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[tolstoycat 1]

I am stuck and am fairly new player who has tried a few different hints but can't progress
1***34**9
74***9***
3*9*872**
*9*72*153
*3***59*7
517*93*2*
9*3*5***2
***3***96
6**97***5

[David Bryant]

This one looks fairly tricky to me, but I think you have to put a "4" in row 8, column 5. The key to this move is in column 6.

The only possibilities for (row 8, col 5) are "1" and "4" -- you can see this by simply counting -- {2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9} are in col 5, and "6" is in row 8.

Now the only numbers missing from column 6 are {1, 2, 6, 8}. Three of the open cells in this column are in the same block as (row 8, col 5). And you can't put the "1" that must appear in column 6 in the center block, because there's already a "1" in row 4.

If you put a "1" in (row 8, col 5), you would face the impossible task of filling the four open boxes in column 6 with just three numbers -- {2, 6, 8}. So a "4" has to go there. dcb