"and this 6 rules out a 7 from here so now 7 is locked into this domino" he said, with the given 7 looking at that pencilmark 3 squares down. It's constantly baffling how Simon is able to see logic that I can barely follow and somehow whiffs on the most basic pencilmark ruleouts in the game :P
To be honest, I feared that he will overlook it till the end of the puzzle like usual. I am glad that this was cleared quite fast for Simons standards :D No hating on him! He is the king of logic in my opinion but his scanning lacks so far behind that its, as you said, baffling at times.
@@serebix3685 His scanning doesn't lack behind. While the viewer is fixated on that single error, Simon is considering several other options at once, all the while elaborating his thought process to the viewer. Would love to see any viewer that criticizes Simon's obliviousness create a video in a similar fashion and upload for the world to see.
I’ve seen Simon solve hundreds of puzzles, but this one takes the win… I’VE NEVER FELT SO FRUSTRATED IN MY LIFE!!! You solved this puzzle with pure randomness, pulling out a diagonal that highlighted cells when *sudoku* of all things could’ve solved the puzzle 😭 I’m amazed at how differently your brain works regardless, great puzzle and great solve! Thank you for the content
I'm a bit sad that the rules weren't given as "Digits separated by a white dot must be consecutive. Digits separated by a black dot must be in a ratio of 1-2. All possible dots are given." :-D
Can u explain what u meant in the comment I’m new to sudoku and to this channel, just started to get interest in sudoku and I’m not familiar with the lingo
@@youtubeisnotajob4103 It's a rule we saw on other puzzles. Dots can be placed on lines, between two cells. If the dot is white, the two numbers are consecutive (like 3-4 or 8-9). If the dot is black, one must be double the other (like 1-2 or 3-6). Those are two rules used here assuming "all dots are given", which means "none at all". :P
Simon: Noticing things in the weirdest way possible since who knows when. Those 3x3 squares would never be noticed if he just continued doing standard sudoku. But somehow he stops and gets to create bizarre logic that noone else will ever need to think about. Absolutely love these videos.
Simon is undoubtedly an expert solver. I have been watching CTC for over a year now basically daily. And I have to say his ability to see logic in some of these puzzles is extraordinary. With that being said. It’s very intriguing watching and being able to see how his brain is processing the puzzle differently. Because I am arguably a medium level solver. At no point able to do most of these videos. I rely on scanning more than anything else. Simon is constantly looking for the more beautiful logic in the puzzle which is why I think he misses the simple stuff that has us yelling “THERES A SEVEN THAT GOES RIGHT THERE!!!!” For 5-10 min of the video. Good work Simon. Love the daily content. You’re my lunch break entertainment.
I don't usually have "yelling at the screen" moments LOL... but I did when at about 35:40 Simon says "...and 6 can go in only one of these two squares" & he puts one of them in between two 7s! LOL. He places that 6 correctly at the right some minutes later. Aside from that-- loved this solve & have to admit I'm absolutely addicted to this channel. Sometimes I play it just to listen to Simon's voice 😀 Is there somewhere I can find & print out the Simon Bingo Card? Bobbins! LOL
I loved when he said he had the horrible feeling that he had already highlighted those two squares and missed that the 6 couldn't be next to the 7, for this exact reason.
I don't typically comment, but I really want to say that this is exactly the kind of puzzle and the kind of solve I love to watch. "Miracle sudokus" have been my favorites on this channel, and Simon's enthusiasm both while solving and after solving is contagious, even when I'm barely following the logic half the time!
Rules: 04:33 Let's get cracking: 06:11 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Goodness: 3 Sorry: 3 Bobbins: 2 Good Grief: 1 Nonsense: 1 FAQ: Q1: How do you do this so fast? A1: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ... Q2: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'? A2: Please tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it! Q3: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'! A3: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
I had a brain aneurysm looking at the pencil marked 7 in row 5, column 2 after watching you ignore the 7 written in and then getting rid of it when you filled in the 6 next to it. Awesome videos though! WAY BETTER PUZZLE solver than I for sure. Thank you for the content!
it took me 257 minutes and some little helps from your video to do this, but i'm so happy i managed to finish it eventually! Always amazes me how fast you're able to see the problem and solve it.. thank you for your videos!
I normally avoid irregular sudoku but this one was fantastic! What a blast. I colored all 19s, 28s, and 35s before finding the final break and ended with a nice colored grid.
Thoroughly enjoyed solving this in just over an hour. Though I also highly anticipated watching Simon's solve because Simon solving Phistomefel is frustration punctuated by ecstasy. One disappointment -- Simon didn't color the 28's and 35's in two different colors each. I filled in the 19's, 28's, & 35's in six moves to finish off the puzzle. Very satisfying.
