@22:10 "...getting to the point we can't use the diagonals..." _There's a single 9!!_ @22:25 "...what I said is absolute nonsense..." _Ah, he spotted it. Not surprising._ @22:30 "...this square [58]...." _What!?_ Thoroughly entertaining!
Well I was already entertained before that, because he was saying all this stuff about 189 triples without asking the question: Where do you put the 5 on that diagonal.
You can not believe how freaking smart and happy I felt when the first thing I did was to lock 1 and 8 in the middle square even before Simon did. I‘ve peaked, that’s it that’s the biggest achievement of my life
I think that this sudoku is very tricky to advanced sudoku players but easier to people that are new to sudoku, I could easily spot numbers which Simon had problems with so that might be a reason for varied opinion between testers, although as always Aad van de Wetering shows us a real beauty in this one. Thanks Simon for the solve!
Nah, that's really just Simon on a live solve. On the other hand, this puzzle, other than the unconventional diagonals doesn't use any advanced techniques (purely naked or hidden digits, with some pairs and triples.) This is fairly typical though with Aad's puzzles.
@@TahgtahvThere's a difference between "advanced" and novel, isn't there? Personally I think that if for whatever reason you fail to realize that the 18 cell on the diagonals represents a single digit, you're going to have a bad time. And then the same applies when you get combinations like 15 and 58 on the two diagonals that lack the 18 cell -- it's effectively a pair. It's not the kind of thing that a thorough familiarity with w-wings or swordfish is going to help you with.
For me it was the 18 pair in the lower left box that started speeding up the solve. I looked up the diagonal looking for another possible 18 pair and then abruptly remembered that the center square was also on the diagonal. After that, finishing off the diagonals was pretty straight-forward. I was a little surprised that Simon didn't spot that, but with the center square not actually being in line with the diagonal, it's pretty easy to miss. Plus, he's under pressure to keep up a commentary so it isn't a boring video - which is something that I think a lot of ppl don't realize can slow down a person's thinking process (as well recall).
Great puzzle! I was making good progress, but then I got stuck with a 5-8 (r2c3) and 1-5 (r6c7) and I couldn't see a way to solve it. Your logic at 22:27 did the trick! Thanks for the lesson, Simon! And thanks Aad for sending another great variation!
You nailed it with the one solution path thing, at least early on. I actually got started a bit faster than you, which I was quite proud of, but I missed two pieces of logic later on that completely stumped me, and I had to watch the video to continue. Very tough puzzle!
12:22 "see if you can see which square is effected" Me: Oh those two squares in the top right box! "It is... that one!" *points to bottom left* Me: Oh right, the exact opposite...
I really loved this puzzle! Once I got my head around the "missing" 18 pair, I was really able to knock out the diagonals which led to solving the rest of the puzzle. I was intrigued by the 3rd box in that the odd numbers all filled in orthogonally leaving the corners for the evens.
That bit at the end, with the green bubble about the missing 9, had me laughing so hard. I don't know if that was Simon or someone else in editing, but it was great!
@24:25 I just marked the central square blue and all 1/8 pairs, that are the opposite of the blue 1/8 pair red. I was able to put all "red numbers" in the sudoku, expect the one in the 3rd box, because the last digit of the red numbers must be placed into the 1. So I discovered that the red boxes must be 1 and the blue ones 8. I never used this technic before, but it worked out in an really intressting way. But the way you did it 5 seconds later was good to :)
Fantastic puzzle! Some of the variant sudokus leave my mind fatigued when I am done. While this took me the standard 2x longer than Simon, my mind was excited to look at the different and interesting ways this variant impacted the puzzle. Many thanks Aad!
Anyone else here also watching Agadmator a lot and having to smile whenever they hear that sentence. I also loved how Simon told us to stop at one point in this video to spot the next move. :D
Took me 2.5h, but I'm still happy since it was the first puzzle by Aad I was able to solve. It was quite confisuing, Simon's way of treating 1-8 as pairs on diagonals was much clearer and simpler.
