Classic Sudoku: A New Incredible Trick

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Today's sudoku is a classic sudoku from shye - which should be all you need to know to immediately jump into solving it! It's called Hanabi and you can play it at the link below:
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply.
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▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@shye229]

thank you so much for covering this puzzle! its one im very proud of, and im happy to say you got the right trick! dont worry i am still making that video, its just hard to find the time (and at points, motivation >

[@alantaylor846]

Thank you!

[@davidrattner9]

Shye..another masterpiece from you!!! Just your brilliance astonishes me!!

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

@shye Did the universe sing to you when you finished this masterpiece? Thank you for beautifying the world with puzzles like this.

[@susanne5803]

The symmetries are very beautiful! I will have to repeat it several times to be able to "see" what you and Simon see. Thank you very much!

[@Sujisan4]

Clearly, you are a genius. What a beautiful puzzle.

[@Nevir202]

What's amazing isn't that this is solvable, it's that it's possible for it to be so hard with so many givens.

[@logiciananimal]

Indeed. I think some part of the trick there has to be that the digits are "clumped" - not evenly distributed between 1 and 9. But I am not sure how to investigate that idea.

[@stevieinselby]

I wonder what the hardest puzzle you can make with the most given digits is...

[@constanza1648]

@@logiciananimal 1-2-3-4 placement in boxes 1 and 9 and c1 and r9, maybe? This symetrical display is quite interesting.

[@logiciananimal]

@@stevieinselby That would require what I have called the (as yet unformulated) theory of sudoku difficulty. Formulating such a theory seems to be remarkably hard.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

@@logiciananimal Metahard, you mean.

[@michaelralston8235]

This one is absolute madness, though I spent most of the puzzle going "...is Simon going to realize he mis-marked the 1s? how does he not notice? how is he going to recover when it breaks?!"

[@AuntyAwesome]

Its very impressive (to me anyway) how he noticed something was wrong straight away, most times he just trusts his pencil marks without question but this time he was onto it!

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

I sucked in my breath so hard when he did that!

[@squidtentacles3492]

And the worst part is it took nearly 20 minutes to find it!

[@RamBoZamBo123]

Very nerve wrecking to wait these 20 minutes for the fix. I'm glad he got it in the end.

[@NameName-lu6vd]

Double thumbs up😮😮

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

Silly Simon, people don't watch videos like this because they like Sudoku. The best creators on KZbin make whatever they love interesting to other people. I have a lot of interests, but I didn't seek out a channel about death. I found Caitlin Doughty. I didn't seek out a linguistics channel. I found NativeLang. And while I like Sudoku and will spend an hour on one of the puzzles you solve and every once in a while I'll even crack one, I enjoy the joy in your voice as you solve it, whenther it is one I could do myself or (more often) not.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

I hover between the two poles. I am fascinated by sudoku logic and its mathematics. Not just arithmetic but set theory, symmetries, combinatorics and much more. That's one pole of my fascination. The other is to watch the struggles of Mark & Simon, the drama, the epic, the catharsis and the singing of the universe, as Simon once memorably exclaimed. The CtC community with its variety of voices, all living together creating a symphonic experience which somehow touches so many minds and give solace for people suffering from loneliness and isolation.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

@@amoswittenbergsmusings I do also enjoy the math and logic behind it. I studied set theory, group theory, 1st order and modal logic and spent many hours with puzzles of all sorts. After solving the Rubiks Cube without help, I worked on developing my own algorithms and breaking it down in simpler ways. So this is very much my jam. In spite of that, I don't really enjoy watching Mark solve the puzzles. Sorry Mark, there's nothing really you can do about it to improve. You're doing a great job and I have no suggestions. I just click with watching Simon. I do enjoy some KZbinrs who talk about things about which I have very little interest (Echo Gillette and my kids' favorite Moriah Elizabeth come to mind, I have no interest in arts and crafts but they're both great). But for the most part, I have very broad interests and that helps, but the personality is crucial as well.

[@NoisqueVoaProduction]

@@Sam_on_KZbin Yes!! Absolutely! So many content creators on KZbin. I adore Native Lang and Echo Gillete. There was a time I was watching Ants Canada, a channel about Ant farming with so much Drama and passion it is unbelievable. Also, Jill Bearup, the sword lady, and Hello Future Me talking about world building narratives. So many great channels and this sudoku one is a gem.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

@@NoisqueVoaProduction Sounds like the algorithm has pegged us both the same way. I'm familiar with all of those channels. Jill had a new video just today.