That friggin' killed me too. I think I may have seen the logic before, but I certainly saw it immediately after he said it. Let's look, . . . , oh yeah, of course there they go, or at least there's the next one.
It's so much fun to solve these and then watch Simon RUN through them. Some of the breakthroughs took me an hour to notice and he just spots them, it's like his brain is in fast forward ahaha
Also! I started watching the channel about two weeks ago and before then I wouldn't have had a chance in hell of solving this. Even though it took me three hours, it's very exciting that I've learnt so much. So thank you!
This has a miracle-type pattern on its columns, where each column is a sequence of digits that are shifted to starting in different rows, but which repeat.
@@emmettdavis415 I know it can be difficult to stop from putting the second d in the last name, but it really doesn't go there. And I wasn't the one who put those two names together. Would have to blame my mother on that one. Don't think it's enough of a bother to go and pay fees to rename myself.
I don't understand what miracle type pattern is. Could you explain that please? Thank you. Edit: So I tried to find some common definition. Miracle sudoku seems to have anti knight, anti king and anti consecutive constraints. This lacks the anti king constraint. That's as far as I've got. Do these puzzles share patterns?
I love that watching Simon is often like watching a starving person stumble blindly through a banquet. You’re great, but you always ignore the low hanging fruit.
This puzzle has some awesome geometry. One thing I noted is that the shape of the four circumferential blocks implies an equivalence between the four corner digits and the four diagonally adjacent squares within them (I found this by drawing a ring like Simon shows in another video with a Phistomefel puzzle). I also noticed that fully colouring in the three blocks present in the top two rows, then cancelling the top two rows themselves, leaves a new shape of nine squares (which must contain one full set of the digits) on the right of the grid. By comparison with the original block in the top right corner, the 2x2 square in the top right is equivalent to the 2x2 square of the 'inverted worm' shape, as Simon calls it in fhe video. I also noticed that by comparing the four circumferential blocks and then 2x9 rectangles they sit in on each side of the grid (which must contain two full sets of the digits) it's quite easy to establish some equivalences between the 1x5 strips which are in the middle of the two perimeter rows/columns on the four sides of the grid. These in turn allow some equivalences to be established between individual squares, by comparing the single rows and columns with equivalent digits in the middle five squares.
I'm wishing Phistomefel had the rules as a Kropki ruleset with an "all white and black dots have been given" negative constraint. =D Poor Simon is really making things hard on himself focusing on 3-by-3 regions. Just looking at the regions themselves tells you exactly where the purples and 6es and blues go. I love shouting at the screen at him lol
@@ahouyearno Yeah he didn't explain what he was doing great but basically the non-diagonal ones will never fit if three cells in the corner of the 3x3 are taken, since they all need two "edge" cells and the opposite "corner"...
Why would anyone admit to taking three hours to solve this puzzle? Because that's how long it took me. And then I get another 45 minutes enjoyment watching Simon's solve. A brilliant puzzle. Thank you.
Gotta say, although it made me take a little while longer I'm shocked color-loving Simon didn't finish this puzzle the way I did: coloring all 28s, 35s and 19s pairs so I could finish the puzzle just by double clicking a color and writing it's digit. Yeah it takes longer, but it doesn't get much more satisfying than this
If you use a tablet to do the puzzle then you don't even have to double-click (well, double-tap, I suppose). You can just press and hold to select all cells of the same color. It's like half the effort. It's great for lazy people like me!
YES! My daily fix of CTC is here! I've found your channel a few months back and have binged on all the older puzzles and now I'm addicted to your daily releases. Damn you Mark and Simon! Love the channel.👍👍👍
What I find absolutely beautiful and that Simon hints at but seems to not mention is that the pattern of knights moves and diagonals repeats for every digits. If you go from left to right and wrap the grid (if you exit from the top, you come back in at the bottom), the position of any given digit always follows the pattern: knight move - knights move - diagonal - diagonal - diagonal - diagonal - knight move - knights move From what I understand from the solve, the diagonals seem to be a consequence of the "2" regions, and the knights move from the "worm" regions. I find that really beautiful to look at, to be honest. Phistomefel is really such a genius setter.
I managed to do this own in about an hour. When I spotted the 2 3 5 8 trick I stood up and said (yelled), “that is incredible.” - Absolutely stunned me. I had to take a break and just let it settle in my brain. This construction is beautiful.
Taking a little break before plunging back into university teaching tomorrow. This one and the zetamath Patreon pack were the perfect couple of hours of distraction. This puzzle is outstanding, and the zetamath puzzles are fantastic.
