Thanks for getting me into hard sudokus! I'm not British, but now when I'm solving a puzzle, I speak to myself in proper English, and murmur things to myself like "so, threes, look", "that places the two here", "and now these eights mean that this square cannot be an eight", "and now immediately I'm looking at this row", "this is very nice actually", "and now, look, this square sees a seven, so that fixes the five here", "look at this, this is a very nice pattern here." Cheers!
@@jacobmeyer7254 can you tell me from where do you learn all the stuff you say like 'swordfish' ,'uniqueness' ,etc. I domt know what all this is as I just started to follow this game
The puzzles are "lovely" and "brilliant" and even "sick🤟" as you say, but your method of solving them is extremely smooth and awe inspiring! I'd love to see more classic sudoku 'teaching' type videos while I'm just starting out!
What a pleasure to see how Simon's personality has changed for the last 4 years. He's become musch more relaxed and joyful. Glad that everything is OK with you Simon❤
I love his excitement. I love his calming, but also energetic solves. I LOVE after you watch enough of these, you start finding small pieces that he has missed, and the absolute joy of him filling them in and getting that endorphin rush that you helped! You definitely helped! He heard your message and the two of you solved it! An absolute pleasure to watch. Bless you
Man that was educational. I don't even think I learned any new techniques but the notation changes everything. I could see the rhythm in another puzzle you were doing but now that I understand it it makes even more senses and it really changes thing and makes the techniques that much more effective.
Yeah notation helps so much! Not only do you waste less time you also see more clearly. I'm getting back into sudokus and this cut my time in half! And more fun, I was often totally stuck for a lot of the time spend on solving which isn't fun.
This channel is the cause of many non-british people now murmuring british to themselves as they solve sudokus, and this fact makes me happy. Also, I reckon quite a lot of us aren’t actually good at solving them, so that makes the whole thing even funnier xD
I'm proud of myself today, I got to spot an X-Wing in the wild without prompting. Even put it to great effect. This on top of a wild Y-Wing I found in a puzzle a month or two ago. This channel has been teaching me so much, and it's great to feel like it's all slowly integrating into how I solve these. Thank you, Simon, for teaching me to crack what once was utterly cryptic.
I tried this and solved it quite easily, it's great that he can appreciate the structural beauty in a puzzle without it having to be insanely difficult
I am so proud of myself, I made one mistake, started over and did it. As usual, I put you on hold as I would go ahead, and only once did I let you go ahead and point out, mmmm I forget where, but I know I could have figured it out before to much time would have passed. It reminds me of when I learned to snow ski. At one point I hit a wall, well I mean I was not getting any better. Then I went skiing with an expert, and I followed him for two runs, and walla, I was an expert. Thank you for letting me follow you. I may not be an expert, but, I'm a lot better than I was yesterday. Probably still an intermediate. I'm one of those guys that "can't see the forest, for the trees". Thanks again.
Oh boy, even the classic ones are now beating me up badly. Oh boy. Oh boy... 45 minutes, a throbbing pain in my skull, and an eviscerating contradiction right at the end. I now have to eat lots of chocolate to cope.
The cascade effect here was great. It was all pencil marks until one or two numbers clicked and then it was a tidal wave of obvious deductions, very cool!
Kalkaanuslag Yea, I did the same lol. On the positive side, that meant that once I started getting digits, it made it relatively easy to see how they affected other cells. 🤣
I started it a solid 4 times, but actually was able to solve it within 40 minutes in the end, which I find pretty good considering this was my first sudoku that went after rules that weren't the classic ones! :D
I had a great time. Once I sorted out the first set of 8 x-wings, there were 3 groups by the way. Then I found a couple of 9 x-wings. In the end, I was moving so fast to solve the rest of the puzzle, I figured I had goofed. I didn't it all came together, beautifully. I found the naked "1" earlier in the solve. I had just finished putting several numbers and pencil marks. I was at a roadblock. I remembered that Mark said that he would do a quick scan for naked singles. So I did and it worked. What a great puzzle and a terrific tutorial. Gene
Wow what a great little puzzle. Clearly a lot of care went into the design of this one, and reminds me a lot of some of the Nikoli classics. Progress is easy right up until you need to spot a specific piece of logic, and then it chains beautifully into a whole host of pairs and unwinding pieces. Just great. Puzzles like these are why I watch this channel! 10:15 for my time, really enjoyed it.