[@rosiefay7283]

Ah, but when you found Caitlin Doughty and NativLang, what were you searching for?

[@Keldorn01]

By the way I have put this into a solver to see what would happen, and it was the exact same phenomenon as we saw in Sam Cappleman-Lynes' multisector locked set puzzle. The computer uses several consecutive XY-cycles, grouped X-cycles and alternating inference chains before getting a digit, which is a completely different digit from what Simon finds. Once again, Shye has come up with a technique that the computer failed to see, just like Sam back in the day. Amazing!

[@Nevir202]

When you say different digit, you mean in a different location, not a different solution to the puzzle, right?

[@Keldorn01]

@@Nevir202 sure, different location. The puzzle only has one solution no matter where you start to fill in the digits.

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

Rumour has it Nikhil Kamath (co-founder of Zerodha and chess player) found the exact same sequence of XY-cycles, grouped X-cycles and alternating inference chains as the engine. That guy is a legend :P

[@bass2564]

@@BigAsciiHappyStar And all that after blundering a wrong digit in the grid on move 1! What a guy!

[@altcommand]

I am astounded that Simon is able to just spot new logic like this. Without knowing what the new technique would be, he managed to focus exactly on what would lead to the break-in. Amazing!

[@PeterDB90]

That's what baffles me... Even if the puzzle is DESIGNED to be solved this way, there are so many other cells he could have focused on and missed it, but instead he went straight at the cells he's meant to focus on... how does someone develop skills like that?

[@qfmarsh64]

@@PeterDB90 it helped that he knew he was looking for a trick, and had some knowledge of the puzzle's creator. His first couple of instances of "That's weird, could that be something?" turned out to be flukes, but that one was the motherlode.

[@non-pe8xn]

watching simon place 1's in a column where there exist a 1 already.... more painful than expected

[@Jazzybumblee]

I feel like I need to know more about the shower story! 😂 But also, when I tell you I was internally screaming when the 6 got removed from R9C4 ... I was screaming!! 😂

[@Cloiss_]

He even colored the relevant squares, then ignored it!

[@susanne5803]

I'm scared of sliding-in-showers stories: my mother broke her arm in a complicated way doing exactly that.

[@michaelparkin1694]

Literally same, honestly slightly disappointed because of that

[@thepimentninja7340]

I woke up the whole neighborhood

[@EnvyNV6]

SAME

[@yumivt]

He finds the 1 pencil marks you have all been staring at, at 20:00 You're welcome.

[@snallygaster5]

I've been yelling at the screen for 5 minutes. Thank you

[@philm5872]

Hahaha I was looking for a comment like this!

[@Majoofi]

I was going out of my mind.

[@at8ax]

You mean the "new solving technique" isn't "put pencil marks in the wrong places"?

[@fakjbf3129]

I thought it was really funny because when I tried to solve the puzzle before watching I made exactly the same mistake.

[@RaynmanPlays]

Simon: "I'll do a classic Sudoku with a lot of given digits for this one. Simple and easy." Shye: "About that..."

[@DanFre40]

Watching Simon solve a puzzle is like watching Morse, Holmes or Columbo solve a crime. Following the clues and breadcrumbs until you get to the singular conclusion.

[@pascalhaering]

A lovely classic sudoku this was, and a great solve too. If anyone from CTC is reading this comment, I have a request: Please update your "How To Set A Sudoku" playlist with the newest setter videos (Clover, Piotr V) and create a new "Podcasts" playlist. Otherwise it's hard to find the setter/podcast videos amongst all the solves.

[@kalli-ope]

Simon excitedly ruling things out because "one of the yellow squares has to be a six", and then gleefully ignoring for the rest of the solve that "one of the yellow squares has to be a six" is probably a testament to the novelty of the approach shye was forcing him to use.

[@KevFrost]

The 4 minutes of agony after the gorgeous logical deductions where Simon forgets that he's eliminated one of the yellow pair of 6s.

[@Fezze93]

I was frustrated that he didn't immediately try to finish the 6s

[@qfmarsh64]

I was practically screaming at my TV. Of course, I never found the trick, which I nominate to be called "Shye's Arrow."

[@lyrimetacurl0]

And where he puts the 1s possibility in column 6 instead of 5

[@Armoterra]

@@qfmarsh64I think the name of the puzzle is the hint-it’s fireworks. Digits shoot from one end of the puzzle to the other like fireworks. You can see the beautiful symmetry of the puzzle if you consider the positive diagonal as the centre of the fireworks.