My first attempt at a harder puzzle. I've been warming up with Mark and the GAS collection, but this is my debut at one of the beasts. Despite watching Simon solve quite a few over the past couple of months, I never thought I could manage one. I'll admit to getting stuck 3 times but with the smallest of hints from the video, I got going again. Learned some elegant techniques and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to both Simon and Phistomefel for a cracking puzzle!
The masterstroke of this puzzle was the 6 in the bottom right due to the "179 triple". I spent ages stuck at that point, and even when I saw simon do it I still spent ages understanding it. Brilliant - a joy.
What a brilliant puzzle! I lack both skill and confidence to move quickly with the solves, but after the cascade of 4's it flowed really nicely. Slowly, but surely the crumbs of logic have led me to a correct solution. Great stuff.
Thank you, Simon. I finished the puzzle with just a few little hints from you. You've introduced me to another world of fun. Feel like it might even be potentially useful, but certainly interesting and fun!
I'm glad I stumbled upon this, I had the random idea of a puzzle with this exact ruleset recently and am overjoyed to learn that it's been done all the justice I could hope!
I "solved" the puzzle and then realized that the rule didn't seem to apply properly and thought the puzzle was broken and then you pointed out my flaw this was a really interesting one
I had given up on this ... but when I came back later for one more try, I started seeing things ... then more things ... All told, I was able to finish this one in 42:43. A far cry from my last effort on a Phistomefel puzzle!
I noticed there was a repeating pattern at 39:11, and then stopped and filled in 4, 6, 7, and colour-coded the rest of the gird, and then I watched to 43:49, where you mentioned that 6 can't be next to three, and then I was like wait I think I can solve this, and did! Obviously I couldn't have done it without your help, but I never would have thought I could solve it at all :))
Absolutely magical. I got a couple of steps in, then needed a hint to get un-stuck, after which it was a very smooth solve. Actually, I ended up splitting the "orange" cells into four separate colours along the way - once everything was coloured, it all solved in seconds. Absolutely brilliant, and definitely one of my favourite from Phistomefel.
Desperado, a cool intro for a cool puzzle. I know from past solves, you're a Floyd fan too. I think there could be the makings of a CTC acoustic album here...! 😊
20:47 you can, by Sudoku of all things. The third from top region sees a 4 everywhere but that corner, and once you place that 4, the same becomes true of the second from top region. It then rebounds to the left side to fix the 4 and 7, giving you the 4 for the right hand box in r8c9, placing the final 4 in r9c8
Phistomefel is by far my favorite setter and my hero. Everything he puts out there is absolutely genius! I really enjoyed this puzzle. I worked happily for hours, even started over a couple of times - I'm no Simon! After I finished, I enjoyed watching Simon solve it. I
35:16 "Is there anything we can rule out?" He says as he sees there must be a six in two places with 2 sevens touching one Edit: HE GOT THERE IN THE END
It killed me around the 15:00 Mark in the video when you said the first 6 on the grid ruled out that 7, even though the 7 that was given already had it ruled out from the start
Glad I was able to solve this. No clue what my time was, I started it then had to go do other things and finally came back to it. I'm thinking at least two hours. I feel like the puzzle could have been called Echo.
Absolutely gorgeous!! I am so proud of the fact that I was able to logic some of this before Simon. That is how I guage my intelligence these days... lol 💖
I love these geometry-based puzzles. They actually seem doable to me where are some of the puzzles that are done on here are way over my head. I did this one in about 26 minutes. I had a little faster start as I noticed the geometry with the sevens within the first two minutes. Given that head start and the fact that Simon has to take time to explain what he is doing to the audience I think we was close on pacing.
Beautiful. And given the irregular nature of the grid, who among us can really say where the middle is, and whether it is a 5 or not? Answers on a postcard.
I followed the "law of leftovers" a little deeper and the run of digits r2c3-r2c7 can't be orange, has to appear in row 1 in the upper worm, therefore has to be the same as r9c3-r9c7 and this and analogous at the bottom gives equivalence between worm heads and places 7s and 4s a little faster. I must've enjoyed the coloring excercises because before i knew it an hour went by :) Simon definitely turned back into a stormtrooper, but it's understandable with all the excitement.
I also like the logic he uses @16:10 to rule out 6 in the right bottom « box » after having taken the time to colour and explain the necessity of finding the same digits in same coloured cells :-)
I do enjoy how Simon rules out the 7 in R5C2 by the 6 and not the 7 in the column, haha. But this was a beautiful solve, and what an impressive puzzle yet again!
