go

done. no greens

Done with a red, so back to bed.

start

go

done with greens

done with greens

go

done

greens plus 2 guesses and finally done

go

dang. off to work. restart later.

hello everybody

done, no greens but one "educated" guess.

Difficulty score 73. With green I didn't find it that difficult.

hello drwho

Hello yul.

do you ever use chains in your sudoku solving?

Yes. I used 2 on this one.

do you have a favorite sudoku solving/explanation site?

Mine :). But it only covers the basics. www.scanraid.com is a good one.

The best advanced technique I have learned is called an alternating inference chain. The scanraid site has a link to a rather abstract description of it, but if you can wade through it, it's worth it.

yes. it's the one I am interested in.

I wish they would show several examples of 1 technique so I could start seing this pattern without struggle.

that would be the best way of [learning for me]. Thank you v much drwho.

when i'm stumped on experts i usually end up seeing what the scanraid solver does with it

Yes. this site looks like the most intelligible one. I have to have a closer inspection

Brainbashers is another good site: http://www.brainbashers.com/sudokuhelp.asp

AIC starts with a hypothesis. A certain cell cannot contain a certain digit. from that you can deduce that another (or the same) digit must go in another cell (or cells). Repeat those 2 steps until you find a cell or cells that must be the same digit the original cell could not be. Then you know that all cells that are buddies with the original cell and the final cell cannot contain the original digit.

I just looked at Scanraid and he has reorganized. I think he eliminated the link to the AIC explanation and is planning to provide his own. But it's not there yet.

OK

Thanks everybody.

AIC is a series of deductions. Starting with the hypothesis that something cannot be, leads to the deduction that something else must be. That in turn leads to another deduction that something cannot be and then to something else must be. Always start with what if this cannot be and always end with then this must be. If you're lucky it leads to useful information.

Todays' wasn't bad with greens and 2 short chains.

All sudoku deductions are exclusions so I am used to this way of thinking by now.

Have a good day everybody.

go

Greens + 1 Guess :(

commence

going green

arghh.. had to guess once as well... bah humbug

go

done with greens..

done with greens..

done with greens

done with greens, and finding 2 triples

start

continue

hey brittle... we meet again :)

must have the same schedules... :)

lol what time zone are you in?

est

ahhh... central here... so almost the same schedule

same schedule... i just live on central in my mind i guess. spent most of the 90s in texas... maybe that explains it. (or i just get up late :)

heh... I thought I got up early

this one is giving me fits but it feels like it shouldn't

I got a fewright off the bat, but it's really slowed down for me

but I'm slowly chipping away at it

i got 19 but have been stuck since this am

I'm at 20 at the moment. but I feel I may have to resort to greens shortly

yeah - i miscounted. 20.

man! this is taking a LOT of concentration

i know. my skull is about to crack open.

27, still no greens... yet

wow. great. i got 22 with auto g+r, and a guess. :(

this is like my third time starting over.. ugh

this puzzle IS frustrating! I mean, I've gota majority of it filled in. it's to a point where with other puzzles, the only thing left would be to fill in the remaining numbers. but not on this puzzle. I have a feeling it's going to make me work for every last number

hey ypsi!

hold that thought... found a hole

you'll be sitting there scratching your head, wondering, "if i could only get that one last number..." :)

I may need to come back to this after tee ball practice for the kids.....

hehehehe... that would be classic, brittle

DONE!!!!!! no greens. I did make a wrong guess in the middle, though.

once you get to the last 5 or 6 numbers, it's a breeze ;)

gee that is promising... great job papa

whoa. impressive. any technique hints? chaining, xy-wings, tie fighters, ???

thanks ypsi! techniques? um... think really really hard! stare at it... lol I probably use techniques, but wouldn't know how to name them or describe them

oh! and swearing at the computer apparently helps a lot :)

ahhh, my mistake. $&@^^##!

hehehe... well, I'm off... good luck guys! you can do it!

see ya. and congrats!

#$@! it is not really helping... :)

bbl

nope. i got nothing from it either. see ya round.

done. auto g+r. seventy bazillion checkpoints and umpteen good and bad guesses. after that it was easy. ... except that one last number was really tough.

start

Go. Probably a long time till I finish.

go

finally, with greens

19. Stuck. Going to call it a day soon.

Bad guess.

And I forgot what the guess was, so I might repeat it. Rats.

i just did the same thing Hunter...bah