Thank you for the videos and for allowing me to find a great activity for my son and I to do together and sometimes compete against one and other. Merry Christmas!!
32:36 I'll never stop being amazed by Simon's ability to see the most complex logic to solve a step, when much easier steps were available. TBH I thought he was going to solve a bit of box 1 earlier, but missed the fact 4 could not go in r1 of box 1. And before that he had a 9 in box 9 eliminating a potential 9 in box 3, both would have solved the 9's. This isn't a complaint, it's just reminding me that Simon will see things I rarely will, but he is not perfect at spotting the simpler sudoku logic... that or he doesn't go looking for it, because why use sudoku in a sudoku puzzle? :-p
Part of me thinks it’s on purpose at times to use the rule sets instead of sudoku, lol. His coloring also gets in the way a lot, and I wish he would abandon it earlier in his solves once it’s served it’s purpose.
That's mostly because if you're focused on one aspekt of a Problem, you tend to lose the view of the others. When Problem solving we tend to rather "follow a trail" or "train of thought" instead of getting the whole picture.
If you watch early CTC videos you see Simon preach about diligence: You must alway look up your pencil marks when you put down a number! He abandoned that style also quite early because he rarely remembers doing it himself. If he'd continued then maybe he would remember that. For some reason his brain tells him to look something else than following what a digit put down actually does.
Rules: 04:55 Let's Get Cracking: 05:30 Puzzle Solved: 37:38 Simon's time: 32m08s What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 3x (08:16, 36:18) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Beautiful: 7x (09:27, 14:30, 22:13, 30:04, 31:41, 31:44, 33:45) Sorry: 6x (00:57, 10:24, 15:39, 19:09, 20:32, 20:59) Hang On: 6x (03:34, 14:17, 15:09, 20:32, 21:13, 22:25) By Sudoku: 5x (18:39, 35:29, 35:53, 36:26, 37:00) Clever: 4x (08:28, 08:28, 18:56, 37:48) In Fact: 4x (02:47, 07:39, 20:21, 27:02) Ridiculous: 3x (31:36, 31:38, 37:48) Good Grief: 2x (22:13, 30:02) Brilliant: 2x (02:10, 03:02) Extraordinary: 2x (00:34, 03:50) Obviously: 2x (06:41, 29:21) Aplomb: 1x (25:53) Secret: 1x (06:07) The Answer is: 1x (21:32) In the Spotlight: 1x (36:23) Lovely: 1x (34:22) Gorgeous: 1x (17:46) Our old Friend Sudoku: 1x (18:05) Approachable: 1x (00:47) Magnificent: 1x (04:16) I've Got It!: 1x (13:28) Wow: 1x (18:54) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Thirteen (13 mentions) Nine (75 mentions) Yellow (22 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (10) - Low (4) Even (3) - Odd (0) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Me watching Simon refused to do Sudoku after getting the 9 in box 9 to find all manner of convoluted way just to get 4 in box 1. Simon you are playing Sudoku.🤣🤣 Love the solved.😊
18:00 finish. Loved the logic of this. I used coloring for high-middle-low, and started by asking about low digits in row 4/column 6, and high digits in row 6/column 4. This led to some overlaps and easy deductions, making way for coloring middle digits.
Thank you for the shoutout for the Tapa Contest. I hope lots of them participate and hopefully enjoy it. One of the highlights is the ability to check out others' solves after you have completed solving.
18:00 I'm a bit confused why the green and yellow couldn't have been the same digit. Of course when he put the yellow in row 9 that yellow couldn't have been the same but why did that cell and the other yellow (r3c1) have to be the same digit?
He knew there had to be two high digits (789) in c1 in box 7, with the third high digit of c1 in the yellow, and two high digits in r9 in box 7, with the third high digit of r9 in green. If it had been the same high digit on yellow and green, it would have been ruled out of appearing as one of the high digits in box 7.
Needed a little hint getting started (the top middle box forcing 123 in those three cells in row one) and finished in 2:49:01. But I made small progress pretty much the entire time so I did not feel frustrated during my solve. While Simon looked at the two 13 cages, I noticed through my extensive colouring that I got the same two digits in the 12 cage and one of the 13 cages, which forced the 1 in the 13 cage's last cell, which was also some neat logic. Killer Sudoku are one of my favourite kinds of Sudoku, and this one was brilliant indeed. Also love how Simon ruled out the 4 in r1c3. It had a 4 each in its row, column and box already but it took him the 11 cage as well to finally notice.
I explained the "wizardry" by the fact that a 5 in one of the two 13-cages would make the other one impossible (exploiting the hinges). Anyway this puzzle is a masterpiece: I was really happy when I solved it
Beautiful puzzle. Solved it in 55:35. Near the end I finished differently by noticing that r3c1=r9c3 (as Simon also found) and r3c2=r9c4 (at that point I had 45 pairs in these cells and also in r9c2), and since r9c3+r9c4=12, I got r2c1=1, after which the puzzle solved easily.
@ 31:00 Simon is not going to lower himself and go the easy route by noticing a 4 and 9 can't go into the 13 cage. No Way! The more complex way is more interesting.
For a change the tiny detail I noticed that Simon steadfastly refused to acknowledge would actually make a difference to the puzzle... placing the Yellow 78 and making a bunch of other 78s Green. On the other hand... I am not that great at Killers (lack of practice on the maths), so I probably would not get that far on my own steam anyway.