I'm reasonably certain that Simon possesses the world's most extreme ratio of 'puzzle solving ability' :: 'basic sudoku scanning'. That row 2, #7 pencil mark that was eventually 'resolved' via a painstakingly earned 6 was also ruled out by a ... Given digit. 🤣 I could never solve this myself, but I can certainly laugh when I somehow find a deduction before Simon. It's like watching Jeopardy. I could never win the thing but feel great when I know the answer to a question someone gets wrong! Love seeing these Simon/Phistomefel battles. When Phistomefel finally wins I hope we get that video too (with the accompanying Phistomefel solve).
Yes! I wish he would put a note on the screen like yes, i do eventually notice the incorrect pencil mark. lol. But Simon is a genius to me! It is funny when he misses little things.
Interesting that the whole grid seems to follow a pattern. If you envisage the grid as a sphere, and start from r1c1 you can do 2 vertical knight's moves, a run of 5 diagonals, and another 2 knight's moves. This works for all digits down column 1.
One thing that became obvious to me pretty quickly was that 4 was always above 7 and later blue was always below it, 6 was always above purple, and came to quickly realize that each column was in the exact same order of digits. The pattern became incredibly obvious with the way he colored everything.
"and this 6 rules out a 7 from here so now 7 is locked into this domino" he said, with the given 7 looking at that pencilmark 3 squares down. It's constantly baffling how Simon is able to see logic that I can barely follow and somehow whiffs on the most basic pencilmark ruleouts in the game :P
yeah no way you can't see that 😂
To be honest, I feared that he will overlook it till the end of the puzzle like usual. I am glad that this was cleared quite fast for Simons standards :D No hating on him! He is the king of logic in my opinion but his scanning lacks so far behind that its, as you said, baffling at times.
@@serebix3685 His scanning doesn't lack behind. While the viewer is fixated on that single error, Simon is considering several other options at once, all the while elaborating his thought process to the viewer.
Would love to see any viewer that criticizes Simon's obliviousness create a video in a similar fashion and upload for the world to see.
i think its because hes so caught up in all the other advanced logical thinking that he misses out the simpler ones, which is understandable
Along with the 4 above that
This dude's a genius. Am I talking about Phistomefel or Simon? Yes
Those two should get a room already :D
Well put! - Andrew
"Yes" haha nice %)
You're talking about Phistomefel.
@@timotheusnobel9795 ?
I’ve seen Simon solve hundreds of puzzles, but this one takes the win… I’VE NEVER FELT SO FRUSTRATED IN MY LIFE!!!
You solved this puzzle with pure randomness, pulling out a diagonal that highlighted cells when *sudoku* of all things could’ve solved the puzzle 😭
I’m amazed at how differently your brain works regardless, great puzzle and great solve!
Thank you for the content
I'm a bit sad that the rules weren't given as "Digits separated by a white dot must be consecutive. Digits separated by a black dot must be in a ratio of 1-2. All possible dots are given." :-D
Came here to say this
Can u explain what u meant in the comment
I’m new to sudoku and to this channel, just started to get interest in sudoku and I’m not familiar with the lingo
@@youtubeisnotajob4103 It's a rule we saw on other puzzles. Dots can be placed on lines, between two cells. If the dot is white, the two numbers are consecutive (like 3-4 or 8-9). If the dot is black, one must be double the other (like 1-2 or 3-6).
Those are two rules used here assuming "all dots are given", which means "none at all". :P
@@nazemec oh ok thanks
So u r saying they could have written the rules in a different manner
@You Tube is not a job - yes, but it's a kind of ctc (Cracking the Cryptic) in-joke - it would be amusing to express it that other way.
Simon: Noticing things in the weirdest way possible since who knows when.
Those 3x3 squares would never be noticed if he just continued doing standard sudoku. But somehow he stops and gets to create bizarre logic that noone else will ever need to think about.
Absolutely love these videos.
Simon is undoubtedly an expert solver. I have been watching CTC for over a year now basically daily. And I have to say his ability to see logic in some of these puzzles is extraordinary. With that being said. It’s very intriguing watching and being able to see how his brain is processing the puzzle differently. Because I am arguably a medium level solver. At no point able to do most of these videos. I rely on scanning more than anything else. Simon is constantly looking for the more beautiful logic in the puzzle which is why I think he misses the simple stuff that has us yelling “THERES A SEVEN THAT GOES RIGHT THERE!!!!” For 5-10 min of the video. Good work Simon. Love the daily content. You’re my lunch break entertainment.
Three digits in the grid and he's already forgotten to scan one of them. I think that's a new record.
Fr wtf
We should have a channel just with the reactions from the setters, seeing their puzzles being cracked.
I don't usually have "yelling at the screen" moments LOL... but I did when at about 35:40 Simon says "...and 6 can go in only one of these two squares" & he puts one of them in between two 7s! LOL. He places that 6 correctly at the right some minutes later. Aside from that-- loved this solve & have to admit I'm absolutely addicted to this channel. Sometimes I play it just to listen to Simon's voice 😀 Is there somewhere I can find & print out the Simon Bingo Card? Bobbins! LOL
I got "yelling" over Simon's mistreating of the colors like he does with corner pencil marks.