I've just gotten real into sudoku, and I'm loving your channel so far! The one thing though, is that you knew about that last 8 from almost the very start, when you pencilled in the 8s in box 9. Keep up the great Sudoku!
I could finally solve a sudoku without coming back for help! It took me 1 hour and many more pencil marks, but still proud of myself. I found the x wing for the 8s too! :) Thank you for helping me improve my sudoku skills, I love the puzzle
So this guy solved a Sudoku in 5 min. Other 14 min he was talking intro, explaining the solution and praising the logic of an author. *Meanwhile* i managed to solve this in only 3 hours, being fully concentrated. And even had to apply 1 suggestion to finish it(so that was like not a "clean" solution).
The bad news is my X-wing spotting still needs a lot of work, didn't notice it even with the streak of 5 repeated digits in the exact same positions... The good news is I've not made mistakes filling in everything else, so I'm getting better at basic notation and technique, I usually mess something up somewhere along the way but this one was smooth sailing. Great puzzle and video as always :)
whenever i'm able to limit a digit in a row/column to exactly two squares, i have noticed that without even thinking i start to look for a second row/column where i can limit the same digit to the same two columns/rows. that's how i found the X-wing on 8's in this puzzle. now this new "involuntary habit" of mine may waste my time in the long run (looking for a row/column in puzzles where there are none), but it does mean that i almost never miss an X-wing!
Imagine spotting two x-wings in 8's, proceeding smoothly with the puzzle and at some point you realise that the first digit you filled in was actually wrong
I love CTC's solving style so much I made a video on my channel where I analyze each step of this solve. In addition to explaining the strategies used, I add a couple of pause the video moments and some alternate solving paths, similar to how someone analyzes a chess game.
Extremely nice to see a classic sudoku, and extremely nice to hear a clear explanation of every step of your process. I was able to follow you every step of the way.
54 minutes. Someday I'll be able to do these without resorting to filling in all the candidates and highlighting, but for now I have to take it slow and steady. As it was, I had to work through several empty rectangles and two or three x-wings to clear out the board and break it open.
I love ur passion and how u enjoy cracking these puzzles. I bought ur sudokus on Steam and I love the chess sudokus. thank you for that greetings from Germany
Very interesting puzzle. One extra thing I spotted that I thought was cool was once you got the first X-Wing on 8s it allowed you to pencil mark 8s in all 4 boxes, creating another X-Wing on 8s in rows 2 and 4 of collumns 1 and 7. Then once you got the 39 pair in the bottom it forced the 7 into the 2nd X-Wing which ended up solving both X-Wings.
27:48 , I did the same, placed all the 8s at the same time with the double x-wing. Took me 4-5 minutes to realize the 7 in box 7, to unwind it all, then it was smooth sailing. Also spotted the 24 - 56 pairs in row 7 very early on.
After watching this with the idea of only 2 digits for notes, it has been great. There's times I'll use 3 but only if it's a straight line or I've been left with no options. The reason is my eye hand coordination disability and ADHD make it that I can't see the hidden singles. On the harder puzzles I'll clear out notes and going through the numbers again has been very helpful. Thank you.