At 8:39 Simon pencilmarks 23 in r1c9 and remarks "hopefully it's a 3 so we get to sing the song" -- actually, with just the marks in the grid at this point it can be shown that you will get to sing the song at some point in the solve, though not necessarily (and indeed not) in that corner. The arrangement of 123 pencil marks in box 3 turns the 123 pencil marks in three of the four corners of the grid in to a triple, which means exactly one of them will contain a 3 in the corner...
I just paused the video to comment exactly that! You know you watch ctc almost every evening when you start proving to yourself that you will get to hear "the song" :)
Insomnia is welcome tonight as it can be devoted to some CtC bingeing. 27:25 for me on this pivotal puzzle with cardinal points all over the place. In the ancient Roman cities the crossroads at the heart of the city were sometimes called *cardo* which means *hinge* 'cos it all hinges on the place where people coming from different directions and heading for different destinations, nevertheless can meet and interact. I enjoyed that puzzle. Thanks, Jovi-al.
I Got stuck a couple of times... But with a breaks coming back seeing almost immediately what i had been missing for 5 straight mins. I enjoyed watching simons solve after mine.. Seeing where i did things different.. A lot of fun.
Some weeks just hit me in a very particular way and I have no idea what to do to get out of that space. These videos really get me out of that headspace
It's amazing how Simon focused on the symmetry. I abandoned it right after the beginning and focused on the 14 sum box and my first number was 7 in box 9. It took me double the time haha. But it's great how there's more ways to figuring things out, even tho his is way more efficient.
This was a really enjoyable puzzle. I really got stuck in the beginning because I hadn't seen the "New York Times Sudoku logic" applied before but I hope to see more of this type in the future so I can get better at them. Great solve :)
Thanks Simon. A thoroughly wonderful solve of a truely excellent puzzle. I take great pride in learning from CYC... to the point where I also had 2 sets of corner pencilmarks telling me there was no 4 in the 13 cage in box 1. I missed it for a hell of a lot longer than you did, but I am certain that my daily dose of CTC has helped me build skills where I found it for myself.
@@nightwishlover8913 There is the fun word "emordnilap" (coined relatively recently but gaining legitimacy) which means any word whose reverse is another word, such as "plug" and "gulp"
I put off coloring for a long time on this puzzle and got really stuck about an hour in, then i colored the 7s and 8s and solved it almost immediately, really a fun puzzle and I love watching your solve
As another fellow Melburnian, I totally concur. From pre lockdown2 (June last year) to post lockdown6 (now) - CTC has been has been a terrific daily fixture, and a vital escape from the stresses of working in the health sector. Simon, next time you make it to this part of the world, sounds like you’ll have a queue of people to welcome you!
The Tapa Contest is by Swaroop Guggilam :) also a quality constructor of course. I'll be one of the participants but I was part of the group conceptualizing this whole new Daily Contest format and structure.
It took me almost exactly 2 hours, with just a little help from the video at the beginning to get past the initial breakthrough. After that it was a real struggle to get everything placed, but I did get it done somehow. Unlike Simon, I do not like it when a puzzle relies heavily on coloring. My eyes cannot easily distinguish colors, and I get lost in the kaleidoscope. Speaking of which, I wish he had chosen something other than green/yellow for the 78 pairs. Those are the most difficult colors for me to tell apart, with blue/purple being the next hardest.
52:29 ... I probably could have finished faster, but I made a few guesses along the way and, after each one, I went back to find a more logical path (which, in each case, I did); thus, I was slower but more satisfied with how I did. Nice puzzle!
25 minute mark. You had the 13 box established in box 1 with a green 78. Would have saved some time. But easy for me to say sitting on this side. Keep being awesome.
Often times Simon will say "you're probably all seeing something I'm not", though he didn't say it this time, I see quite a few people like myself were staring at that 13 cage that he'd proven 10 minutes earlier couldn't be 49 and got too focused on the cleverness to spot it :)
Fantastic solve. I gave up on coloring individual cells early on because I noticed you could do fun things placing all the 123, 456 and 789 triples, but I should have stuck with it because I had a devil of a time disambiguating them at the end :)
Yesterday's puzzle was sublime. I enjoyed the big logic knot that kept unfolding and you kept going at an even pace, a real joy. Do more of those puzzle, I suppose. 28.5 minutes in, you can determine that C4R5; C5R6; and C9R6 are all a 78 Pair and that C5R5 is not. From there, you could almost get the coloring, but something still needs to differentiate it. that Box 3 789 if it's on column 9 and yellow you are gold and can determine the rest. 35 Minutes in I'm glad it turned out that the C9R2 turned out to be yellow, it's how I imagined it. 31.5 Minutes, Oh if that's true, if they are different then them and their 78 pair both add up to 9, both of them contain a 4, so you can write that in. He immediately spots it, which is nice, this doesn't always happen usually it takes a couple minutes. Man's a shark today. 33 Minutes in, I actually thought you were going to do that, the High/Low/Middle Coloring at the beginning, but you never got around to it.
I colored this into low, high, medium much further and then found a similar break in the compositions of the 13 cage in row1/box1 and the 12 cage in row 9 box 7/8. In the end it determines what's 7 and what's 8.
