56, thus 9 is in column 7 thus placing a 9 in column 9 ie, r4c9
Thank you so much. I’m definitely not advanced, obviously, & I was completely stuck after the nakeds. The NYT hint was to look at the box in row 2 column 4, which didn’t help me at all! So yeah, thanks! 👍
It's called SudokuPad and you can use the link I provide in the description to play the puzzle using the same software! It's a website and works on any platform, but also there's a SudokuPad app on the various stores (app store, play store, steam) if you want to support the creator.
Well at 18:58, the 4569 quadruple emerged in column 7, and with 17 already in the column, the remaining three cells provided a perfect fit for the 238 triple. Unfortunately I spotted it after over an hour into the puzzle!
The way i spotted the breaking point of the puzzle that you found was that with the pencil marks you had, in box 6 there was either a 6 or a 9 in column 7. That lines up with the 1 in box 9 to only allow 169 in the 2 remaining cells in box 3, columns 8 and 9.
Well done. Good to see that not only mere mortals as us struggle with this one. Also interesting to hear why you do not use the method of looking at a puzzle one digit at a time. I prefer that one digit at a time for the first scan.
There's nothing inherently wrong with initially scanning one digit at a time, but if you want to improve your speed using locality and training your brain to recognize certain patterns can help you find a bunch of different things at once in your initial scan and much more quickly.
That was a very tough one to spot. Who would have thought about such an obvious hidden triple. I solved by looking at 1 in Box 4. It had a lot of side effects. Took 45 minutes for me🤦♂️ and feel like a fool for not spotting the obvious.
Thank you for the detailed explanation! Spent more than two hours, was stuck and decided to look for help. Thrilled to discover your channel.
Welcome!
I did a ton of sudoku in the early days and stopped a decade ago. Then life got busy. Now that I'm back I find that easy is so much easier. Hard is so much harder. Thanks for sharing your strategies. I need to up my game to solve the hard.
took me 17:25 to solve #375... Column 7 was the key for me.... if you go to 6:30 in the video... r2c7 is restricted to 69... that interacts with the 69 and 1 in Box 6.... meaning if 6 in r2c7 then 9 in r4c7... if 9 in r2c7 then 6 r5c7... this gives 4 then 5 as naked singles in r1c7 and r3c7 respectively
Love the channel👍
My way of doing it seemed a lot easier. You just have to misread the board erroneously and place a pointing pair that doesn't really exist, that luckily places a correct digit in another box, that somehow unlocks the entire puzzle. Got it done in ~8 min and came here to check the comments. Couldn't figure out how I got it done that much easier than the majority in here so backtracked my steps and found the one wrong (luckily right) deduction. Thanks for posting all these videos Ransk!
What a great solve! Watching you absolutely rocket through once you uncovered the 9 was amazing, like a stack of dominoes.
My longest NYT solve in ages too! I actually ended up finding the opposite quad to the hidden triple, but it was painful 😂
Interesting that 10 months later, after forgetting the puzzle, I redid it and saw the geometry triple first this time, and quicker too.
Very good puzzle.. 👌👌👍👍
I got it done in about 15 1/2 minutes, and didn't remember anything terribly remarkable. Then I watched your solve to see why it took so long. Turns out I make a lucky mistake fairly early on that wasn't supported by any logic but happened to be correct. Well done for sticking with it to get to a solve.
6:54 for me with no kind of conflict checker. I somehow found a 4569 quadruple in C7 which really saved a lot of time.
4569 quad becomes visible at 18:56. Gives you a 9 in B6 and then you are away.
After spotting the two naked single 8's, I found the typical NYT Hard trick of the hidden triple on 238 in Column 7. With that the puzzle broke instantly for me
Took me 15:50 (solver # 116) with conflict checker off. Definitely not an easy one, also why I liked this puzzle the most.
Spoiler: The break-in for me was by eliminating 1 in r5c3, since making it 1 would result in a 2nd 1 in the same row. I should've spotted it sooner as I was entering pencil-marks for the 1 in box 3 and 6, I knew this was it, but then I totally forgot about it. (Apologies for my weak English btw.)
Spotted the 4-5-6-9 quad relatively early on but still took me a while to figure out the rest of the pieces. Glad you eventually got it 😄👏🏻
With the near 156 triple in column 8 I started looking at row 5 and figured out that if column 7 was a 5 it breaks the puzzle. Nice solve. I've got to look at geometry more.
According to Simon of Cracking the Cryptic this type of hidden triple is often the key to the NYT hard. He calls the three empty cells pointing into the rest of the row or column the "open flank" (can also be straight through the middle.)
great job. Way to stick it out.
My approach was , after finding the naked 8 in box 5( r5c5), candidates 56 in r5c7 and given 1 r7c7, are the only candidates in box 3, that is 1 or 56, thus 9 is in column 7 thus placing a 9 in column 9 ie, r4c9
Yeah I gave up, I did not see that, and I even looked to geometry ... 🤷♂ Thanks for the video!
Thank you so much. I’m definitely not advanced, obviously, & I was completely stuck after the nakeds. The NYT hint was to look at the box in row 2 column 4, which didn’t help me at all! So yeah, thanks! 👍
Yeah those NYT hints are pretty useless. I believe it's the next single it's able to prove after applying other strategies like pairs/triples.
@@Rangsk I’m impressed by whatever software you’re using - much more efficient than the nothing I have on my iPad!
It's called SudokuPad and you can use the link I provide in the description to play the puzzle using the same software! It's a website and works on any platform, but also there's a SudokuPad app on the various stores (app store, play store, steam) if you want to support the creator.
@@RangskOh brilliant, thanks! And I really appreciate the way you think out loud, calmly adding explanations for the less experienced of us.
Well at 18:58, the 4569 quadruple emerged in column 7, and with 17 already in the column, the remaining three cells provided a perfect fit for the 238 triple. Unfortunately I spotted it after over an hour into the puzzle!
The way i spotted the breaking point of the puzzle that you found was that with the pencil marks you had, in box 6 there was either a 6 or a 9 in column 7. That lines up with the 1 in box 9 to only allow 169 in the 2 remaining cells in box 3, columns 8 and 9.
Well done. Good to see that not only mere mortals as us struggle with this one. Also interesting to hear why you do not use the method of looking at a puzzle one digit at a time. I prefer that one digit at a time for the first scan.
There's nothing inherently wrong with initially scanning one digit at a time, but if you want to improve your speed using locality and training your brain to recognize certain patterns can help you find a bunch of different things at once in your initial scan and much more quickly.
Nice solve. That was really hard and I got stuck 😅
Just out of curiosity, why don't you like going 1 digit at a time? That's my method to get pairs quickly.
After the 8 in the middle . I saw a triple 238 in the column 7. OK you did find it also in minute 30 . Sorry.
Tough one until I spotted what was going on in column 7
Solving column 3 broke the puzzle for me , my time was 12:14
That was a very tough one to spot. Who would have thought about such an obvious hidden triple.
I solved by looking at 1 in Box 4. It had a lot of side effects. Took 45 minutes for me🤦♂️ and feel like a fool for not spotting the obvious.