I tried the puzzle before the vid and got in 35 minites the same way you had it with the x swing kinda thingy. It's the first time ever I used it but the setup was so elegant you couldn't miss it, made me very proud haha
Been watching your videos now for a while now from a purely observatory standpoint but it seems I've incidentally picked up a few things along the way because I did this puzzle myself before I watched the video- maybe cryptics one day! Keep up the great vids :)
It took me like 80 minutes to solve it. The X wing of eigths was the key! Then the 3-9 pair in the 7th block. Colouring greeds was the only way that i saw the X wing. Thank you so much for this videos, hughs from Chile.
thank you. Finally, I was able to crack one. Took me two tries though. But I did get through it without having to get the answers from the video. One thing I do is put the video as detached and it is as a video in video on the work page. Works nice. Good job. thanks.
Watching in 2024 For classic sudokus on the channel I tend to attempt them before I watch the video. When I did there were actually more beautiful X wing patterns involving the 8s. There was another one of course in rows 8 and 9, but there was actually another one in rows 2 and 5. Either way, love the channel. Keep up the good work gentlemen!
Took me 35 minutes, but almost the same order. Pencilmarking has a huge impact on speed. I used to put 1-9 in their relative position in each square, which doesn't give room to the center marks. That and restraining myself not to put everything in helps so much with getting a clear picture and not cluttering too much.
I like how, looking back at some of these older videos, simon became more cheerful, like he lost all of this math teacher energy, It's quite nice, like a character development in a good story
Just over 34 minutes. Got the middle rows quickly, then stalled out for a bit until I figured out the x-wing implications.I was happy to spot the 39 pair in the bottom left, then stumbled home from there.
14:48 . Got the x-wing, got the several times that pairs of digits were restricted to two cells in a row/column. I'm going to gloss over the fact that Simon was explaining everything and had an intro and outro and claim that I was faster than the video so I'm clearly some sort of sudoku genius. I'll ignore all the times I couldn't even get started ;-)
I missed the X-Wing, so I got stuck there. Looking for negative space/indicators is a necessity in Sudoku, and I don't have all the techniques down yet. I'm getting better though!
14:18; was a pretty fun puzzle. The title of the video, however, made me think there would be much more to the puzzle than one x-wing and a few doubles.
28:32, spotted the x-wing pretty quickly! Unfortunately i then just missed that my notations had revealed a digit and stalled for a while, but still very pleased
I took two goes at this puzzle. The first time with well over 30 minutes and I couldn't find anything. Watched the video and as soon as he mentioned the similarity in the two rows I immediately knew he meant an x-wing. I paused the video at that point and restarted the puzzle. I finished in just under 15 minutes with that one hint.
Hi, sorry if this may sound like a dumb question, but around the 16:10 minute mark, you filled in that 8 on R1C3, how did you immediately conclude that it was a 9 beside it? Within that row the 6-9 pair could still be in the 2 open positions being R1c2 and R1c9 or did I miss something. I only recently got into Sudoku and am slowly learning and this part really confused me as I attempted the puzzle and got stuck around this part.
It's because of the pencil markings. When he filled in the 8, he eliminated one of the two squares pencil marked with 9, so the 9 had to be in the other square.
This was very unusual. Right at the start there were 5 matching pairs and a triple, all in the center vertical boxes (2,5, and 8). After eliminating a few numbers by following Ariadne's thread, I found 2 sets of bare quadruples, both of them leading to hidden triples. After that the thing just unraveled itself. WOW!
It only took me less than a hour to do this puzzle, but a couple of months ago, it would have taken longer, a lot longer if I hadn't given up. Mark and Simon, thank yiou, thank you, thank. Now I'lll have to convince the lady boss to let me join "the club." That shouldn't be very hard.. Maybe I'll splurge and join the $3 club.
Well, 2hrs and 34mins including a complete restart, and I still failed. I didn't know, nor correctly deduced, the X-wing trick, so didn't lock the 7-8 bottom right, which meant I failed lock the 3-9 pair bottom left. Still, an enjoyable evening, and thanks for getting me back into Classic Sudoku. It's been a while as I moved to killer before Kakuro became my go to puzzle of choice for the last few years. Better luck next time... c'est la vie!