[@adelehare8495]

2:15 ok Simon I will not stop making comments about how great the podcast is until you finally accept it! I loved listening to your podcast episodes! I don't have any friends who are into sudoku and no one I know in real life wants to listen to me talk about how glorious the latest CTC puzzle was, so listening to the podcast is like having a lovely chat over tea with you guys. Sudoku would be no fun if we all just sat alone at our computers and solved puzzle after puzzle without ever talking about it. And after watching hours of your content, it's about time we finally get to know you guys!

[@Rangsk]

What a beautiful way to see the logic! One discovery that made this a bit easier to see for me is that r78c1 must be cloned in r9c49 and r9c23 must be cloned in r16c1, meaning that those cloned cells + r9c1 form a quintuple! (Green, orange, and yellow in your video).

[@eternalblasphemy6526]

My breakthrough (or so I thought at first) was finding the double pair in r5 (no matter where you put 7 in an empty rectangle box (box 7) you will always end up with 37 and 59 pair in r5. The real breakthrough came in when I figured out 8 placement in box 7 and a follow-up Alternating Inference Chain pattern in box 2. Solver gives this puzzle a 473 score (Diabolical)

[@mikeychrisanthus9948]

I noticed the weird quintuple but didn’t know how to use it

[@f.w.7843]

Congrats Shye, what a beautiful puzzle. It was just the right level of hard for me (it took me 45 minutes to get the trick, but I was always on the cusp, which kept me going - so rewarding!). Also, the fact that we were allowed to put a few diguts in early is so nice to get invested in a puzzle before facing the challege. What a ride. A testament to how well the puzzle was set: we were visually pointed to the corners (the fact that you used 1234 was such a nice touch to signal where to look). A masterpiece. Interestingly, I found the 789 option in the corner quite quickly, but failed to realise for much longer than Simon why that is Important. I think his pattern recognition is great because he noticed what it meant brilliantly quickly. I was surprised that it disambiguated where to put 6 in the center box. Anyway: thanks for a very enjoyable hour or so.

[@pedrobluis]

When Simon removed 6 from r9c4 everyone started shouting.

[@therealcathuman3789]

Yep

[@flobiish]

Not out loud, but definitely in my mind.

[@avisian8063]

I really think that having to talk us through it is why he sometimes misses stuff like this

[@Math.Bandit]

Definitely. A few times I found it funny that he had flagged up squares as being very important/crucial by colouring them (which unlike in most colouring puzzles, here was done *solely* to show they were important), but then would remove digits from those coloured squares without assessing how that changed the puzzle

[@PeterDB90]

Damn... I thought I was special for having noticed something the Great Simon didn't... turns out it was just an obvious gaffe by Simon and that I'm still nowhere near as good at sudoku as I hoped I am...

[@RubenLightfoot]

Simon: Ahh! I see how this lock works! Simon: *picks up key* Simon: Hmmm... now what? 😂

[@noclearreaction]

I find it somehow comforting that Simon still adds digits "By the power of Sudoku" in a classic Sudoku.

[@Urroner]

Even though I could never slove this puzzle without massive guessing -- and watching this video -- what an awesome, awesome puzzle. It was just a bunch of fun watching Simon getting all giddy towards the end. I duff my hat to the maker of the puzzle

[@tetsi0815]

25:00 Step 0: Deduct that 6 must be in a yellow cell twi minutes earlier; Step 1: Take 6 out of one of the yellow cells; Step 2: go off on a tangent #FlipTable

[@bertbergers9171]

Lol for the #fliptable

[@SmartHobbies]

"(Handcrafted classic sudoku's) do not grow on trees, but they do seem to grow in the brain of the constructor shye." Simon 2021

[@juliajello3558]

I proud to say for the first time while watching one of these videos I figured out the trick before Simon! I realized that the digest 5 and 6 had the same affect on the green box as the 7 and 8 did. I was yelling at my screen for him to find it but was glad once he did. fun to watch

[@NijiRanger]

Astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. Not only discovering that this logic is possible, but hinting at it just enough to let us discover it ourselves. Thank you Shye for this wonderful puzzle.

[@victorfinberg8595]

9:30 Everyone who watches this channel regularly knows that Simon likes to work with a fairly empty grid, while Mark fills in as many candidates as reasonably possible. Here we see for the first time Simon telling us that he NEEDS to have a fairly empty grid. Fascinating insight into mental processes.

