dailysudoku.com

[Tyrone Shuz]

Hello:

I am new here, I routinely solve the Friday puzzle in the Washington Post, which has the hardest difficulty rating of the week. It's nothing compared to you guys. I want to eliminate all guesswork, but I'm at a point in this puzzle where I can't do anything but. I am reading about X-wings, Swordfish, etc, and I'm having a much harder time memorizing the terms than the concepts. Here is the puzzle with the candidates. I don't think there are any pointing pairs or locked trips left, etc. This (unless I've missed something) is a "next level" solution, and I'd be obliged to be pointed in the right direction.
Thanks in advance!

[img]http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/tyroneshuz/media/sudoku%20puzzles/sudoku_zpsb391ce31.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0[/img]

[Tyrone Shuz]

I thought I followed the directions. I have a photobucket account now, and the image is in a public library, I don't know why it did not post.

I'm going to try a link, see if that works.

http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/tyroneshuz/media/sudoku%20puzzles/sudoku_zpsb391ce31.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

So the link thingie works, what did I do wrong with the image? It's the same address, and it's hosted on a public server.

[keith]

Here's the puzzle (I typed it in).

[Tyrone Shuz]

First of all, thanks loads for the reply, and a thousand times for typing it in manually.

Second, how did you type it in with more candidates than I have? How did you go backwards?

B1 and C3 means Box 1 (top left) and Column 3, is that correct? The candidates are 2,3, and 7.

For C6, I'm assuming you mean the bottom-right square in the 2nd box?
I'm just now learning the names for what I've been doing.

OK, I get it now, in Box 1 (with my current pencil marks) there are only 3's in third row, so I can eliminate the 3 in Row 3 Box 2. That gives me a pair of "26's" in C6 so that makes a 3 in Box 8, C6, R8, and that's enough to form a chain reaction to finish the puzzle.

I usually don't miss those, I feel pretty sheepish. I was hoping it would be some kinda x-wing combo, or other thing I don't use much (yet).

[keith]

Tyrone,

I use Sudoku Susser, you can download it for free. Typing in a puzzle takes only a few seconds.

It is a very good learning tool. It will give you a hint as to how to solve the next step.

I solve puzzles with pencil and paper. I use SS to check and to format puzzles to post them.

My explanation has an error, I should have said R3 not C3. But, you figured it out.

At your level, I would recommend this site's daily puzzles. The cool thing is that the "Very Hard" puzzles always have a discussion thread, so you can easily learn about solving techniques.

My own preference is to solve the "Hard" puzzles without using pencil marks. That is a very good way to learn how to spot patterns.

And, welcome to the forum!

Keith

[Tyrone Shuz]

I too use pencil and paper, actually pen, usually. I write pen marks small, and cross 'em out when I eliminate. Pencil doesn't do very well in a newspaper not on a table (I'm usually by the pool!)

The only reason I used an online puzzle maker/solver (which also will do hints like pointing pairs and a bunch of others) is that my physical grid was a little messy to scan and post.

As for my level, I do need pencil marks post-scanning, but I normally don't miss what I missed this time. So far, I've done a couple "very hard" ones from this site, without failing. I know there are harder ones about. I'm not sure how well I'd do with those.

Thanks for the welcome, happy to be here!

[Marty R.]

[keith]

[Pat]

Tyrone Shuz,

to use a photobucket image
just choose their 2nd link
(the link marked "Direct")




however, where text does the job, please avoid use of images



Code:

9 . 4 | . 7 5 | 6 . .  . . 5 | . 9 4 | . 7 .  . . . | 8 1 . | 9 5 4 -------+-------+------  7 . 9 | 4 3 1 | . 6 5  . 3 6 | 5 2 7 | 4 9 .  5 4 . | 9 6 8 | . . 7 -------+-------+------  4 . . | . 8 9 | 5 2 6  . 5 . | . 4 . | 1 8 9  . 9 8 | 1 5 . | 7 4 3

c1 "hidden" {1,8}
--> (3) b1\r3
--> c6 3