After spotting the x-wing with 8s, I noticed four cells with two digits each ... a cyclic pattern of four digits that restricted 6s and 5s from rows 1 and 6 and 9s and 8s from columns 2 and 9 respectively. The May 12 2021 episode also featured this "junior exocet" pattern. Happy to find it myself.
I get used to see Simon solving some really sick no-digits-at-all puzzles, but when i look him solving this one it made me laugh like he's solving it correct but with way too complicated methods. This vid is really something unusual to see 😂
good puzzle for spotting different kind of things because you won't solve it using only snyder notation. nothing really difficult though. solved in 11:52
Thanks for getting me into hard sudokus! I'm not British, but now when I'm solving a puzzle, I speak to myself in proper English, and murmur things to myself like "so, threes, look", "that places the two here", "and now these eights mean that this square cannot be an eight", "and now immediately I'm looking at this row", "this is very nice actually", "and now, look, this square sees a seven, so that fixes the five here", "look at this, this is a very nice pattern here." Cheers!
I thought I was the only one doing this lol
I caught myself thinking, "that's absolutely stunning" when I found chained x-rays
"and finally we're cooking with gas!", just love it
Haha I speak to myself too when solving them. Their methods must be contagious.
Same here, funny!, am dutch
"Best ever"
"Brilliant"
"Gorgeous bit of logic"
"Oh that's cunning"
"Absolutely beautiful"
"Oh ho would you just look at that"
Where have I heard this before?
"Good grief"
@@kasraew 😂
you missed out the best one: "Oh this is SICK!"
Don't forget: "This is SICK."
I don't believe I've ever heard Simon say "Oh this is sick!" That made me happy
Yes. Shame he didn't do an accompanying hand gesture innit bruv
13:08 saving this timestamp so I can hear it over and over again
@@kimberlychin1996 thank you
As soon as I heard him say "this is sick" I HAD to go to the comments to see if anyone else noticed it too, lol.
Exactly this!! Leon, that is just what I did - was shocked lol!
I am a real amateur on sudoku, so I really enojoy when you explain in detail everything you do and why, and what all the patterns mean. Great video
yeah i've been watching this channel for about a year and didn't know all of that stuff and why it was like that until now
@@jacobmeyer7254 can you tell me from where do you learn all the stuff you say like 'swordfish' ,'uniqueness' ,etc. I domt know what all this is as I just started to follow this game
@@Unknown-bq7pd no clue i know less than you probably
@@Unknown-bq7pd first 5mnt really helpful
Just once I want to hear Simon end a video with “That puzzle was absolute shite” 😂
He might say it if you submit a puzzle with 80 givens
@@eclectichoosier5474 72 givens... all the same number open... but one of the spaces is off and it's unsolvable.
@@hariman7727 20 givens, but the font is comic sans
hahhaha, YES!
@@eclectichoosier5474 79 givens and the two remaining are a deadly pattern
@ 18:15 ITS A SIX !!!!! Shouting at the screen for the last 2 mins ! Lol. Another great video thanks. Very entertaining
I love how you pointed out the x wing. The amount of information that gave to the puzzle is fascinating. Thank you for the lessons.
The puzzles are "lovely" and "brilliant" and even "sick🤟" as you say, but your method of solving them is extremely smooth and awe inspiring! I'd love to see more classic sudoku 'teaching' type videos while I'm just starting out!
What a pleasure to see how Simon's personality has changed for the last 4 years. He's become musch more relaxed and joyful. Glad that everything is OK with you Simon❤
I love his excitement. I love his calming, but also energetic solves. I LOVE after you watch enough of these, you start finding small pieces that he has missed, and the absolute joy of him filling them in and getting that endorphin rush that you helped! You definitely helped! He heard your message and the two of you solved it! An absolute pleasure to watch. Bless you
Man that was educational. I don't even think I learned any new techniques but the notation changes everything. I could see the rhythm in another puzzle you were doing but now that I understand it it makes even more senses and it really changes thing and makes the techniques that much more effective.
Yeah notation helps so much! Not only do you waste less time you also see more clearly.