4:25 I found another reasoning to put the 3 in E6 which I thought was rather beautiful. In the center box I filled in only the following information: | 5 |168| - | | 18 | 18 | - | | - |138| 9 | Now if either the top middle one or the bottom middle one was a 1 OR an 8, then the center one would have to be the other of the two -> then what would be left for the left-middle one? Nothing! So they MUST be 6 and 3!
Fun and interesting are the key words I'd describe this one with and I must have been daft because I missed a few of the pieces that you saw right away that ate up 10 to 15 minutes each for me, but then again I was screaming about the naked singles you overlooked that I spotted easily. I got a good laugh about the 9 at the end. I love those post solve quotes you give yourself. They add great humor! :)
51:04 Sheesh … I ended up bifurcating twice to get to the end of this one. Have no idea what I missed, though that will change soon enough ... EDIT: The biggest trick I missed was the chain of 29-cells, though there were other things I overlooked as well.
No coincidence aad & odd are homophones 😎Logic baffled me on this, too. Thanks for spotting that 1,8 ‘pair’ on the final diagonal. Got me unstuck!brilliant solve as always, Si
20:50 I think you got lucky, there was a pencil mark in r9c6 that you missed, as there could be a 6 in the box. Edit: Right after I wrote this I realized that the 26 combo actually rules the 6 out of that box.
I just checked to see whether your 'estimation' of 9! was correct and I was very surprised to notice that its the exact same number...?! That is crazy.
Sybren Dijkstra There are 10! seconds in six weeks, and I figured minutes in 36 weeks was easier to wrap your head around than ten-second intervals in six weeks, so I went with that for 9!.
Ooh. I found something Simon missed (that's rare). @15:54 the 158 on the line must be a 5 because you have the 18 determined early in. (edit:and once again I'm wrong because the 18 is on the other line crossing)
Don't remember the exact path but found the 15 pair in the top box earlier in the solution path which disambiguated the center dot which pretty quickly allowed me to fill in all the diagonals (still took massively longer than Simon to solve overall)
Ouch ... that was excruciating, I don't think I've ever seen one before where you have to go to so much effort just to get a single blasted digit that leads _nowhere_ 😯
I actually took a very different solving path, mostly because I noticed things in a different order. First digit I placed on all diagonals was 7. In the R1C2 and R9C2 diagonals, it can only be on a end, which makes an X-wing, AND if one is in the top half the other is too. This allowed me to narrow down options on it quickly. Unfortunately it took me a long time to find a few next steps during the puzzle, and my solve time was almost 2 hours. Oh well.
Turns out to be a classic with 4 extra non repeating a digit regions instead of a normal diagonal sudoku with 2 extra regions so despite the visual trickery from the rule, mostly just naked or hidden singles and locked candidates, pairs triples and the like. Neat puzzle though, wonder if 8 6-cell diagonals with 3 shared by all would still work?
I'm not sure if this has been suggested before, but is it possible that you install an eye-tracker on your computer so that we can see how you navigate your thought process on the grid?
I can see it now. A sudoku board with a naked single. And a cartoon bubble (as if the square is speaking) above the grid, with the words, "I'm a naked single!" Hee hee
Damn, that was a hard one! It was awesome! It took me 3 times as long to get it, but I did make breakfast in the middle, so that's... probably about 5 min or so that should be taken off (toaster strudels). In my defense, I started while drinking coffee, so I was still half asleep. lol
Man, these puzzles do wonders on your self-esteem. I got 7 digits entered! I think when I go 20 minutes without entering another digit, it's time to watch the video. EDIT: Surprisingly the 7's in box 1 and 3 I got almost immediately. Surprised (used that word twice) that Simon took so long on them. But of course he is blowing me away with other digits.
Because of the diagonals Simon kept missing easy to spot Sudoku solves. Was too focused on the more difficult aspects than the simple solutions. This is a nice puzzle as it works for both beginners and more advanced solvers while giving them both challenges that fit their perspectives.
