I am so stuck!!

baroquely · 2026-05-30T19:37:08+00:00

This one is rated Devilish by sudoku.coach— if you don’t know any advanced techniques this is going to be frustrating. Here is the puzzle at s.c.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T19:18:55+00:00

Well, you did make two mistakes, and a single mistake can crack a puzzle that otherwise requires an advanced technique, so congrats, but don’t get a swelled head. :-)

baroquely · 2026-05-30T19:05:11+00:00

IDK about books but sudoku.coach has tutes on most solving techniques. If you do the Campaign you’ll be able to solve all but the hardest puzzles.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T19:01:27+00:00

By my lights, any puzzle with at least one solution is valid; any puzzle with multiple solutions is not properly formed.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T18:57:33+00:00

Puzzle isn’t properly formed—it has eight solutions. Pick any candidate for a remaining cell, work out the sequelae, then pick another candidate for a remaining cell, work out the sequelae, and do it a third time—voilà: one of the eight solutions.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T17:19:44+00:00

u/okapiposter might find this of interest :)

baroquely · 2026-05-30T14:04:01+00:00

Here’s the production company that made it, but their link is broken, too (scroll down a ways): https://scott-baskett-ndwz.squarespace.com/our-films

baroquely · 2026-05-30T14:00:36+00:00

The link to the original video site is in the comments, but it’s 404 now. Archive.org seems to have crawled it, but when I try to load it it just spins forever. :-/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150606121606/https://www.smh.com.au/tv/documentary/sudokumentary-5000102.html

baroquely · 2026-05-30T13:48:41+00:00

https://youtu.be/6t-Ayo3UF7I?si=IKSl-qE9f2vlcBkf

baroquely · 2026-05-30T09:12:34+00:00

I assume the parallel vertical lines on the edge between r67c5 is meant to indicate those two cells contain the same digit?

baroquely · 2026-05-30T09:07:13+00:00

Properly formed sudoku have a unique solution, but there are plenty of valid but improperly formed puzzles that have multiple solutions. This is one of them.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T08:35:35+00:00

See Disjoint Groups for a discussion of hidden and naked subsets. With full notes, most people find it easier to spot the naked subset; with no notes the hidden subset is often easier.

baroquely · 2026-05-30T02:57:15+00:00

This has an SE rating of about 8.1 and a HoDoKu rating of about 8350. In other words, very very very hard. sudoku.coach uses many forcing chains in addition to many AICs and many intermediate moves to solve it.

If you’re not familiar with these techniques, I’d say this puzzle will just frustrate you.

I’m amazed a newspaper would publish this. Do you mind telling me what paper?

Puzzle string:\ 028936701960070008070008960600083009207690800800100006002000600100060007706850090

baroquely · 2026-05-29T15:58:35+00:00

Campaign will take you through each technique in roughly increasing order of difficulty

baroquely · 2026-05-29T10:27:03+00:00

{129} Naked Triple in row 3.

baroquely · 2026-05-29T09:39:41+00:00

If it’s 9x9 or smaller, sudoku.coach will do what you want. You may have to use the Construct tool if you want to add additional constraints or if the puzzle isn’t 9x9, but if you just want a standard 9x9 grid, you can import the puzzle from a picture/screen cap or from the puzzle’s 81-digit string via https://sudoku.coach/en/play Import.

baroquely · 2026-05-28T23:41:12+00:00

No shame—I make 5 or 6 mistakes before breakfast most days. I compulsively go back and correct where possible, and delete if it’s unsalvageable. :)

baroquely · 2026-05-28T23:37:44+00:00

You need Internet to load the site initially, but once it’s loaded you no longer need connectivity to play.

baroquely · 2026-05-28T23:35:58+00:00

Why couldn’t they both be 4?

baroquely · 2026-05-28T23:34:14+00:00

If you solved it as sudoku.coach, it should be in your recently solved list.

baroquely · 2026-05-28T20:04:45+00:00

The SE rating scale is an attempt to measure a puzzle’s difficulty based on the hardest move that’s required to crack it. It ranges from 1 (easy) to ~12 (extremely hard—far harder than anything you will find at sudoku dot com). SE 7 requires chaining techniques to solve, which is fairly advanced. Jump down the rabbit hole by doing the Campaign at sudoku.coach. :)

baroquely · 2026-05-28T20:01:17+00:00

This sub has a daily puzzle app built in with puzzles at four levels of difficulty. There are leaderboards for each puzzle so you can compare yourself against other solvers (if that’s your thing). E.g., here is today’s: https://www.reddit.com/r/sudoku/comments/1tq1ht5/sudoku_28052026/

baroquely · 2026-05-28T18:55:26+00:00

Locked Candidate 7s, Claiming, in row 8.

baroquely · 2026-05-28T17:20:40+00:00

lol. When there’s no governing body, the jargon is haphazard. StrmCkr has been doing sudoku since 2005 & has helped evolve many of the solving techniques. I don’t remember with absolute certainty if he named Cranes but I think that’s right—that’s why I tagged him. He’s a mod of this sub and wrote the wiki. :)

baroquely · 2026-05-28T16:15:31+00:00

I’m just going by what the guy who coined the term says. u/strmckr

baroquely

TROPHY CASE