I'm getting back into sudokus and this cut my time in half! And more fun, I was often totally stuck for a lot of the time spend on solving which isn't fun.
This channel is the cause of many non-british people now murmuring british to themselves as they solve sudokus, and this fact makes me happy. Also, I reckon quite a lot of us aren’t actually good at solving them, so that makes the whole thing even funnier xD
13:08 I think Simon's probably having a Sudokugasm there
23:36, great bit of logic here! I was so excited when I was actually able to recognize and utilize an x-wing with eights.
I'm proud of myself today, I got to spot an X-Wing in the wild without prompting. Even put it to great effect. This on top of a wild Y-Wing I found in a puzzle a month or two ago. This channel has been teaching me so much, and it's great to feel like it's all slowly integrating into how I solve these. Thank you, Simon, for teaching me to crack what once was utterly cryptic.
I tried this and solved it quite easily, it's great that he can appreciate the structural beauty in a puzzle without it having to be insanely difficult
10:45 with no help! First time I've really whizzed through a puzzle from the link without needing clues. Must be learning something! thanks Simon
I've always been confused by written/picture descriptions of x-wings, but this explained it so well & clarified the logic and why it works!
I am so proud of myself, I made one mistake, started over and did it. As usual, I put you on hold as I would go ahead, and only once did I let you go ahead and point out, mmmm I forget where, but I know I could have figured it out before to much time would have passed. It reminds me of when I learned to snow ski. At one point I hit a wall, well I mean I was not getting any better. Then I went skiing with an expert, and I followed him for two runs, and walla, I was an expert. Thank you for letting me follow you. I may not be an expert, but, I'm a lot better than I was yesterday. Probably still an intermediate. I'm one of those guys that "can't see the forest, for the trees". Thanks again.
Oh boy, even the classic ones are now beating me up badly. Oh boy. Oh boy... 45 minutes, a throbbing pain in my skull, and an eviscerating contradiction right at the end. I now have to eat lots of chocolate to cope.
28:33 I'm happy I spotted x-wing and was able to use it, that was first time I managed to do it so very happy about that
The cascade effect here was great. It was all pencil marks until one or two numbers clicked and then it was a tidal wave of obvious deductions, very cool!
Just starting off with more advanced techniques, this video feels really great at articulating the logic behind the moves. Really appreciate it
29:24 - Quick start, a bit of a stall in the middle and nice finish!
Finally, one I might be able to solve...
EDIT: I was badly wrong, took me over an hour even after coming back for help. -_-
Don't feel bad, it took me nearly 2 hours :\ I'm knackered now...
yeah at some point i was so lost i just started to pencilmark every square with what could go in. got a 01:09:14 in the end
Kalkaanuslag Yea, I did the same lol.
On the positive side, that meant that once I started getting digits, it made it relatively easy to see how they affected other cells. 🤣
I have a problem...i wanna share it and help plzz....if anyone may solve it plese contact me on whatsapp 8586831262
I started it a solid 4 times, but actually was able to solve it within 40 minutes in the end, which I find pretty good considering this was my first sudoku that went after rules that weren't the classic ones! :D
I had a great time. Once I sorted out the first set of 8 x-wings, there were 3 groups by the way. Then I found a couple of 9 x-wings. In the end, I was moving so fast to solve the rest of the puzzle, I figured I had goofed. I didn't it all came together, beautifully. I found the naked "1" earlier in the solve. I had just finished putting several numbers and pencil marks. I was at a roadblock. I remembered that Mark said that he would do a quick scan for naked singles. So I did and it worked. What a great puzzle and a terrific tutorial.
Gene
Wow what a great little puzzle. Clearly a lot of care went into the design of this one, and reminds me a lot of some of the Nikoli classics. Progress is easy right up until you need to spot a specific piece of logic, and then it chains beautifully into a whole host of pairs and unwinding pieces. Just great. Puzzles like these are why I watch this channel! 10:15 for my time, really enjoyed it.