I'm new to your channel. I followed along with you for a while until I thought I could do it on my own. Then I would either get stuck or do something wrong. Then I would go back and watch some more of what you had done. Eventually, I was able to finish up with the correct answer.
At 27 minutes, brilliant that Simon remembered the 13 cage in box 1. If only he had noticed that this little cage could not have a 4, thereby ruling out 9 as well, and placing 9 in r2c2. :-)
He could’ve done so far earlier, in fact. The moment he placed the 9 in box 9 he could have placed the 9 in box 3 (since it had to be in the cage somewhere, and there was only one cell left), which eliminated the 9 from r1c2 - he already had a domino on 9s at that point, meaning he could have placed the 9 in r2c2 then. It would’ve helped with the greens and yellows too
It is so much like Simon to have the most ridiculous logic to disambiguate some crazy logic while completely missing the 9 in box 9 settled the 9 in box 3 and completely unraveled the yellow/green for several minutes. Never change, Simon.
I did use different colours for highs, middles, lows; and then later added flashes to differentiate the 7,8 pairs. It seemed to work for me. I didn't beat Simon's time, but I never do and I got closer than I often do (48 minutes).
Thank you for your videos! I'm visiting my family, and luckily they are lovely, but the bed is not! So I'm relaxing with some CtC and a nap before the giant Christmas dinner :)
If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
It's been the second time in a short time that Simon talks about "a weird type of symmetry" where in fact it was a plain "slash-diagonal" axial symmetry. Funny, because people usually have more problems recognizing rotational symmetries - Simon seems to be different :-)
They are both in box 7. Yellow is in row 9, green in column 1. They are not in r9c1, so they must be different. Not sure if Simon explained it in the video...
To complete the 789 triple in column 1, there should still be a 78 in either r7c1 or r8c1 (r4r5r6c1 are ruled out by the 789 triple in box 4). Both these options are in box 7 and hence this 78 is green, as the yellow 78 is already in box 7. Therefore, the 78 in r3c1 is yellow and different from the 78 in r9c7.
I did the coloring 123, 456, 789… it became a LONG work and then to make that into numbers it became a double heavy sudoku work. Lots of fun but it took me well over an hour.😉 Your way was better.
Hi, I've watched it a couple of times but I'm not sure if I'm missing something. How do you tell that the first yellow and green squares are not the same? I get why the other 78 pair in r9c3 is a yellow, but I miss why r3c1 has to be different from r9c7. Can anyone help explain?
Alternative explanation. If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
Whenever you say the word "aplomb", I always hear it as "a plum". I know what aplomb means, but hearing it that way makes me think your going to use a plum for something. Like, "can we finish the puzzle with aplomb" I imagine to mean "we know we can finish the puzzle with _logic_, but...can we finish the puzzle with a _plum_?"
Did anyone else want to yell at 28:42 - LOOK AT THE NINE IN BOX NINE ALREADY - only to remember that you would have taken an hour and a half to get there he was?
nice! much more elegantly solved than my clumsy way, but you missed that you could have used the 123 logic from r1 and c9 in r and c6 as well and the 789 logic from r9 and c1 in r 6 and c4...
i was able to use the low, high, middle coloring scheme, but I struggled with the transition from that. I started to highlight the 78 paris should have removeod all the low/middle/high coloring at that point.
I used similar thinking at the start for 123's in row 4 + column 6. Same with 789 in row 4 + column 6. Needing to place 6 of them and a maximum of 3 in box 5 gives a lot of restrictions on these digits.
Me every CtC sudoku puzzle: tries to telepathically communicate a naked single to Simon or Mark. Simon/Mark: And this is a naked single Me: Thank You! *Slumps back in chair exhausted*
What is your intro piano song? I think it's an absolutely beautiful tune and I was hoping that there was more to it than 3 seconds. If you could reply a link or title of the song I would be most grateful!
It's Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, allegro, also known as "Sonata Facile." Mark has a solve video named "Sudoku Facile" after it! Here's Mark's solve: ua-cam.com/video/kx49LuxvX4k/v-deo.html And here are two versions of the song: ua-cam.com/video/4xeAsc6m35w/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/ftvz8V00X_A/v-deo.html
Over 5 minutes of waiting for Simon to see the 9 placed in box 9 places it in box 3 which clears up his 78 pairs. I only had to restart once after watching half the video so not too bad for me.
When things slow down in a variant, do basic sudoku and take care of pencil marks. If that doesn't help, only then should one look for connections among distant cells.