[@leppyr64]

5:00 loving watching Simon joking around about the last pair of 1's in the grid. WHILE THEY'RE INCORRECTLY PLACED. 😅 Looking forward to how the hilarity continues. 😈 21:30 it rears its head and Simon snatches and puts it in it's place!

[@LykeABawss]

12:10 "The digits are either horizontal, or they're vertical, or they're sort of both. But they exist in a binary state." Looks like author needs a name change to 'Shyedinger'

[@muskyoxes]

"When you get four of a digit pointing into a box, you can always fill in that digit." What an incredible new trick! Wait, you're saying there's another one?

[@sabinrawr]

Had anyone revealed "the secret" to you? If not, that will be a miraculous day for you!

[@AlRoderick]

Shye says she shall show us how she set a shiny Sudoku. Welp, now my tounge has a sprain.

[@antebellum1776]

I pulled a muscle in my tongue saying that out loud

[@bertbergers9171]

Lucky you for only having to type that ;)

[@thefallenarm589]

24:51 a bit sad Simon forgot there was a 6 in one of the yellow cells ; would have helped a lot ! Amzing solve anyway and amazing puzzle by Shye

[@gunhasirac]

I don’t see anyone mentioning it so I’m leaving it as a note. Spoiler alert (Check at 20:00) At the point you rule out the bottom left cell of box seven can only be 789, actually by the same logic, you have similar conclusion for the orange cells. For the orange cell on the right, if 5 is in the cell, then the green cell must be 5. Similarly, if the top orange cell is 6, then the green cell must be 6 in the same way. Therefore they are done at that point. In the video it was ruled out by another way. I think this one is interesting as well.

[@shye229]

yep! the logic for how this pattern works is all linked, and thats a nice way to unify the deductions simon found. another way to look at it is multiple almost-kites (and almost kitefish with 9s) on the high values, with only one of them being false. if 7 8 and 9 were all true then one of r1c9 or r6c4 becomes unfillable, so the kites on 5s and 6s are true. im toying with ways to try and make more than one kitefish embedded in the pattern, wish me luck >_>

[@sammorley5679]

That is a truly beautiful trick! I love the symmetry of this puzzle. The logic with those corner pieces is absolutely astounding but very subtle.

[@hendrikharryg]

Fed this to a solver. Solver took many educated guesses and was blind to this strat. Well done, shye!

[@hariman7727]

There's actually a strategy that completely ignores the big mess of logic that Simon used that he spotted the beginning of but didn't follow up on. It's a beautiful puzzle because it's a seemingly complex thing that unravels based on two numbers and two corners.

[@Rikoshima]

i had to watch to about 12:47 for simon to lead me to water so to speak, but im pretty pleased with myself that once he pointed that out i paused it and unraveled the rest of it on my own fairly quickly. absolutely gorgeous puzzle, what a treat!

[@samus88]

Shye defeated me. I can't wait to see Simon find the "trick" because I have no idea how to solve it. Congrats to the setter and Simon for finding it.

[@joadbreslin5819]

Beautiful solve, Simon. I am so impressed by how quickly you were able to recognize the important elements of the puzzle.

[@VeritasUnae]

This is such a fantastic video, and congratulations again to Shye for her fantastic setting! I love the name Hanabi for how these small interactions burst along the diagonal like fireworks exploding in the night sky. Poetic and mentally challenging. (I was content to watch Simon solve this one, for sure.)

[@jaredgunkle1562]

28:50 i was waiting for you to ask that sensible question for ages

[@Socialdogma]

I'm very suspicious of these "Normal sudoku rules apply" puzzles.

[@gposchman]

In row 9 there was a single 6 for quite awhile which would have sped up your solve, but real world events can sometimes interrupt scanning and working out logic. Some times it helps me and sometimes it is almost worth starting all over. By the way it still took me way longer than you to solve the puzzle and I thank you both for how much training I have received.

[@guanyin19]

I found a 679 triple in box 8, which allowed me to place a 2 in box 5 and 8, then got stumped again immediately. I couldn't for the life of me see the logic that Simon found in box 7 that affected the rest of the puzzle. Every time I think I'm smart, Simon proves me wrong. Well done mate!