I loved when he was looking at the 4’s and wrote in 7 as an option of the cells connected to the 4s. Right after he talked about finding all the 7s.
I've learned he can only see 1 rule at a time
I loved when he said he had the horrible feeling that he had already highlighted those two squares and missed that the 6 couldn't be next to the 7, for this exact reason.
Sameee 😂 pulling ma hair out
15:01 that 6 is ruling out that 7... yeah because the starting 7 in the same column didn't already, right? XD
I was going mad about that 7
^^^^ The comment I was looking for!
After reading the rules. "do have a go." "nah fam, I'm good"
that's usualy me, but Always for Phistomofel
Let me give this a shot...
Me, after 15 minutes: "Wot?"
I took a try......... And I did it.......... in 2 hours 25 minutes...............
@@slavthesage5661 91 minutes haha... but i mostly placed the same digit on the diagonal and hoped for the best
I don't typically comment, but I really want to say that this is exactly the kind of puzzle and the kind of solve I love to watch. "Miracle sudokus" have been my favorites on this channel, and Simon's enthusiasm both while solving and after solving is contagious, even when I'm barely following the logic half the time!
This is one of my all time favorites I think. I feel like I could have a shot at this one if I sat with it for about a week.
The « half of an elephant’s trunk » really cracked me up. So unexpected!Another exemple of Simon’s mind’s marvellous ways.
Rules: 04:33
Let's get cracking: 06:11
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Goodness: 3
Sorry: 3
Bobbins: 2
Good Grief: 1
Nonsense: 1
FAQ:
Q1: How do you do this so fast?
A1: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ...
Q2: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'?
A2: Please tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it!
Q3: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'!
A3: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
this robot is crazy
57:29 and proud of it! A few months ago I couldn't even DREAM of finishing this puzzle. Thank you CTC, amazing as always! :D
I had a brain aneurysm looking at the pencil marked 7 in row 5, column 2 after watching you ignore the 7 written in and then getting rid of it when you filled in the 6 next to it. Awesome videos though! WAY BETTER PUZZLE solver than I for sure. Thank you for the content!
it took me 257 minutes and some little helps from your video to do this, but i'm so happy i managed to finish it eventually! Always amazes me how fast you're able to see the problem and solve it.. thank you for your videos!
I normally avoid irregular sudoku but this one was fantastic! What a blast. I colored all 19s, 28s, and 35s before finding the final break and ended with a nice colored grid.
Thoroughly enjoyed solving this in just over an hour. Though I also highly anticipated watching Simon's solve because Simon solving Phistomefel is frustration punctuated by ecstasy.
One disappointment -- Simon didn't color the 28's and 35's in two different colors each. I filled in the 19's, 28's, & 35's in six moves to finish off the puzzle. Very satisfying.
That's the way I went, too.
(After messing up and needing half of the video to get a good start admittedly ...)
Can't believe he said, "looks like the 4's are going up the diagonal...." And then didn't even check...
How would he have been able to? There were no other digits... Edit: He did check a couple of minutes later? I don't understand your comment..
@@kenyakookie yes a couple minutes later he went back. But that was after I posted my comment
@@robertshort9487 Ah I see, sorry for misunderstanding
@@kenyakookie because the 4s ,at that point, single out the next 4 in the diaganal.
That friggin' killed me too. I think I may have seen the logic before, but I certainly saw it immediately after he said it. Let's look, . . . , oh yeah, of course there they go, or at least there's the next one.
It's so much fun to solve these and then watch Simon RUN through them. Some of the breakthroughs took me an hour to notice and he just spots them, it's like his brain is in fast forward ahaha
Also! I started watching the channel about two weeks ago and before then I wouldn't have had a chance in hell of solving this. Even though it took me three hours, it's very exciting that I've learnt so much. So thank you!
Every single column is the same string of digits in the same order and I am in awe.
This has a miracle-type pattern on its columns, where each column is a sequence of digits that are shifted to starting in different rows, but which repeat.
Cool but you should change your name
@@emmettdavis415 I know it can be difficult to stop from putting the second d in the last name, but it really doesn't go there. And I wasn't the one who put those two names together. Would have to blame my mother on that one. Don't think it's enough of a bother to go and pay fees to rename myself.
@@emmettdavis415 That's a weird comment asking someone to change their name if it's a completely inconspicuous name ...!
I don't understand what miracle type pattern is. Could you explain that please? Thank you.