Hey, there! You know, I've had a few thoughts about my own attempts at solving puzzles similar to these (but WAY easier, of course), and I learnt the trick of using colours to distinguish possibilities in the grid, but I found myself having a bit of trouble when I need to start to mark down digits that should appear in certain cells, but whose value is unknown. You also use colours for that, like you did in this video, but this can get extremely confusing and messy in more complex puzzles. So, in those cases, instead of using colours to represent unknown digits, I end up using... other digits. That is, I pencil mark a "1", but that's not the digit 1, but a digit that's between 1 and 4. It's less visually distracting than colours, but extremely inelegant. So I had this thought: what about having the option in the app to use _other_ symbols in pencil marks? Those could be letters, or even just arbitrary symbols. So, instead of using "1" to represent a digit between 1 and 4, I can use, say, a triangle. And, if I had to distinguish digits that I know are between 1 and 4, I can use triangle, circle, asterisk and, I dunno, smiley face? The advantage of that I that I can still keep using colours, but to represent other things. So there's a lot less ambiguity going on. I wonder if that's feasible to implement as a feature in the app? Also, another idea: it would be nice if we could export and download the step-by-step history of a solve, so that we can analyse it later. I mean, the app already has such a history, as it has an undo/redo feature. I think that could be nice. Oh, and one *final* suggestion (I hope I'm not obnoxious by now): since you're doing the "shorts" explaining tricks and techniques, what about creating a short explaining the pencil mark system that you use? I remember when I started watching the channel, the two alternate markings made no sense to me, and it was only after many videos, through my own deduction, that I realised what each one meant. I think it's super useful for solvers, and viewers who are not aware of that technique might be missing out on some of the logic you do, like I did in the beginning.
If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
Was that work on the differences in the 13 cages actually necessary if Simon would've done his basic sudoku? I feel like that would've solved the puzzle already.
You must realise - Simon almost never finds the straight forward 'easy' route and also seems to generally ignore pencil marks put in a few seconds earlier (the 2 cell 13 in box 1 being a case in point). Sometimes even ignoring the cage sums ( a 1 in a 3 cell 19 cage (box 3) - really, especially after stating a 1 can NOT go in a 3 cell 19 cage?).
Yes, so often Simon finds a complicated path and attributes it to "really clever setting by the constructor", not realising there's alternative, sometimes easier, paths available. He always seems to have complete confidence that the path he finds is the one true path, and the only one intended by the setter.
Lots of shouting at Simon tonight when he completely ignored the 9 in box 9 which sorted out all the yellows and greens by placing the 9 in box 3. Took him till 33 mins to find it by which time I was apoplectic!
I must agree, but, as Simon tends to do so often by ignoring Sudoku, why go the easy way when there are far more complicated ways to resolve the puzzle. However ignoring this annoying interlude it was still a great solve and I would still be trying to solve it next year.
Speaking of the last christmas sudoku, I gave it a try and somehow got the rules wrong, so halfway through I screwed it up. Well, let's give this one a try then... edit: Well, the rules seem a bit more easy this time around. :D
My god, I hate these killer cage puzzles. I gave up. Is there some kind of technique for knowing which questions to ask next? I always find myself randomly looking around the grid, getting no insights. They're extremely frustrating.
Thank you for the videos and for allowing me to find a great activity for my son and I to do together and sometimes compete against one and other. Merry Christmas!!
32:36 I'll never stop being amazed by Simon's ability to see the most complex logic to solve a step, when much easier steps were available.
TBH I thought he was going to solve a bit of box 1 earlier, but missed the fact 4 could not go in r1 of box 1. And before that he had a 9 in box 9 eliminating a potential 9 in box 3, both would have solved the 9's. This isn't a complaint, it's just reminding me that Simon will see things I rarely will, but he is not perfect at spotting the simpler sudoku logic... that or he doesn't go looking for it, because why use sudoku in a sudoku puzzle? :-p
Part of me thinks it’s on purpose at times to use the rule sets instead of sudoku, lol. His coloring also gets in the way a lot, and I wish he would abandon it earlier in his solves once it’s served it’s purpose.
I love Simon’s coloring though!
That's mostly because if you're focused on one aspekt of a Problem, you tend to lose the view of the others. When Problem solving we tend to rather "follow a trail" or "train of thought" instead of getting the whole picture.
If you watch early CTC videos you see Simon preach about diligence: You must alway look up your pencil marks when you put down a number! He abandoned that style also quite early because he rarely remembers doing it himself. If he'd continued then maybe he would remember that. For some reason his brain tells him to look something else than following what a digit put down actually does.
I have annoying relatives so thank you CTC for being there through the holidays!!!
😅 best wishes, be brave, you'll get through it.
Rules: 04:55
Let's Get Cracking: 05:30
Puzzle Solved: 37:38
Simon's time: 32m08s
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Three In the Corner: 3x (08:16, 36:18)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Beautiful: 7x (09:27, 14:30, 22:13, 30:04, 31:41, 31:44, 33:45)
Sorry: 6x (00:57, 10:24, 15:39, 19:09, 20:32, 20:59)
Hang On: 6x (03:34, 14:17, 15:09, 20:32, 21:13, 22:25)
By Sudoku: 5x (18:39, 35:29, 35:53, 36:26, 37:00)
Clever: 4x (08:28, 08:28, 18:56, 37:48)
In Fact: 4x (02:47, 07:39, 20:21, 27:02)
Ridiculous: 3x (31:36, 31:38, 37:48)
Good Grief: 2x (22:13, 30:02)
Brilliant: 2x (02:10, 03:02)
Extraordinary: 2x (00:34, 03:50)
Obviously: 2x (06:41, 29:21)
Aplomb: 1x (25:53)
Secret: 1x (06:07)
The Answer is: 1x (21:32)
In the Spotlight: 1x (36:23)
Lovely: 1x (34:22)
Gorgeous: 1x (17:46)
Our old Friend Sudoku: 1x (18:05)
Approachable: 1x (00:47)
Magnificent: 1x (04:16)
I've Got It!: 1x (13:28)
Wow: 1x (18:54)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Thirteen (13 mentions)
Nine (75 mentions)
Yellow (22 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
High (10) - Low (4)
Even (3) - Odd (0)
FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
How about "the power of maths"?