I've just gotten real into sudoku, and I'm loving your channel so far! The one thing though, is that you knew about that last 8 from almost the very start, when you pencilled in the 8s in box 9. Keep up the great Sudoku!
I could finally solve a sudoku without coming back for help! It took me 1 hour and many more pencil marks, but still proud of myself. I found the x wing for the 8s too! :)
Thank you for helping me improve my sudoku skills, I love the puzzle
So this guy solved a Sudoku in 5 min. Other 14 min he was talking intro, explaining the solution and praising the logic of an author.
*Meanwhile* i managed to solve this in only 3 hours, being fully concentrated. And even had to apply 1 suggestion to finish it(so that was like not a "clean" solution).
My first sudoku from this channel under 20 minutes!
Once you got the 78 pair in box 9 at 11:00 there's a second x-wing on 8:s in row 2 and 4 column 1 and 7.
I've just been watching these videos and finally managed to solve a sudoku by myself! Thank you for making this channel :)
The bad news is my X-wing spotting still needs a lot of work, didn't notice it even with the streak of 5 repeated digits in the exact same positions...
The good news is I've not made mistakes filling in everything else, so I'm getting better at basic notation and technique, I usually mess something up somewhere along the way but this one was smooth sailing.
Great puzzle and video as always :)
whenever i'm able to limit a digit in a row/column to exactly two squares, i have noticed that without even thinking i start to look for a second row/column where i can limit the same digit to the same two columns/rows. that's how i found the X-wing on 8's in this puzzle.
now this new "involuntary habit" of mine may waste my time in the long run (looking for a row/column in puzzles where there are none), but it does mean that i almost never miss an X-wing!
Imagine spotting two x-wings in 8's, proceeding smoothly with the puzzle and at some point you realise that the first digit you filled in was actually wrong
As someone who isn't very smart, thank you for taking the time to explain each of your moves. Helps me keep up without feeling lost
I love CTC's solving style so much I made a video on my channel where I
analyze each step of this solve. In addition to explaining the
strategies used, I add a couple of pause the video moments and some
alternate solving paths, similar to how someone analyzes a chess game.
Extremely nice to see a classic sudoku, and extremely nice to hear a clear explanation of every step of your process. I was able to follow you every step of the way.
54 minutes. Someday I'll be able to do these without resorting to filling in all the candidates and highlighting, but for now I have to take it slow and steady. As it was, I had to work through several empty rectangles and two or three x-wings to clear out the board and break it open.
8:22 I spotted the X-wing really early on in my solve. Proud of myself :) Great puzzle as always
Just under 30 minutes. I'm new to the hard sudokus! So that is pretty good for me! Thanks Simon!
I am loving your Patreon and app banners. It saves you having to repeat yourselves, and gives the information at a glance.
I love ur passion and how u enjoy cracking these puzzles. I bought ur sudokus on Steam and I love the chess sudokus. thank you for that greetings from Germany
Very interesting puzzle. One extra thing I spotted that I thought was cool was once you got the first X-Wing on 8s it allowed you to pencil mark 8s in all 4 boxes, creating another X-Wing on 8s in rows 2 and 4 of collumns 1 and 7. Then once you got the 39 pair in the bottom it forced the 7 into the 2nd X-Wing which ended up solving both X-Wings.
27:48 , I did the same, placed all the 8s at the same time with the double x-wing. Took me 4-5 minutes to realize the 7 in box 7, to unwind it all, then it was smooth sailing. Also spotted the 24 - 56 pairs in row 7 very early on.
It’s so funny watching you solve, since I see some number you do, and you see numbers I don’t, it’s absolutely delightful
After watching this with the idea of only 2 digits for notes, it has been great. There's times I'll use 3 but only if it's a straight line or I've been left with no options. The reason is my eye hand coordination disability and ADHD make it that I can't see the hidden singles. On the harder puzzles I'll clear out notes and going through the numbers again has been very helpful. Thank you.