Edit: So I tried to find some common definition. Miracle sudoku seems to have anti knight, anti king and anti consecutive constraints. This lacks the anti king constraint.
That's as far as I've got. Do these puzzles share patterns?
I think this comment would benefit from a spoiler alert.
I love that watching Simon is often like watching a starving person stumble blindly through a banquet. You’re great, but you always ignore the low hanging fruit.
This puzzle has some awesome geometry.
One thing I noted is that the shape of the four circumferential blocks implies an equivalence between the four corner digits and the four diagonally adjacent squares within them (I found this by drawing a ring like Simon shows in another video with a Phistomefel puzzle).
I also noticed that fully colouring in the three blocks present in the top two rows, then cancelling the top two rows themselves, leaves a new shape of nine squares (which must contain one full set of the digits) on the right of the grid. By comparison with the original block in the top right corner, the 2x2 square in the top right is equivalent to the 2x2 square of the 'inverted worm' shape, as Simon calls it in fhe video.
I also noticed that by comparing the four circumferential blocks and then 2x9 rectangles they sit in on each side of the grid (which must contain two full sets of the digits) it's quite easy to establish some equivalences between the 1x5 strips which are in the middle of the two perimeter rows/columns on the four sides of the grid. These in turn allow some equivalences to be established between individual squares, by comparing the single rows and columns with equivalent digits in the middle five squares.
Beautiful guitar intro, a favorite Eagles tune :-)
I'm wishing Phistomefel had the rules as a Kropki ruleset with an "all white and black dots have been given" negative constraint. =D
Poor Simon is really making things hard on himself focusing on 3-by-3 regions. Just looking at the regions themselves tells you exactly where the purples and 6es and blues go. I love shouting at the screen at him lol
Ha, yea, started typing the same thing. You can just get them sequentially. No need to be clever with the diagonals.
Lol, he even starts to do the sequential thing at 43:05 but decides to be fancy instead :)
@@michaeltong65 also the diagonal logic is busted. there's other configurations that work (but not with the given digits)
@@ahouyearno No there's not.
@@ahouyearno Yeah he didn't explain what he was doing great but basically the non-diagonal ones will never fit if three cells in the corner of the 3x3 are taken, since they all need two "edge" cells and the opposite "corner"...
Why would anyone admit to taking three hours to solve this puzzle? Because that's how long it took me. And then I get another 45 minutes enjoyment watching Simon's solve. A brilliant puzzle. Thank you.
I cannot believe I managed to do a Phistomefel all on my own! Thank you Simon and Mark, you guys have taught me more than I thought possible.
Gotta say, although it made me take a little while longer I'm shocked color-loving Simon didn't finish this puzzle the way I did: coloring all 28s, 35s and 19s pairs so I could finish the puzzle just by double clicking a color and writing it's digit. Yeah it takes longer, but it doesn't get much more satisfying than this
If you use a tablet to do the puzzle then you don't even have to double-click (well, double-tap, I suppose). You can just press and hold to select all cells of the same color. It's like half the effort. It's great for lazy people like me!
Yep, I also colored the three pairs. Beautifully satisfying. ❤️💚💙
Yeah, after seeing all the 19s pop up it was time to color
exactly what i did. so nice and pleasing to finish that way
YES! My daily fix of CTC is here! I've found your channel a few months back and have binged on all the older puzzles and now I'm addicted to your daily releases. Damn you Mark and Simon! Love the channel.👍👍👍
That's praising with faint damnation ;-)
By far one of the most interesting puzzles I’ve seen on this channel! Never would have thought this was even possible
What I find absolutely beautiful and that Simon hints at but seems to not mention is that the pattern of knights moves and diagonals repeats for every digits. If you go from left to right and wrap the grid (if you exit from the top, you come back in at the bottom), the position of any given digit always follows the pattern:
knight move - knights move - diagonal - diagonal - diagonal - diagonal - knight move - knights move
From what I understand from the solve, the diagonals seem to be a consequence of the "2" regions, and the knights move from the "worm" regions.
I find that really beautiful to look at, to be honest. Phistomefel is really such a genius setter.
15 seconds in and I've started singing "Desperado" I haven't heard that song in ages! Nice playing. :)
I managed to do this own in about an hour. When I spotted the 2 3 5 8 trick I stood up and said (yelled), “that is incredible.” - Absolutely stunned me. I had to take a break and just let it settle in my brain. This construction is beautiful.
If I hadn't been watching this channel, i wouldn't ever have been able to do this puzzle. Fantastic, and very, very clever
Taking a little break before plunging back into university teaching tomorrow. This one and the zetamath Patreon pack were the perfect couple of hours of distraction. This puzzle is outstanding, and the zetamath puzzles are fantastic.