That NEIN's sneak skill must be ludicrously high, probably over thousand times its nominal value.
Me watching Simon refused to do Sudoku after getting the 9 in box 9 to find all manner of convoluted way just to get 4 in box 1. Simon you are playing Sudoku.🤣🤣 Love the solved.😊
Well done from jovi_al on the setting and Simon on the solving! It’s hard to make a classic killer this good.
I waited patiently for the song. I was not disappointed when it happened. I do now love when 3 is in the corner.
18:00 finish. Loved the logic of this. I used coloring for high-middle-low, and started by asking about low digits in row 4/column 6, and high digits in row 6/column 4. This led to some overlaps and easy deductions, making way for coloring middle digits.
Thank you for the shoutout for the Tapa Contest. I hope lots of them participate and hopefully enjoy it. One of the highlights is the ability to check out others' solves after you have completed solving.
Another nice colouring puzzle! Thank you jovi_al.
18:00 I'm a bit confused why the green and yellow couldn't have been the same digit. Of course when he put the yellow in row 9 that yellow couldn't have been the same but why did that cell and the other yellow (r3c1) have to be the same digit?
He knew there had to be two high digits (789) in c1 in box 7, with the third high digit of c1 in the yellow, and two high digits in r9 in box 7, with the third high digit of r9 in green. If it had been the same high digit on yellow and green, it would have been ruled out of appearing as one of the high digits in box 7.
@@RichSmith77 ah gotcha, thank you for that!
Thank you so much for putting out puzzles over the holidays! I think it's going to take more than wine & chocolate to sail through it!
Wow. That's a really amazing killer cage puzzle. I very much enjoyed the logical flow.
Needed a little hint getting started (the top middle box forcing 123 in those three cells in row one) and finished in 2:49:01. But I made small progress pretty much the entire time so I did not feel frustrated during my solve. While Simon looked at the two 13 cages, I noticed through my extensive colouring that I got the same two digits in the 12 cage and one of the 13 cages, which forced the 1 in the 13 cage's last cell, which was also some neat logic. Killer Sudoku are one of my favourite kinds of Sudoku, and this one was brilliant indeed.
Also love how Simon ruled out the 4 in r1c3. It had a 4 each in its row, column and box already but it took him the 11 cage as well to finally notice.
I explained the "wizardry" by the fact that a 5 in one of the two 13-cages would make the other one impossible (exploiting the hinges).
Anyway this puzzle is a masterpiece: I was really happy when I solved it
Beautiful puzzle. Solved it in 55:35.
Near the end I finished differently by noticing that r3c1=r9c3 (as Simon also found) and r3c2=r9c4 (at that point I had 45 pairs in these cells and also in r9c2), and since r9c3+r9c4=12, I got r2c1=1, after which the puzzle solved easily.
@ 31:00 Simon is not going to lower himself and go the easy route by noticing a 4 and 9 can't go into the 13 cage. No Way! The more complex way is more interesting.
Both 4 and 9 are already independently eliminated from the 13 cage by that point (if he follows the 9 he put in column 9), lol…..
When I saw that 789 worked the same way as 123 in the opposite row/columns at the beginning, I got so excited. Just beyond cool
Anyone else shouting about the 9 in Box 3?😁
So much for the benefits of a new mic stand.😁
Simon doesn't like to do sudoku in a coloring puzzle...
For a change the tiny detail I noticed that Simon steadfastly refused to acknowledge would actually make a difference to the puzzle... placing the Yellow 78 and making a bunch of other 78s Green. On the other hand... I am not that great at Killers (lack of practice on the maths), so I probably would not get that far on my own steam anyway.
@@ivonkok It was available before he started colouring.
I now say Bobbins in traffic. Much better than before. Congratulations on solving an amazing puzzle!! I really enjoy your channel
At 8:39 Simon pencilmarks 23 in r1c9 and remarks "hopefully it's a 3 so we get to sing the song" -- actually, with just the marks in the grid at this point it can be shown that you will get to sing the song at some point in the solve, though not necessarily (and indeed not) in that corner. The arrangement of 123 pencil marks in box 3 turns the 123 pencil marks in three of the four corners of the grid in to a triple, which means exactly one of them will contain a 3 in the corner...
I just paused the video to comment exactly that! You know you watch ctc almost every evening when you start proving to yourself that you will get to hear "the song" :)
I noticed it at that point in my solve as well and happily started singing. :3
Also thank you Simon for another great way of solving this puzzle.
33:22 finally the long forgotten 9 is used! the solution usually Hinges on scanning :)
Insomnia is welcome tonight as it can be devoted to some CtC bingeing. 27:25 for me on this pivotal puzzle with cardinal points all over the place. In the ancient Roman cities the crossroads at the heart of the city were sometimes called *cardo* which means *hinge* 'cos it all hinges on the place where people coming from different directions and heading for different destinations, nevertheless can meet and interact.
I enjoyed that puzzle. Thanks, Jovi-al.