When watching how you worked out the sudoku I found that you focused more on the x from corner to corner and less on plan sudoku which in my head would have been easier.
**Simon has to think for more than 3 seconds**
Simon: "Into exile I must go. Failed, I have."
This should be the top comment
yeah this deserves more praise
Apologize, I must.
Simon: [Doesn't see a piece of logic for 0.5 secs]
"Sorry about this".
Everyone else: No worries mate
@22:10 "...getting to the point we can't use the diagonals..." _There's a single 9!!_
@22:25 "...what I said is absolute nonsense..." _Ah, he spotted it. Not surprising._
@22:30 "...this square [58]...." _What!?_
Thoroughly entertaining!
Well I was already entertained before that, because he was saying all this stuff about 189 triples without asking the question: Where do you put the 5 on that diagonal.
@@DutchKoffie yes I thought the same for the whole two minutes
My exact same reaction lol
“That is a naked single! Which is... surprising, but welcome.” - Simon
im pretty sure simon is part of prequel memes
A suprise to be sure, but a welcome one
*Meme-ing intensifies*
Another one for the t-shirts
Simon is Sheev Palpatine: confirmed
I really like the bubbles explaining what you missed
I agree, some commentary on the live solve really helps.
17:44 Simon: I feel like I'm being incredible inefficient about this
18:43:48 Me: So am I....
Simon: Now I'm cooking with gas.
Me: Now I'm cooking with Hasbro My First Kitchen Play Set.
How dare you use my kitchen. How did you get into my house?
Simon did you re-watch your solve on this and go, "How did I keep missing just normal sudoku? What did Aad van de Wetering do to my head?"
Yes. X)
These creators basically brainwashed him so that he would forget basic normal sudoku; he should really come back down to earth
You can not believe how freaking smart and happy I felt when the first thing I did was to lock 1 and 8 in the middle square even before Simon did. I‘ve peaked, that’s it that’s the biggest achievement of my life
12:31 It is... that one! *points to a place I didn't even try looking to*
YES!
I was off in the opposite corner 😂
Yep, I was in the top right corner
I think that this sudoku is very tricky to advanced sudoku players but easier to people that are new to sudoku, I could easily spot numbers which Simon had problems with so that might be a reason for varied opinion between testers, although as always Aad van de Wetering shows us a real beauty in this one. Thanks Simon for the solve!
Nah, that's really just Simon on a live solve. On the other hand, this puzzle, other than the unconventional diagonals doesn't use any advanced techniques (purely naked or hidden digits, with some pairs and triples.) This is fairly typical though with Aad's puzzles.
It's just you paying attention to spotting numbers and Simon paying attention to figuring out logic.
@@TahgtahvThere's a difference between "advanced" and novel, isn't there? Personally I think that if for whatever reason you fail to realize that the 18 cell on the diagonals represents a single digit, you're going to have a bad time. And then the same applies when you get combinations like 15 and 58 on the two diagonals that lack the 18 cell -- it's effectively a pair. It's not the kind of thing that a thorough familiarity with w-wings or swordfish is going to help you with.
For me it was the 18 pair in the lower left box that started speeding up the solve. I looked up the diagonal looking for another possible 18 pair and then abruptly remembered that the center square was also on the diagonal. After that, finishing off the diagonals was pretty straight-forward. I was a little surprised that Simon didn't spot that, but with the center square not actually being in line with the diagonal, it's pretty easy to miss. Plus, he's under pressure to keep up a commentary so it isn't a boring video - which is something that I think a lot of ppl don't realize can slow down a person's thinking process (as well recall).
Great puzzle! I was making good progress, but then I got stuck with a 5-8 (r2c3) and 1-5 (r6c7) and I couldn't see a way to solve it. Your logic at 22:27 did the trick! Thanks for the lesson, Simon! And thanks Aad for sending another great variation!
I come home and watch these videos every day after work. They're very relaxing an fun to watch. Thanks Simon!
Simon making comments at himself in the edit, I guess we should probably call him future Simon? Or maybe "hindsimon"?