Absolutely loved this, my first time at completing a Phistomefel puzzle - thanks to your amazing tuition Simon x
My first attempt at a harder puzzle. I've been warming up with Mark and the GAS collection, but this is my debut at one of the beasts. Despite watching Simon solve quite a few over the past couple of months, I never thought I could manage one. I'll admit to getting stuck 3 times but with the smallest of hints from the video, I got going again. Learned some elegant techniques and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks to both Simon and Phistomefel for a cracking puzzle!
The masterstroke of this puzzle was the 6 in the bottom right due to the "179 triple". I spent ages stuck at that point, and even when I saw simon do it I still spent ages understanding it. Brilliant - a joy.
Okay, I've tried to solve this and it took me 3 hours and I still had to look at your video for hints. Respect for being able to solve this so fast!
I love seeing Simon boycrushing on his favorite setter :)
What a brilliant puzzle! I lack both skill and confidence to move quickly with the solves, but after the cascade of 4's it flowed really nicely. Slowly, but surely the crumbs of logic have led me to a correct solution.
Great stuff.
Thank you for staving off doing this long enough that we could enjoy it with you!
Thank you, Simon. I finished the puzzle with just a few little hints from you. You've introduced me to another world of fun. Feel like it might even be potentially useful, but certainly interesting and fun!
I'm glad I stumbled upon this, I had the random idea of a puzzle with this exact ruleset recently and am overjoyed to learn that it's been done all the justice I could hope!
These sudoku videos have become a morning tradition for me to get my brain going. Thank you! :)
I "solved" the puzzle and then realized that the rule didn't seem to apply properly and thought the puzzle was broken and then you pointed out my flaw this was a really interesting one
I had given up on this ... but when I came back later for one more try, I started seeing things ... then more things ...
All told, I was able to finish this one in 42:43. A far cry from my last effort on a Phistomefel puzzle!
35:18 was really a great moment in king'move sudoku history.
Any day with Simon playing guitar is a good day.
"Desperado" intro
Wow, that took me almost three hours. There goes my sleep... Maybe I should do those when I´m awake. Great puzzle :)
Lovely intro and glad to see the return of the sudoku devil 😈
When stuck, revert to basic sudoku to find the blind singles you missed when you place a number, like the 7 in 5rc4.
Ps, I agree that the 1st fill of the first 4 was a nice start of the break through.
That six is ruling out a 7 here in the column with the given 7. Chuckle.
It’s not like it was doing anything lmfao
@@fart63 These days, I try to plan the comments a little better.
@@mikes_.5_centwhat do you meam by that? It made me laugh loudly for some reason amd now it's creeping me out
I noticed there was a repeating pattern at 39:11, and then stopped and filled in 4, 6, 7, and colour-coded the rest of the gird, and then I watched to 43:49, where you mentioned that 6 can't be next to three, and then I was like wait I think I can solve this, and did! Obviously I couldn't have done it without your help, but I never would have thought I could solve it at all :))
Absolutely magical. I got a couple of steps in, then needed a hint to get un-stuck, after which it was a very smooth solve. Actually, I ended up splitting the "orange" cells into four separate colours along the way - once everything was coloured, it all solved in seconds. Absolutely brilliant, and definitely one of my favourite from Phistomefel.
Desperado, a cool intro for a cool puzzle.
I know from past solves, you're a Floyd fan too. I think there could be the makings of a CTC acoustic album here...! 😊
The guitar intro was a very nice addition :) Would love to see it again many times over!
That solve was just magical to watch! The symmetry was so satisfying.
The thing that's nice about his puzzles is they almost always break in a satisfying way.
I love that Phistomefel has become synonymous with the Devil for Sudoko players thanks to this channel
It’s because it’s an anagram of Mephistofel.
Beautiful puzzle. I enjoyed watching as you worked your way through it.
20:47 you can, by Sudoku of all things. The third from top region sees a 4 everywhere but that corner, and once you place that 4, the same becomes true of the second from top region. It then rebounds to the left side to fix the 4 and 7, giving you the 4 for the right hand box in r8c9, placing the final 4 in r9c8
Phistomefel is by far my favorite setter and my hero. Everything he puts out there is absolutely genius! I really enjoyed this puzzle. I worked happily for hours, even started over a couple of times - I'm no Simon! After I finished, I enjoyed watching Simon solve it. I
Just brilliant. And seeing how the numbers repeated up the grid was beautiful
This puzzle is quite magnificent and a Nobel Prize for Puzzles should be instigated in order to honour it.