That was really hard and I had to check your going on three times. Thank you and a Merry Christmas. 🎄
I Got stuck a couple of times... But with a breaks coming back seeing almost immediately what i had been missing for 5 straight mins. I enjoyed watching simons solve after mine.. Seeing where i did things different.. A lot of fun.
I love you Simon and you blow me out of the water when it comes to sudoku solving but this was hard to watch lol
From a fellow aussie, Happy Birthday Michael.
Some weeks just hit me in a very particular way and I have no idea what to do to get out of that space. These videos really get me out of that headspace
It's amazing how Simon focused on the symmetry. I abandoned it right after the beginning and focused on the 14 sum box and my first number was 7 in box 9. It took me double the time haha. But it's great how there's more ways to figuring things out, even tho his is way more efficient.
I like how Simon got his hopes up for That Song in r1c9, then he shifted the goalposts when he noticed r1c1 was the correct digit
This was a really enjoyable puzzle. I really got stuck in the beginning because I hadn't seen the "New York Times Sudoku logic" applied before but I hope to see more of this type in the future so I can get better at them. Great solve :)
17:14 for me. What a beautiful puzzle!! I loved the logic and the way it is built.
Thanks Simon. A thoroughly wonderful solve of a truely excellent puzzle. I take great pride in learning from CYC... to the point where I also had 2 sets of corner pencilmarks telling me there was no 4 in the 13 cage in box 1. I missed it for a hell of a lot longer than you did, but I am certain that my daily dose of CTC has helped me build skills where I found it for myself.
8:42 The song is always a fun bit :) I half-expected you to riff on it earlier with '1-2-3 in the corner'
You guys got me into modified sudokus! I'm enjoying arrow sudokus and palendrome sudokus these days :)
DoubleCheckTheSpelling: of the word palindrome...speaking of which, why isn't it spelt the same forwards as backwards?
@@nightwishlover8913 There is the fun word "emordnilap" (coined relatively recently but gaining legitimacy) which means any word whose reverse is another word, such as "plug" and "gulp"
I put off coloring for a long time on this puzzle and got really stuck about an hour in, then i colored the 7s and 8s and solved it almost immediately, really a fun puzzle and I love watching your solve
Every time Simon puts his face on the puzzle pyramid avatar, but I'm still amused every time :)
And put some heart into the 3 in the corner song 😀
As a fellow Melburnian, I can say that CTC has been a massive help, and something I still look forward to daily
As another fellow Melburnian, I totally concur. From pre lockdown2 (June last year) to post lockdown6 (now) - CTC has been has been a terrific daily fixture, and a vital escape from the stresses of working in the health sector.
Simon, next time you make it to this part of the world, sounds like you’ll have a queue of people to welcome you!
The Tapa Contest is by Swaroop Guggilam :) also a quality constructor of course. I'll be one of the participants but I was part of the group conceptualizing this whole new Daily Contest format and structure.
Also, Thank you for giving the shoutout! I hope many people try this out and have fun :)
It took me almost exactly 2 hours, with just a little help from the video at the beginning to get past the initial breakthrough.
After that it was a real struggle to get everything placed, but I did get it done somehow.
Unlike Simon, I do not like it when a puzzle relies heavily on coloring. My eyes cannot easily distinguish colors, and I get lost in the kaleidoscope.
Speaking of which, I wish he had chosen something other than green/yellow for the 78 pairs. Those are the most difficult colors for me to tell apart, with blue/purple being the next hardest.
In which Simon does some incredible math and deduction in order to prolong using the 9 in column nine for as long as possible.
52:29 ... I probably could have finished faster, but I made a few guesses along the way and, after each one, I went back to find a more logical path (which, in each case, I did); thus, I was slower but more satisfied with how I did.
Nice puzzle!
I liked that starting trick very much
Good work. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
25 minute mark. You had the 13 box established in box 1 with a green 78. Would have saved some time. But easy for me to say sitting on this side. Keep being awesome.
Often times Simon will say "you're probably all seeing something I'm not", though he didn't say it this time, I see quite a few people like myself were staring at that 13 cage that he'd proven 10 minutes earlier couldn't be 49 and got too focused on the cleverness to spot it :)
Not to mention he gets a 4 in box 1, gets the 4 in c3, the 9 in r1, and only then finally gets the 9 out of the 13 which finally removes 4..
Fantastic solve. I gave up on coloring individual cells early on because I noticed you could do fun things placing all the 123, 456 and 789 triples, but I should have stuck with it because I had a devil of a time disambiguating them at the end :)
Yesterday's puzzle was sublime. I enjoyed the big logic knot that kept unfolding and you kept going at an even pace, a real joy. Do more of those puzzle, I suppose.
28.5 minutes in, you can determine that C4R5; C5R6; and C9R6 are all a 78 Pair and that C5R5 is not. From there, you could almost get the coloring, but something still needs to differentiate it. that Box 3 789 if it's on column 9 and yellow you are gold and can determine the rest. 35 Minutes in I'm glad it turned out that the C9R2 turned out to be yellow, it's how I imagined it.
31.5 Minutes, Oh if that's true, if they are different then them and their 78 pair both add up to 9, both of them contain a 4, so you can write that in. He immediately spots it, which is nice, this doesn't always happen usually it takes a couple minutes. Man's a shark today.