If he only does them this year, is it hindsimon 20/20?
I feel like you did all the hard work and crumbled on the easy parts aha. After you got me started I solved it quite differently. Good job Simon
You nailed it with the one solution path thing, at least early on. I actually got started a bit faster than you, which I was quite proud of, but I missed two pieces of logic later on that completely stumped me, and I had to watch the video to continue. Very tough puzzle!
12:22 "see if you can see which square is effected"
Me: Oh those two squares in the top right box!
"It is... that one!" *points to bottom left*
Me: Oh right, the exact opposite...
Hah, I was thinking the same thing! And looking to see how 2s and 9s were restricted on that diagonal, but it wasn't enough to help.
The best part, YOUR MISSING THE 9, NOPE STILL THE 9
you're*
Paused @24:27
You have two cells, r4c7 and r6c2, that can be placed simply by "where can I put x".
9 in r4c7 on the diagonal, and 5 in r6c2
6:44 "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one"
Naked singles: Surprising, but welcome
I really loved this puzzle! Once I got my head around the "missing" 18 pair, I was really able to knock out the diagonals which led to solving the rest of the puzzle. I was intrigued by the 3rd box in that the odd numbers all filled in orthogonally leaving the corners for the evens.
That bit at the end, with the green bubble about the missing 9, had me laughing so hard. I don't know if that was Simon or someone else in editing, but it was great!
Rather than thinking of a virtual triple, it was helpful for me to start thinking of "1 or 8" as a single number for diagonal purposes.
@24:25 I just marked the central square blue and all 1/8 pairs, that are the opposite of the blue 1/8 pair red. I was able to put all "red numbers" in the sudoku, expect the one in the 3rd box, because the last digit of the red numbers must be placed into the 1. So I discovered that the red boxes must be 1 and the blue ones 8. I never used this technic before, but it worked out in an really intressting way. But the way you did it 5 seconds later was good to :)
Starting at 13:17, there was a naked single in R4C8, 8, which would have expedited some of the later solving. Great puzzle and great solve!
6:46 a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one
1:11:14 I agree with Simon that with a 2nd puzzle of this type we could use what we learned in this one to spot logic more quickly
I would love to see more of this variant.
A nice windmill from the Netherlands! Very appropriate.
At 13:30, there is a naked single in R4C8. It makes the puzzle a lot easier :)
Fantastic puzzle! Some of the variant sudokus leave my mind fatigued when I am done. While this took me the standard 2x longer than Simon, my mind was excited to look at the different and interesting ways this variant impacted the puzzle. Many thanks Aad!
Managed to get this in a bit under an hour, which I consider a formidable solve. Great puzzle!
simon: Has to think for 2 microseconds.. SORRY ABOUT THIS!
Anyone else here also watching Agadmator a lot and having to smile whenever they hear that sentence. I also loved how Simon told us to stop at one point in this video to spot the next move. :D
This is a beautiful puzzle, which I enjoyed very much. By the way... the green bubble with the missing 9 was absolutely funny.
Took me 2.5h, but I'm still happy since it was the first puzzle by Aad I was able to solve. It was quite confisuing, Simon's way of treating 1-8 as pairs on diagonals was much clearer and simpler.
4:25 I found another reasoning to put the 3 in E6 which I thought was rather beautiful. In the center box I filled in only the following information:
| 5 |168| - |
| 18 | 18 | - |
| - |138| 9 |
Now if either the top middle one or the bottom middle one was a 1 OR an 8, then the center one would have to be the other of the two -> then what would be left for the left-middle one? Nothing! So they MUST be 6 and 3!
Simon solves entire puzzle in less time than I figure out how to use 1-8 pair. "Sorry I'm so slow"
Fun and interesting are the key words I'd describe this one with and I must have been daft because I missed a few of the pieces that you saw right away that ate up 10 to 15 minutes each for me, but then again I was screaming about the naked singles you overlooked that I spotted easily. I got a good laugh about the 9 at the end. I love those post solve quotes you give yourself. They add great humor! :)
Lol "that is a naked single! Surprising... But welcome..." oh Simon 😂
What an intricate puzzle this was, it was like solving a spider's web. I love the format!