“Give me just a second to look at the puzzle”
5 seconds later.
“Oh yes!”
Takes 5 minutes to explain what he saw.
A brilliant example of how much faster the brain is than the tongue (or is it the ears?).
I just enjoy watching this guy get blown away by sudokus. He's just so happy
I tried the puzzle before the vid and got in 35 minites the same way you had it with the x swing kinda thingy. It's the first time ever I used it but the setup was so elegant you couldn't miss it, made me very proud haha
Been watching your videos now for a while now from a purely observatory standpoint but it seems I've incidentally picked up a few things along the way because I did this puzzle myself before I watched the video- maybe cryptics one day!
Keep up the great vids :)
one of the only times my finished time came even relatively close to simon's. i must be getting better!
If he didn’t have to explain every move, he would have solve it much faster. Less than 10 mins I think.
you're improving!! Keep it up!!
@@Risk87 still getting better though
I love classic sudoku, and I learn something from every one of these videos. A happy Patreon supporter.
I am really enjoying doing these and the continued lessons are great. Thank you.
Love this guy's enthusiasm.
took me 45 mins and had to employ a lot more techniques.....Simon is really worldclass
5:10, which I'm quite pleased with. Very nice puzzle! Especially the double X-wing.
it took me 36 minutes to finish the puzzle but i've finally (and successfully) used and understood the X-wing approach and it's a great feeling!
Took me 26:15, the double X-wing on 8s was also a thing of beauty!
It took me like 80 minutes to solve it. The X wing of eigths was the key! Then the 3-9 pair in the 7th block. Colouring greeds was the only way that i saw the X wing. Thank you so much for this videos, hughs from Chile.
Danke!
thank you. Finally, I was able to crack one. Took me two tries though. But I did get through it without having to get the answers from the video. One thing I do is put the video as detached and it is as a video in video on the work page. Works nice.
Good job. thanks.
Watching in 2024
For classic sudokus on the channel I tend to attempt them before I watch the video. When I did there were actually more beautiful X wing patterns involving the 8s. There was another one of course in rows 8 and 9, but there was actually another one in rows 2 and 5. Either way, love the channel. Keep up the good work gentlemen!
"This puzzle is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING."
Simon's joy is infectious, lol 😅☕😎🎶
Really happy to have solved this, watched you do it, then realise we did it in the same way. Getting better! The power of the notation :)
Classics are some of my favourites to watch!
Took me 35 minutes, but almost the same order.
Pencilmarking has a huge impact on speed. I used to put 1-9 in their relative position in each square, which doesn't give room to the center marks. That and restraining myself not to put everything in helps so much with getting a clear picture and not cluttering too much.
Looking forward to March 2nd! Have the other 2 apps you made, and have loved every hour I've used them :D
11:48, without noticing the X-wings, which is probably why it took me a bit longer than it should have. :) Nice puzzle!
Had a hard time understanding X-Wings but this was an excellent introduction to them. Thank you, Simon!
Great puzzle, and great explanation. I really learned something with this one
I like how, looking back at some of these older videos, simon became more cheerful, like he lost all of this math teacher energy, It's quite nice, like a character development in a good story
This is the first one I've paused, solved, and then come back to. ^^
Just over 34 minutes. Got the middle rows quickly, then stalled out for a bit until I figured out the x-wing implications.I was happy to spot the 39 pair in the bottom left, then stumbled home from there.
14:48 . Got the x-wing, got the several times that pairs of digits were restricted to two cells in a row/column. I'm going to gloss over the fact that Simon was explaining everything and had an intro and outro and claim that I was faster than the video so I'm clearly some sort of sudoku genius.
I'll ignore all the times I couldn't even get started ;-)
I missed the X-Wing, so I got stuck there. Looking for negative space/indicators is a necessity in Sudoku, and I don't have all the techniques down yet. I'm getting better though!
11:58.... Oh god the 2 x-wings ... I spotted it early on. that was clever indeed. Never been so proud.