33 Minutes in, I actually thought you were going to do that, the High/Low/Middle Coloring at the beginning, but you never got around to it.
I colored this into low, high, medium much further and then found a similar break in the compositions of the 13 cage in row1/box1 and the 12 cage in row 9 box 7/8.
In the end it determines what's 7 and what's 8.
I colored the same way!
I'm new to your channel. I followed along with you for a while until I thought I could do it on my own. Then I would either get stuck or do something wrong. Then I would go back and watch some more of what you had done. Eventually, I was able to finish up with the correct answer.
At 27 minutes, brilliant that Simon remembered the 13 cage in box 1. If only he had noticed that this little cage could not have a 4, thereby ruling out 9 as well, and placing 9 in r2c2. :-)
Yes, I noticed that too.
He could’ve done so far earlier, in fact. The moment he placed the 9 in box 9 he could have placed the 9 in box 3 (since it had to be in the cage somewhere, and there was only one cell left), which eliminated the 9 from r1c2 - he already had a domino on 9s at that point, meaning he could have placed the 9 in r2c2 then. It would’ve helped with the greens and yellows too
It is so much like Simon to have the most ridiculous logic to disambiguate some crazy logic while completely missing the 9 in box 9 settled the 9 in box 3 and completely unraveled the yellow/green for several minutes. Never change, Simon.
Fun puzzle. The horizontal 13 cage felt ignored. When you explored it you then ignored your pencil marks removing the 4 and placing the 9.
I did use different colours for highs, middles, lows; and then later added flashes to differentiate the 7,8 pairs.
It seemed to work for me. I didn't beat Simon's time, but I never do and I got closer than I often do (48 minutes).
I'm surprised that Simon didn't notice that the 12 cage in row 9 was a yellow with a 45, which was echoed in r3c1c2 making r2c1 a 1
Thank you for your videos! I'm visiting my family, and luckily they are lovely, but the bed is not! So I'm relaxing with some CtC and a nap before the giant Christmas dinner :)
32:46 No, it would not have been better. I tried coloring it that way at first, and it got me stuck.
Merry Christmas to all sudoku lovers here!
Awesome puzzle. 40:46
18:04 Why must c1r3 and c7r9 be different digits?
He should have used a different colour r9c3 is orange, r4c2 is also orange, the only place it can go in c1 is r3 therefore yellow is orange.
If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
It's been the second time in a short time that Simon talks about "a weird type of symmetry" where in fact it was a plain "slash-diagonal" axial symmetry. Funny, because people usually have more problems recognizing rotational symmetries - Simon seems to be different :-)
18:06 when did he prove the yellow and green cell were different?
They are both in box 7. Yellow is in row 9, green in column 1. They are not in r9c1, so they must be different. Not sure if Simon explained it in the video...
To complete the 789 triple in column 1, there should still be a 78 in either r7c1 or r8c1 (r4r5r6c1 are ruled out by the 789 triple in box 4). Both these options are in box 7 and hence this 78 is green, as the yellow 78 is already in box 7. Therefore, the 78 in r3c1 is yellow and different from the 78 in r9c7.
Amazing how that worked out. 34:55 for me - not a great time, but not terrible either.
I did the coloring 123, 456, 789… it became a LONG work and then to make that into numbers it became a double heavy sudoku work. Lots of fun but it took me well over an hour.😉 Your way was better.
Hi, I've watched it a couple of times but I'm not sure if I'm missing something. How do you tell that the first yellow and green squares are not the same?
I get why the other 78 pair in r9c3 is a yellow, but I miss why r3c1 has to be different from r9c7.
Can anyone help explain?
Alternative explanation.
If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
I do hope Simon and Mark can pre record some of those videos and get a break, and time with family etc. But I do appreciate the content
Whenever you say the word "aplomb", I always hear it as "a plum". I know what aplomb means, but hearing it that way makes me think your going to use a plum for something. Like, "can we finish the puzzle with aplomb" I imagine to mean "we know we can finish the puzzle with _logic_, but...can we finish the puzzle with a _plum_?"
Theoretically, "a plum" is the correct English pronunciation, but we like to make things difficult!
I would love to see a puzzle finished with a plum!
Did anyone else want to yell at 28:42 - LOOK AT THE NINE IN BOX NINE ALREADY - only to remember that you would have taken an hour and a half to get there he was?
nice! much more elegantly solved than my clumsy way, but you missed that you could have used the 123 logic from r1 and c9 in r and c6 as well and the 789 logic from r9 and c1 in r 6 and c4...
I don’t know who Michael is, but happy birthday from a fellow Melbournian!
Simon, my admiration for you knows no bounds, but for the love of all that is holy do some sudoku for once!
i was able to use the low, high, middle coloring scheme, but I struggled with the transition from that. I started to highlight the 78 paris should have removeod all the low/middle/high coloring at that point.
Me too. I ended up getting stuck when I used low/high/middle.
I used similar thinking at the start for 123's in row 4 + column 6. Same with 789 in row 4 + column 6. Needing to place 6 of them and a maximum of 3 in box 5 gives a lot of restrictions on these digits.
Me every CtC sudoku puzzle: tries to telepathically communicate a naked single to Simon or Mark.
Simon/Mark: And this is a naked single
Me: Thank You! *Slumps back in chair exhausted*
On this day, answering with aplomb, pudding answers in a good place.
