At 1m40s after placing the 7 in block 1's top row, you verified if there was anything more to do with the 7s. At that stage, the 7 was indeed locked in row 2, col 5 in block 2. Another helpful thing you did not spot was the pair of 6s in the middle row of block 4: the 6 pointing up from column 2 in row 9 squeezes the 6s between the 18 and 47 pairs in block 4. Immediately, this yielded a 68 pair on the right side of block 5. But the crucial move was to find the naked 5 in block 6, and you did quite well with this. For me, 19 minutes notation free to solve the puzzle
I re-visited the puzzle and tried to follow my own footsteps. Spotting the pointing 6s in b4 is obvious. After basic scanning I was focusing on restricted cells on the right side of the puzzle. 26 (r3 c9) and 236 (r4 c9) are easy to find. Then I continued to b6 and the naked single 5 is a relatively easy spot when thinking about b6. It's much harder to find when thinking about the r6. Then 5 got placed in b9 leaving behind 236 triple in c9. That gives a 18 pair in c9 which was resolved. The rest is straight forward.
Totally different route today! I think your biggest miss was the 6s in b4 r5 really early on. That gives a 68 pair in b5. Spotting that helped me a lot. Later on I found 236 triple in c9. I think it was after spotting the naked single 5 in b6 which also placed the 5 in b9. That 236 triple (and 5) left behind 18 pair in c9 which collapsed the whole puzzle.
63 minutes. Enjoyed the video, wanted to throw the puzzle out the nearest window.
The naked single '5' in Row 6, Col 8... That was the key to cracking this puzzle.
Yep that was it for me too. Had it all reduced and then finally saw that and the puzzle unwound easily after that
At 1m40s after placing the 7 in block 1's top row, you verified if there was anything more to do with the 7s. At that stage, the 7 was indeed locked in row 2, col 5 in block 2. Another helpful thing you did not spot was the pair of 6s in the middle row of block 4: the 6 pointing up from column 2 in row 9 squeezes the 6s between the 18 and 47 pairs in block 4. Immediately, this yielded a 68 pair on the right side of block 5. But the crucial move was to find the naked 5 in block 6, and you did quite well with this. For me, 19 minutes notation free to solve the puzzle
I re-visited the puzzle and tried to follow my own footsteps. Spotting the pointing 6s in b4 is obvious. After basic scanning I was focusing on restricted cells on the right side of the puzzle. 26 (r3 c9) and 236 (r4 c9) are easy to find. Then I continued to b6 and the naked single 5 is a relatively easy spot when thinking about b6. It's much harder to find when thinking about the r6. Then 5 got placed in b9 leaving behind 236 triple in c9. That gives a 18 pair in c9 which was resolved. The rest is straight forward.
Totally different route today! I think your biggest miss was the 6s in b4 r5 really early on. That gives a 68 pair in b5. Spotting that helped me a lot. Later on I found 236 triple in c9. I think it was after spotting the naked single 5 in b6 which also placed the 5 in b9. That 236 triple (and 5) left behind 18 pair in c9 which collapsed the whole puzzle.
i solved it in 5:15, what's a good time? i've never done an nyt sudoku before, i usually play the enjoy sudoku "devious" setting
Sounds like a great time to me!
All NYT "hard" sudokus can be completed in under ten minutes... if you're competent.
16:10
#73