[@imyourpapabear]

As a novice solver I tried my hardest to work on this puzzle before I turned Simon's video on. I got RIGHT where Simon was stumped (besides the 1 pencil marker errors on column 6 lol) and I tried really hard to see the trick Shye put into it and I some what understood. Awesome puzzle to work on, congrats to Shye. Amazing puzzle to learn from.

[@abigail5762]

I feel like everyone was mentally screaming when he placed the 1’s

[@davidhughes7174]

wow a diabolical puzzle solved with amazing logic. Well done shye and well solved Simon

[@Ilfautcultivernotrejardin]

I very rarely comment on youtube videos, but this is insanity. This man is a genius. There were literally no 9s on the entire puzzle and he somehow deduces early on that 9 must go in one specific box. I can't even imagine being that smart.

Thank you Shye & Simon, i like classic sudokus of this quality! I failed to solve it, but i was on the right track and have spotted the relevant cells, but just couldn't get to the right deduction from this...

[@tripleb4528]

At 18:00, I think row 6 column 9 must be 1. Because if it's 5 then the bottom left cell must be 5 by similar logic to the 7 8 9. But with the pink and blue cells that must be either 7 or 9, and 8 or 9, if you try every combination: 7 8, 7 9, 9 8, 9 9, you conclude that in every case one of 7 8 or 9 must be in the bottom left cell. Therefore 5 can't be in the bottom left cell, so row 6 column 9 can't be 5 either because it restricts 5 to that bottom left cell but it can't be there. So row 6 column 9 is a 1. Sorry if that was a bit long but hope it makes sense.

[@hrishikeshterdalkar]

Slightly roundabout logic at 27:06. If 7 goes in the domino at bottom, then 7 goes in the pink 79 square - yes, but that also forces a 7 in the bottom left corner, so 7 *cannot* go in that domino. Don't need to consider "what if 7 goes in the vertical domino". That said, brilliant deduction about the conditions on 789 corner! Thank you for the amazing video.

[@JonnyKaufmanTenor]

WOW. Shye never ceases to amaze.

[@Zach010ROBLOX]

Me, a pure noob at sudoku compared to the great Simon: " Use your dang highlighting you goon!!" Wonderful work Simon, you never cease to amaze me with your pattern recognition and finding new trick, even if I temporarily think I have the edge.

[@mceajc]

That is illegally cunning. I stared at this for the best part of an hour and I could tell there was SOMETHING going on with the corners, but never quite worked it out. I don't feel bad about it at all. Superb puzzle, but I'm afraid I could only spectate the brilliance. Well done to any/everyone who solves this.

[@glennmelven3414]

To anyone who says that a lot of digits makes for an easy puzzle, I would point them to this video.

[@MyselfVlogsPaul]

it was beautiful! I ran through it with the video but had to stop it once I saw the magic of the 5s and 6s so I could play it out myself! thank you shye!

[@samuso86]

Very satisfying to watch. A year ago I wouldn't have understood a word but I get it now!... After watching it TWICE >

[@Kelters]

No Simon. I'm not shouting. I'm stuck at exactly this same point, scratching my head and mumbling "what does this even mean? I don't know!" :)

[@danhall2674]

Hanabi is also a really great co-operative card game which I would recommend to everyone!

[@ApesAmongUs]

A wonderful game about communicating with what you don't say instead of what you do say.

[@chrisphillips2467]

The Game and Tranquility have a lovely similar silent communication angle.

[@avisian8063]

I concur. Also the board game arena version is very good. So a great game to play remotely

[@UsePsychology]

Came to the replies to say this. One of my favourite games. If you can find the collectors' edition which uses lovely big tiles instead of cards, so much the better!

[@shaitam5v]

Let me just mention the great site hanab.live, great interface and thousands of variants, much better than boardgamearena in my opinion

[@cinnamonsugarcourtney6073]

I was yelling at you to put the 6 into r1c1 as soon as you ruled out the 6 from r9c4, because of the logic you made earlier that the 6 had to be at r1c1 or r9c4

[@WombatSlug]

Yeah. The yellow was shouting at me.

[@glennmelven3414]

There was a given 6 pointing at that 68 pencil mark, and I don't think Simon is used to having given digits anymore.

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

The rest of the puzzle would collapse so quickly after that. Simon, I think you need a holiday.

[@jimjimellell]

Once again Simon shows us how to bifurcate without actually bifurcating. Well done!

[@renauddommergue7671]

It's amazing how Simon found so quickly this trick with 7 8 and 9 on r9c1 , bravo Simon !