35:16 "Is there anything we can rule out?" He says as he sees there must be a six in two places with 2 sevens touching one
Edit: HE GOT THERE IN THE END
It killed me around the 15:00 Mark in the video when you said the first 6 on the grid ruled out that 7, even though the 7 that was given already had it ruled out from the start
Glad I was able to solve this. No clue what my time was, I started it then had to go do other things and finally came back to it. I'm thinking at least two hours. I feel like the puzzle could have been called Echo.
26:50, you pointing out knight's moves, and I've managed to solve it just off that. Clever, very very clever.
Absolutely gorgeous!! I am so proud of the fact that I was able to logic some of this before Simon. That is how I guage my intelligence these days... lol 💖
I usually don't comment but I have to say this puzzle was a beautiful one
I don't normally yell at my screen... But this one had me pretty agitated with Simon forgetting the consecutive rule...
I was exactly the same
I love how the order of the numbers are the same in each row and each column, it's just shifted.
I love these geometry-based puzzles. They actually seem doable to me where are some of the puzzles that are done on here are way over my head. I did this one in about 26 minutes. I had a little faster start as I noticed the geometry with the sevens within the first two minutes. Given that head start and the fact that Simon has to take time to explain what he is doing to the audience I think we was close on pacing.
Beautiful. And given the irregular nature of the grid, who among us can really say where the middle is, and whether it is a 5 or not? Answers on a postcard.
I followed the "law of leftovers" a little deeper and the run of digits r2c3-r2c7 can't be orange, has to appear in row 1 in the upper worm, therefore has to be the same as r9c3-r9c7 and this and analogous at the bottom gives equivalence between worm heads and places 7s and 4s a little faster. I must've enjoyed the coloring excercises because before i knew it an hour went by :) Simon definitely turned back into a stormtrooper, but it's understandable with all the excitement.
Beautiful puzzle and beautiful solve!
I also like the logic he uses @16:10 to rule out 6 in the right bottom « box » after having taken the time to colour and explain the necessity of finding the same digits in same coloured cells :-)
One of the most interesting and fun solves on this channel
thoroughly enjoyed the desperado at the beginning of the video
Really enjoyable Simon. Great solve!
Beautiful intro music, Simon - thank you ^^
Simon 27:17
"So this is the upside down worm ... and this is the normal way up worm ..."🤗
After watching for 26 minutes I can already see the geomatry and I LOVE IT
I don't really like sodoku puzzles, but I find your enjoyment while doing this videos enticing.
All introduction should be like this one. Just gave me life
I do enjoy how Simon rules out the 7 in R5C2 by the 6 and not the 7 in the column, haha. But this was a beautiful solve, and what an impressive puzzle yet again!
In Poland we have a saying: "the devil is not as bad as it's painted" :D smooth 1 hr solve. Very pleasant.
I was thrilled to watch this and learn that I used almost the identical logic path that Simon followed, it just took me twice as long! 86:35
I took that long just to get beyond those first two 6s!
I'm reasonably certain that Simon possesses the world's most extreme ratio of 'puzzle solving ability' :: 'basic sudoku scanning'.
That row 2, #7 pencil mark that was eventually 'resolved' via a painstakingly earned 6 was also ruled out by a ... Given digit. 🤣
I could never solve this myself, but I can certainly laugh when I somehow find a deduction before Simon. It's like watching Jeopardy. I could never win the thing but feel great when I know the answer to a question someone gets wrong! Love seeing these Simon/Phistomefel battles. When Phistomefel finally wins I hope we get that video too (with the accompanying Phistomefel solve).
6 is ruling a 7 out of this square.
Gosh that 7 pencil mark was really annoying.
Yes! I wish he would put a note on the screen like yes, i do eventually notice the incorrect pencil mark. lol. But Simon is a genius to me! It is funny when he misses little things.
Simon is an example for the uneven spreading of talents.
Logical master, very tiny and can play guitar. You are great!!
I don’t think he’s as tiny as you might think. He’s taller than Mark!
@@mjdevorick8404 automatic correction. Meant funny
Haha! I do think he’s funny also.
Interesting that the whole grid seems to follow a pattern. If you envisage the grid as a sphere, and start from r1c1 you can do 2 vertical knight's moves, a run of 5 diagonals, and another 2 knight's moves. This works for all digits down column 1.
One thing that became obvious to me pretty quickly was that 4 was always above 7 and later blue was always below it, 6 was always above purple, and came to quickly realize that each column was in the exact same order of digits. The pattern became incredibly obvious with the way he colored everything.
I love all the diagonal repetitions!
funnest solve ive done in awhile... phistdmewell at it again, another fantastic puzzle
Love the intro!!!! 😍 What an amazing puzzle!
To be concise, this is an irregular kropki dot sudoku with a negative constraint
Dear God, that is one utterly phenomenal puzzle. Phistomephenomenal?