51:04 Sheesh … I ended up bifurcating twice to get to the end of this one. Have no idea what I missed, though that will change soon enough ...
EDIT: The biggest trick I missed was the chain of 29-cells, though there were other things I overlooked as well.
1:29:48
I'd definitely welcome another puzzle of this type to see how much better I can do now that I've learned some of the logic.
22:08 I'm kind of surprised you didn't spot the 18 pair on the diagonal, making r4c7 a 9 immediately.
The simple edit with the speech bubble makes it even more entertaining than it already is 🙈
No coincidence aad & odd are homophones 😎Logic baffled me on this, too. Thanks for spotting that 1,8 ‘pair’ on the final diagonal. Got me unstuck!brilliant solve as always, Si
20:50 I think you got lucky, there was a pencil mark in r9c6 that you missed, as there could be a 6 in the box.
Edit: Right after I wrote this I realized that the 26 combo actually rules the 6 out of that box.
Thanks for this reply. I noticed the same issue but hadn't figured out that it was actually correct.
thanks was looking for an explanation for that. i couldnt understand why it was a 6.
Absolutely sublime!
Simon Bubbles is always pissed off at Simon, but Bubbles only knows what Simon lets him know.
57:21
This one was very wonderful and relaxing
Well is sat there staring at the puzzle until "Kingdom Come"
First time actually getting frustrated! What a milestone
To the description: 9! is a massive number (it is the number of minutes in 36 weeks), so if you can fit that in a sudoku, I am very impressed.
Considering it has a 0 and a repeated digit, it'd be tough. I could probably do it on the diagonal of a 0-8 puzzle.
I just checked to see whether your 'estimation' of 9! was correct and I was very surprised to notice that its the exact same number...?! That is crazy.
Sybren Dijkstra
There are 10! seconds in six weeks, and I figured minutes in 36 weeks was easier to wrap your head around than ten-second intervals in six weeks, so I went with that for 9!.
Well, the description is not wrong. I am unable to see the number 9! as well.
Ooh. I found something Simon missed (that's rare). @15:54 the 158 on the line must be a 5 because you have the 18 determined early in.
(edit:and once again I'm wrong because the 18 is on the other line crossing)
Don't remember the exact path but found the 15 pair in the top box earlier in the solution path which disambiguated the center dot which pretty quickly allowed me to fill in all the diagonals (still took massively longer than Simon to solve overall)
Simon:If u dont spot the next step u will be waiting till kindom come..8:17
Me: yes ofc lol
I think Simon could solve the puzzle at 13:19 !
The 9 in C8 R1 left a naked single at C8 R4
The rest is history.
That was fun - felt like there was some nice x-wing like logic using the diagonals.
Ouch ... that was excruciating, I don't think I've ever seen one before where you have to go to so much effort just to get a single blasted digit that leads _nowhere_ 😯
"A surprise to be sure but a welcome one" Emperor Simon
Enjoyed this puzzle. Aad never disappionts.
At 8:40 I'm not spotting what I need to here. Yep, I had the same problem, but by then I was about an hour behind Simon.... :-/
I totally didn't see the thing with the 4's about 10 minutes in. Annoyingly, I saw something similar with 7's! Still a rough solve even after that.
I actually took a very different solving path, mostly because I noticed things in a different order. First digit I placed on all diagonals was 7. In the R1C2 and R9C2 diagonals, it can only be on a end, which makes an X-wing, AND if one is in the top half the other is too. This allowed me to narrow down options on it quickly. Unfortunately it took me a long time to find a few next steps during the puzzle, and my solve time was almost 2 hours. Oh well.
Those diagonals had you flummoxed!