14:18; was a pretty fun puzzle. The title of the video, however, made me think there would be much more to the puzzle than one x-wing and a few doubles.
You make it look so easy. I struggle through them..Hope I learned a little more.
I love your channel! I started watching the other day and today I ordered a bunch of chess sudoku books 😂
35:56 great puzzle. i really liked this one. hope to see more like this. thanks
I am happy that my X-Wing skills have improved. Took me just under an hour to finally spot that 7 in row 2, but I got there eventually.
The first hard sudoku from this channel that I was able to solve! took me 37:58 minutes. I still have a lot to improve on.
Very nice puzzle! First time I noticed X-wing on my own and managed to use it to my advantage.
28:32, spotted the x-wing pretty quickly! Unfortunately i then just missed that my notations had revealed a digit and stalled for a while, but still very pleased
Great puzzle, and nice solving Simon. Took me way longer than you to spot all this.
This puzzle was absolutely stunning!
I took two goes at this puzzle. The first time with well over 30 minutes and I couldn't find anything. Watched the video and as soon as he mentioned the similarity in the two rows I immediately knew he meant an x-wing. I paused the video at that point and restarted the puzzle. I finished in just under 15 minutes with that one hint.
Hi, sorry if this may sound like a dumb question, but around the 16:10 minute mark, you filled in that 8 on R1C3, how did you immediately conclude that it was a 9 beside it? Within that row the 6-9 pair could still be in the 2 open positions being R1c2 and R1c9 or did I miss something. I only recently got into Sudoku and am slowly learning and this part really confused me as I attempted the puzzle and got stuck around this part.
It's because of the pencil markings. When he filled in the 8, he eliminated one of the two squares pencil marked with 9, so the 9 had to be in the other square.
EPL had kicked-off whilst I was watching this video but I could not leave until you completed! Great videos!
Thanks for explanation at the start. Very interesting to hear how you see it.
This was very unusual. Right at the start there were 5 matching pairs and a triple, all in the center vertical boxes (2,5, and 8). After eliminating a few numbers by following Ariadne's thread, I found 2 sets of bare quadruples, both of them leading to hidden triples. After that the thing just unraveled itself. WOW!
Started this puzzle and only solved this thanks to the 8 "X" pattern rule, 15min :) I'm very happy having learnt a new strategy
Stunning? Definitely not easy, but more or less straightforward.
It only took me less than a hour to do this puzzle, but a couple of months ago, it would have taken longer, a lot longer if I hadn't given up. Mark and Simon, thank yiou, thank you, thank. Now I'lll have to convince the lady boss to let me join "the club." That shouldn't be very hard.. Maybe I'll splurge and join the $3 club.
20:36, I really liked this one. Quite smooth solve for me
Well, 2hrs and 34mins including a complete restart, and I still failed.
I didn't know, nor correctly deduced, the X-wing trick, so didn't lock the 7-8 bottom right, which meant I failed lock the 3-9 pair bottom left.
Still, an enjoyable evening, and thanks for getting me back into Classic Sudoku.
It's been a while as I moved to killer before Kakuro became my go to puzzle of choice for the last few years.
Better luck next time... c'est la vie!
After spotting the x-wing with 8s, I noticed four cells with two digits each ... a cyclic pattern of four digits that restricted 6s and 5s from rows 1 and 6 and 9s and 8s from columns 2 and 9 respectively. The May 12 2021 episode also featured this "junior exocet" pattern. Happy to find it myself.
So glad I discovered this channel, I wont need to take sleep aids at night
I get used to see Simon solving some really sick no-digits-at-all puzzles, but when i look him solving this one it made me laugh like he's solving it correct but with way too complicated methods.
This vid is really something unusual to see 😂
Finally mastered x-wing, thank you! Subscribed.
i always did sudokus but never the actual pattern recognition .. so this is very enlightening
good puzzle for spotting different kind of things because you won't solve it using only snyder notation. nothing really difficult though. solved in 11:52