[@JackFate76]

It should be called a shye-wing.

[@78Mathius]

I vote S wing. For both Simon and Shye

[@shye229]

as humbling as it is to me to want to name it after me, im gonna have to go ultra-geek and mention wings are specifically chains with 3 strong links (and s-wings exist already believe it or not hehe), whereas this is more of a verity net/multi ER/CNL thing but whatever catches on best for a name, im probably fine with ^^

[@Leyrann]

@@78Mathius S-wing already exists, though I couldn't tell you what it is. Edit: Oh wait I should read Shye's comment properly.

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

@shye, I think you should have the honour

[@aryanshrajsaxena6961]

CTC has done a great deal of variants, but for me, their classic sudoku videos are the best!

[@fakjbf3129]

4:35 I tried the puzzle before watching the video, and I'm laughing because I made the same mistake when notating the possible ones in the center box!

[@BryceAndEveeNZ]

I thought the title for this one should have been 'An absolutely Cracking new trick... '

[@conexant51]

The normal rules apply in a puzzle set by Shye with half an hour it won't grow sour Simon will make time fly

[@susanne5803]

Somehow that feels like an understatement ... Thank you for your limericks! They brighten the comment section like fireflies!

[@conexant51]

@@susanne5803 Thank you, that's very kind of you to say! I'm glad you like them. :)

[@myriadd6272]

8:15 "You've let your grid down, you've let your box down, but most importantly, you've let yourcell down" ;)

[@ElisePhilipsen]

Just found out about your channel, love it! How you found the technique about the 7,8,9 in the bottom left corner is great. With that step I could rule out the 5 & 6 in the red cells immediately in the same way, cause they couldn't be in the left bottom corner cell. My last steps where slightly different. I got on with the 5,7,9 in the orange and the 7,9 pairs in pink and yellow. I don't know how I should call them (looks a bit like a bent triple I guess?). But if you put a 7 or 9 in the orange cell, you can't place them anywhere in the box bottom left. So it should be a 5. Then the rest was easy.

[@Stuartdouglas19]

brilliant trick! I spotted it before simon, and immediately went "ooh hes going to love that when he sees it"

[@Ferrindel]

My new favorite Simon quote: "By the power of ... logic."

[@logiciananimal]

I did a student presentation in a philosophy of science class years ago as an undergraduate trying to explain where the "compellingness" of logic comes from. I have since done other degrees including one focused highly on logic and I use deductive reasoning all the time in my job (though not as much as in mathematics or puzzling :)). I still do not get it - it is not an easy problem.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

@@logiciananimal Could it be that our brains have evolved to solve tricky problems in real time? Like, where do I get my lunch from, how do I avoid becoming lunch to someone else and with whom can I make babies? Each of these questions that life throws at us creates a tension of doubt and uncertainty in our embodied minds. Our brain rewards us with deep satisfaction once we manage to solve one of these problems: the feeling of satiation after a delicious meal, the sigh of relief when we have extricated ourselves from danger, post-coital relaxation. We have, amazingly, co-opted that very sophisticated inference machine to do mathematics, physics, logic, neuroscience, sudoku, and many other pursuits of the mind. Almost perversely, we actually relish new problems and dedicate huge mental resources to their solutions - all chasing the most elementary high that our brain can offer. In the process we attempt to probe the very makeup of the universe itself .

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

That is so interesting!! Thanks for sharing these thoughts

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

@@elizabethgrosvenor153 These things keep me awake at night. They also inspire me to seek the Creator of this preposterous universe in which matter wants to know its Maker. For others, science tells them that they are "nothing but a bunch of organised organic chemicals"; for me, science tells me that I am "a bunch of origanised organic chemicals - that can pray" - and I cannot stop being utterly amazed by that. Watching Cracking the Cryptic is a weird sort of mystical experience. I get the feeling that others have a similar experience - although they won't use my sort of language - but does that really make such a difference, I wonder?

[@elizabethgrosvenor153]

@@amoswittenbergsmusings Indeed! "Through him all things have been made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." And "We have seen his glory... full of grace and truth." Mystical indeed. And yes, it also sometimes shows up in sudoku ;-) That's a nice way of putting it.

[@walkingwriter4325]

With 40% of the digits given, I thought maybe I'd have a chance. Sadly, no. But I wasn't surprised, given the title of the video. Still, it was fascinating to watch your solve. Awesome puzzle!

