dailysudoku.com

[prakash]

After the basics

[storm_norm]

UR {3,4}

[tlanglet]

How do you do it? I am in California, USA and it is now about 6:40 PM. I accessed today's puzzle but I got what I expected: the puzzle for Friday, April 25th. BUT, Prakash, living in New Jersey, USA, has already posted the puzzle for Saturday, April 26th, where the time is 9:40PM on April 24th.

Prakash, will you share the secret?

Ted

[storm_norm]

Ted,

one word hint

"syndication"

on the home page, click on syndication about 5 or 6 pm cali time.

I live in pennsylvania and I usually look around 8 or 9 after London goes past midnight because the puzzle has to be posted under the syndication link in order for the rest of the earth to syndicate it.

[crunched]

Or you can simply click your computer's clock and change your time zone (example: london is 6 hrs ahead of central time).

[tlanglet]

As always, thanks for the help.

Ted

[nataraj]

I used a w-wing 58-(38-38)-58.

One of those wimpy VHs.
(edited to disable smiley)

[cgordon]

That's interesting: We can knock off the <5> in R9C2 using three different techniques.
1) A Type 2 UR <345> in R12C24.
2) An x-wing <568>
3) An ER using <5> in Box 9 and R3.

[Clement]

XY-Wing pivot at {6,8}r7c7 with pincers{5,8}r7c3 and {5,6}r9c8 eliminating 5 in r9c2. This solves the puzzle.

[keith]

[Clement]

XY-Wing pivot 6,8}r7c7 with pincers {5,8}r7c3 and {5,6}r9c8 eliminating 5 in r9c2. This solves the puzzle.

[Clement]

XY-Wing pivot at {6,8}r7c7 with pincers{5,8}r7c3 and {5,6}r9c8 eliminating 5 in r9c2. This solves the puzzle.

[Dart45]

Posted here before my incredulity at the lengths that some people here go to make things complicated. All this talk about pincers, jellyfish, xy-wings and pivots, etc., etc.

This approach just mechanizes the solution process and kills the fun of solving a puzzle!

As usually, I managed to solve the puzzle as it came, without pencil marks or anything else. Just one square at a time!

As I wrote before, the Easy and Medium levels are never a problem, the Hard ones get me every once in a while, and the Very Hard ones are the real challenge - but most satisfying to solve. Todays was no different - a very pleasant and satisfying challenge to solve outright.

[nataraj]

[crunched]

[Dart45]

First of all, I did not intend to sound like I had a monopoly on brain. My point was that not using any of the “tricks” made it more fun and satisfying to get the solution.

My approach is to make a pass at the entire puzzle, sequentially from 1 through 9, looking for the obvious fills. On the Easy and Medium puzzles, one pass is usually enough to fill 50 to 75% of the squares, and the solution from there is almost trivial. On the Hard and Very Hard, a second pass is required, because the filled squares by higher numbers open new opportunities not seen for the preceding lower numbers. Thereafter I look for rows, columns or blocks with 2, 3 and 4 missing numbers, and try to find fills for as many squares as possible. This usually solves the Hard puzzles. The Very Hard puzzles will require several iterations, and will also require the memorizing of the possible fill options in the process.

My process is a lot like playing chess, analyzing and planning several moves ahead. There are no tricks or pencil-marks in chess. It is just practice, determination, persistence and perseverance.

[keith]

[DennyOR]

I solved the puzzle with an 86-65-53-38 xy-chain, which has two cells in common with the 58-86-65 xy-wing solution.

[crunched]

[Marty R.]