What is your intro piano song? I think it's an absolutely beautiful tune and I was hoping that there was more to it than 3 seconds. If you could reply a link or title of the song I would be most grateful!
It's Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, allegro, also known as "Sonata Facile." Mark has a solve video named "Sudoku Facile" after it! Here's Mark's solve: ua-cam.com/video/kx49LuxvX4k/v-deo.html And here are two versions of the song: ua-cam.com/video/4xeAsc6m35w/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/ftvz8V00X_A/v-deo.html
THANKS!
Nice puzzle, managed to solve it logically in 43mims
My time is 4 hours and 40 minutes. And I'm just glad I managed.
Over 5 minutes of waiting for Simon to see the 9 placed in box 9 places it in box 3 which clears up his 78 pairs. I only had to restart once after watching half the video so not too bad for me.
Screams - the 9 in box 1 is resolved for like forever when the 2 cell 13 cage could not have a 4
58 even. Wasn't easy for me but I managed without any mistakes along the way.
The nineeee😂
Under an hour 😯😯😯
When things slow down in a variant, do basic sudoku and take care of pencil marks. If that doesn't help, only then should one look for connections among distant cells.
And also don’t place extra pencil marks in a box without checking your existing marks.
I have a new routine, see what simon is about to do, do it and keep going as far as i can, inevitably get stuck, see what siman is about to do...etc.
Got it at 23:48.
I miss Maverick
Yeah 9 in box 3, but also 4 cannot be in 13 cage as no 4 could be placed in box2
Hey, there! You know, I've had a few thoughts about my own attempts at solving puzzles similar to these (but WAY easier, of course), and I learnt the trick of using colours to distinguish possibilities in the grid, but I found myself having a bit of trouble when I need to start to mark down digits that should appear in certain cells, but whose value is unknown. You also use colours for that, like you did in this video, but this can get extremely confusing and messy in more complex puzzles. So, in those cases, instead of using colours to represent unknown digits, I end up using... other digits. That is, I pencil mark a "1", but that's not the digit 1, but a digit that's between 1 and 4. It's less visually distracting than colours, but extremely inelegant.
So I had this thought: what about having the option in the app to use _other_ symbols in pencil marks? Those could be letters, or even just arbitrary symbols. So, instead of using "1" to represent a digit between 1 and 4, I can use, say, a triangle. And, if I had to distinguish digits that I know are between 1 and 4, I can use triangle, circle, asterisk and, I dunno, smiley face? The advantage of that I that I can still keep using colours, but to represent other things. So there's a lot less ambiguity going on. I wonder if that's feasible to implement as a feature in the app?
Also, another idea: it would be nice if we could export and download the step-by-step history of a solve, so that we can analyse it later. I mean, the app already has such a history, as it has an undo/redo feature. I think that could be nice.
Oh, and one *final* suggestion (I hope I'm not obnoxious by now): since you're doing the "shorts" explaining tricks and techniques, what about creating a short explaining the pencil mark system that you use? I remember when I started watching the channel, the two alternate markings made no sense to me, and it was only after many videos, through my own deduction, that I realised what each one meant. I think it's super useful for solvers, and viewers who are not aware of that technique might be missing out on some of the logic you do, like I did in the beginning.
Am about halfway through the video... how was it known that yellow and green had to be different digits?
If they were the same digit, there would have been nowhere for it to go in box 7. (He already knew the high digits were in c1 and r9 in box 7, two in c1, two in r9, one overlap in the corner)
Sooo frustrating at the 24 minute mark when Simon does not see the other 9's in box 3 then box 1 which give more digits!
Was that work on the differences in the 13 cages actually necessary if Simon would've done his basic sudoku? I feel like that would've solved the puzzle already.
You must realise - Simon almost never finds the straight forward 'easy' route and also seems to generally ignore pencil marks put in a few seconds earlier (the 2 cell 13 in box 1 being a case in point). Sometimes even ignoring the cage sums ( a 1 in a 3 cell 19 cage (box 3) - really, especially after stating a 1 can NOT go in a 3 cell 19 cage?).
Yes, so often Simon finds a complicated path and attributes it to "really clever setting by the constructor", not realising there's alternative, sometimes easier, paths available. He always seems to have complete confidence that the path he finds is the one true path, and the only one intended by the setter.
Lots of shouting at Simon tonight when he completely ignored the 9 in box 9 which sorted out all the yellows and greens by placing the 9 in box 3. Took him till 33 mins to find it by which time I was apoplectic!
I must agree, but, as Simon tends to do so often by ignoring Sudoku, why go the easy way when there are far more complicated ways to resolve the puzzle. However ignoring this annoying interlude it was still a great solve and I would still be trying to solve it next year.
he simply refused to do sudoku in his sudoku puzzle until he was sure he had no other option 😅
put 9 in box 3 !
Speaking of the last christmas sudoku, I gave it a try and somehow got the rules wrong, so halfway through I screwed it up. Well, let's give this one a try then...
edit: Well, the rules seem a bit more easy this time around. :D
When you get stuck you should look at your pencil marks to see if they need to be cleaned up
My god, I hate these killer cage puzzles. I gave up. Is there some kind of technique for knowing which questions to ask next? I always find myself randomly looking around the grid, getting no insights. They're extremely frustrating.