[@longwaytotipperary]

I think I know why Simon missed the extra 1s in column 6 for so long - he's not used to ANY digits already placed in the puzzle. Usually the only digits he has to work with are the ones HE enters! Smooth recovery, Simon!

[@ragnkja]

I think he just placed the corner pencilmarks in the wrong cells.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@ragnkja Yes he was just one column over.

[@ragnkja]

@@longwaytotipperary Indeed, which is a very easy mistake to make.

[@alienrenders]

17:45 for me. I had to bifurcate though. I saw that row 8 was very restricted on 8's, so I bifurcated with that row in mind. Looks like there's a new technique, so looking forward to watching the video. edit: Finished watching the video. Really cool idea. This would have been a nice puzzle for Mark. He's really good at noticing restricted rows or columns. I'm not sure if he would have explained it as clearly as Simon did, but I would have liked to have seen Mark's take on it.

[@BradJames878]

I did not watch the video all the way to the end, but I did catch onto something that might have made Simon's journey through this puzzle easier. (I realized this after Simon helped me to verify that the botton-left cell in box 7 can only be 7,8 or 9). Looking at about the 15 minute mark of the video, Simon realizes that the 89 and 79 cells must contain at least one 9, which is correct. Then he works with that, and comes up with the 46 cell in box 2, and the 15 cell in box 6. I checked and realized that these 2 cells work out the same way that the 89 and 79 did. If you put a 6 in the 46 cell, then the bottom-left cell in box 7 must be a 6. If you put a 5 in the 15 cell in box 6, then that lower-left cell must be a 5! That cell can't be a 5,6.,7.,8, and 9 at the same time, and we already know it's a 7,8.or 9. So we can immediately eliminate the 6 from the 46 cell, and the 5 from the 15 cell. And it worked!

[@Kalbintion]

One of the first puzzles from here that i actually solved, took me a hot minute (a good hour) to figure out the trick but it was really nice being able to get it. One heck of a puzzle and a solve.

[@robertrisk93]

At 24:50 you MISSED that, by eliminating 6 from r9c4, the only place for 6 in r9 is c3. We also know that r9c2 can not be 7 because it forces 7 on r6c4 and a 9 on r9c1 and we now that if r6c4 is a 7, r9c1 must also be 7 (11:00). By eliminating 7 from r9c2 it forces 7 on both, r3c2 and r5c3 and that breaks the puzzle.

[@pedroscoponi4905]

I decided to try this one, thinking "hey, it's classic sudoku, maybe this one is within my skill level?" Nope! 😅 Would _not_ have gotten that trick even after a hundred years staring into my screen 😁

[@leesweets4110]

"By the power of... logic". Excellent argument, my friend.

[@CryingShayme]

Around 26:50 I cracked the puzzle by realizing that whatever was in the pink 7/9 couldn't be in orange (obviously), but also, whatever was in the yellow 7/9 also couldn't be in orange because that would see the whole bottom left 3x3. Making the orange a 5 cracked the rest of the puzzle easily, while making more use of that beautiful structure in the bottom left!

[@kyawlinthan1415]

Simon 27:41 - "If I trust my pencil marks, and of course I do." Thank god he didn't trust his "1" pencil marks in the middle box.

[@davidgould9431]

I also don't understand his comment: he had 789 in the marks and was placing just a 9. I didn't (still don't) see why the 8 disappeared. I must have another look at that bit. Edit: he also has an 89 in the row - phew! thought I was going mad there.

[@EvanC881]

Great puzzle and great video. Hope the person who fell in the shower is okay! I am always amazed by people who can recover where they are in a sudoku puzzle after being interrupted. It's been my biggest barrier to doing more complex puzzles - if I can't do it in one sitting, it's just going to be nonsense to me when I return to it later. Kudos!

[@brandiboeni4000]

His little subtle jokes are perfection.

[@monkerud2108]

At 24:47 you eliminated a 6 from a yellow square, that immediatly got you a 6 in the other yellow square that you missed for a long time :) because one of those 2 squares was a six regardless of the 9 in the top one, if that wasnt true then the logic you did to get the four would be flawed, and it wasnt, so yeah, pretty cool puzzle tho :)))

[@earthling-ad]

I was trying to work out how you eliminated the 9 when placing the 4 in box 2 then saw the pair of 89s. Really enjoying the channel. Feel like my sudoku solving skills are slowly improving as a result.

[@amoswittenbergsmusings]

Simon, that was a fantastic solve. I'd love to see the wiring diagram of your mind - and Shye's.