Turns out to be a classic with 4 extra non repeating a digit regions instead of a normal diagonal sudoku with 2 extra regions so despite the visual trickery from the rule, mostly just naked or hidden singles and locked candidates, pairs triples and the like. Neat puzzle though, wonder if 8 6-cell diagonals with 3 shared by all would still work?
41:15 for me! What a great sudoku!
You did all the hard job in 5 minutes and then you were stuck on the easy part 😅 we clearly have different brains
I'm not sure if this has been suggested before, but is it possible that you install an eye-tracker on your computer so that we can see how you navigate your thought process on the grid?
Great Video I did it differently I got the 3 in the center first
SERIOUSLY, Simon?
You missed the obvious 5 on the diagonal AND the obvious 5 on R6 for AGES.
The missed 9 is the least of your worries, mate.
I would love a naked single sweater, I would buy it so fast
But you aren't naked, aren't you?
Lol yes
@@sarahr.1076 Underneath my sweater, I am.
I can see it now. A sudoku board with a naked single. And a cartoon bubble (as if the square is speaking) above the grid, with the words, "I'm a naked single!" Hee hee
Damn, that was a hard one! It was awesome! It took me 3 times as long to get it, but I did make breakfast in the middle, so that's... probably about 5 min or so that should be taken off (toaster strudels). In my defense, I started while drinking coffee, so I was still half asleep. lol
kingdom come is a great song that got into the Swedish national final of this year's Eurovision!
two and three quarters hours. I wondered in and out of the main path, but, I did it!
Great Puzzle
Man, these puzzles do wonders on your self-esteem. I got 7 digits entered! I think when I go 20 minutes without entering another digit, it's time to watch the video. EDIT: Surprisingly the 7's in box 1 and 3 I got almost immediately. Surprised (used that word twice) that Simon took so long on them. But of course he is blowing me away with other digits.
At one point you had a 189 triple along a diagonal going up to right, but only one of them had a 9.
I don't how you all can solve these puzzles in 30 mins, it took me 1:42:32 to solve and I needed hints from the video to do that.
Took me 2.5h, without any hints though. Simon's scanning is just ridiculous.
Because of the diagonals Simon kept missing easy to spot Sudoku solves. Was too focused on the more difficult aspects than the simple solutions. This is a nice puzzle as it works for both beginners and more advanced solvers while giving them both challenges that fit their perspectives.
When watching how you worked out the sudoku I found that you focused more on the x from corner to corner and less on plan sudoku which in my head would have been easier.
Hey Simon - would you ever try ColorKu on your channel? Would be interesting! :D
6:45 a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Omg yes, I'm so glad I'm not the only who immediately picked up on a paraphrased prequel meme
24:35 was my halfway point (after an hour or so) - I think I really need to get my 101 on basic sudoku solving polished :(
Luke Skywalker would not be happy about the "Bent X-wing" on 2s and 9s!
THis made me feel like an idiot. Most excellent. I made one wrong move and spent over an hour trying to figure out what I'd done.
I took 1 hour 29 and guessed the 1:8 pair 😂 and still had to check back to 24:50 to get the next bit 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ I need more practice!
At 1512, why did you rule out the cell at column 9, row 8 for a 7? The 7 could have gone there.
12:30 this is basically a crooked x-wing, isn't it?
til kingdom come...thats a new phrase in my vocab. thanks xD
The expression refers to God's Kingdom mentioned in the model prayer. Matthew 6:9,10. "Let your kingdom come, let your will take place..."
LOL, I found that “y’all “ are just smarter than me.
I thought the "missed 9s" were the ones in rows 4 and 5 for a long time watching this.
Or where he had a 189 triple along the diagonal and center but he focused on the 58 on the other diagonal... maybe its 9 karma from yesterday
29:25 and that's all that matters
Its funny when Simon is blaming the Simon on the vid
“Not solving efficiently? Really? Have you seen us try to solve these???
Hi Simon,
Can you do more crossword puzzles?
I fairly easily got to 5:00 but despite spending more than 15 minutes, I failed to see the next step needed to make any further progress.
Is this similar to Argyle?
What a Puzzle!