[@susanne5803]

Creating this puzzle Shye's brain must have looked like a Hanabi: a fire flower!

[@robynrox]

The relief at 21 minutes when he notices the position of the 1 in box 2 :)

[@hummakavula3750]

I wasn't braced for so many digits. I'm worried 😯

[@longwaytotipperary]

Hope whoever fell in shower is ok. Fantastic puzzle & fantastic solving!

[@siewardnijhuis8626]

there was something else beautiful: as soon as there was the 79 pair appears in column 4 only 5 could go into marked orange position (set to 579). This is because 7 and 9 would make it impossible to place that 7 or 9 in box 7 since the 79 pair in column 4 would point the same number to that box. So at that point we were sure of the five in column 1 as well as the 6 in row 9 in box 7, which both resolves the puzzel.

[@I_LoveBubbas]

the 1 at r2c6 looking at your box 5 pencil marks made me "shout at you"

[@pawovado]

Nice puzzle @shye, after 27.05 I fill in the 6 on r9c3, forces the 6 in r1c1 and the 6 in r2c5 , we have now a 89 pair in box 2, forces the nines in box 5 row 6, eliminate the 9 in cell r6c1, we have now we 57 in r6c1 , forces a 57 in r5c6 and in r9c2 both look in box 8 and can only be a 5 not a 7

[@benjaminrealy5661]

Wow! Only 19:00 for me. I took the path though where if a cell only had 2 possibilities I'd try the one that looks like it might break faster and see if it breaks. If it does I know it's not the right number. If it doesn't after maybe 15ish moves, I go back and try a different one. Not quite cheating because i do it all myself, and make the elimination all myself, but a method not necessarily the most proper. I've tried this method several times before without much success because sometimes I get to a point I need to keep making choices within choices creating numerous trees and get further lost in the woods. But first time success. Not only success but quick success. 41st solve, and yes I'm still counting it because if the aforementioned reasons. I think this one worked with that method because of how many cells I got down to 2 possibilities

[@emmettnelson7260]

This was really cool! I love seeing such novel tricks in such a simple variant.

[@BernhardViktorin]

21:44 HEUREKA! :-)

[@charlesweltonferreirabarbo8962]

I hope person that fell in the shower is fine. That being said, I tried to solve this puzzle and thought I did it! Only to later realize it was black magic (bifurcation). I tried again, and couldn't find the beautiful logic.

[@Kref3]

I appologize first, for not watching the video first. I saw this video today (after 3 years) and the first thing I did was to load the puzzle into the app I use and try to solve it without knowing anything about a new trick. I am very new to Sudoku, actually less than 50 puzzles including some very light ones. But I solved this in only 8 minutes, which is fast for me. And now I will watch it to understand what the trick was, that might make it more interesting. ___ Edit: OK. Now I watched the corner 8 mistery. It is very elegant. But I did not see it and therefore did not care for it. The puzzle contained this nice logic trick, but if you are to stup …. ahm … inexperienced to see it, it still is solvable rather quickly.

[@michaelpdawson]

22:03 - Cracking the Cryptic and Unwinding the Hogwash. 25:48 - Simon's ravin' again.

[@williamgreer7601]

46:34 for me, I got stuck for about 30 minutes (I knew there had to be a trick but I just wasn't seeing it) so i colored the grid and speculated about the ramifications of what each cell could be. I ended up making a long inference chain to determine the spots for 5 & 9 which got me unstuck. Now to watch the video and see what the trick i was supposed to find was.

[@williamgreer7601]

Ah eliminating 56 from the r9c1 and tautology leading to placement of the 1 and 4 which then chains back to solve it

[@hariman7727]

I took the opposite route and went via an inference chain involving the corners. You and Simon spotted the zebra. I spotted the horse. ;P

[@BRBTheFireball]

I wonder is shye is a fan of hobby games because her title makes me think of that brilliant cooperative card game Hanabi, which has a fireworks theme pasted onto it.

[@telph3223]

I tried this out before watching and I spent 90 minutes trying to unravel 4 interconnected x wings when I apparently should've been looking at where to put the 9's (of which there are none to start out with). this is beautifully complicated logic.

[@thirtien]

I got the 6 in box 1 much earlier because of the “royal combination” I explained you in an email a few weeks ago. With the 6 available the puzzle was much easier to solve. Although I liked your mind boggling solution as well 👍🏻