The Revenge Of The Miracle Sudoku!

[@andrelglinnenbank2856]

I think this would be more funny as a fog puzzle with only r1c3 unfogged. Then watch the mounting frustration of Simon when every time he finds a digit no grid furniture is exposed.

[@trooperscientists2000]

That's so evil... I love it

[@Kairamek]

Don't give them ideas! Wait, no, reverse that. Do give them ideas!

[@rmjarvis]

Iirc, there already was one like that where the fog covered literally no additional clues. And it similarly seemed like there couldn't possibly be enough information to solve.

[@iveejnaris]

​@@rmjarvis could you provide the video name of that. I would like to watch it

[@flabort]

​@@rmjarvis lol, was it dynamic fog too or regular?

[@MartinFindon]

I know I’m repeating myself, but this channel is the best thing on KZbin!

[@A_CC_K]

100% agree

[@dyvel]

45!

Yes, and a threat to "Trilobite cookies" for the best on the internet title. Well, I a may be subjective.😊

[@jeffreyrosas1784]

You can say that again.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Yep!

[@avipathak1850]

For anyone interested in the solution to the chess puzzle: Rook to a6 is the move. Black's a pawn can't take White's b pawn because of the rook. Black's b pawn taking the rook means the White pawn can go forward to b7 for checkmate. The only other move black has is to move the bishop somewhere, which takes away the defender for the a pawn and thus the rook can capture it for checkmate.

[@michaeljbuckley]

Thank you!!! Couldn't see the mate in 2. I was going King D7, forcing the bishop to move. Room A2+, King B8 and then I lost myself 😂

[@uncluckable6535]

THE ROOOOOOOK!!

[@rizka7945]

It's an example of a phenomenon called "zugzwang" by chess people. Usually in chess it's a good thing if it's your turn to move. You can attack or defend or develop your pieces or whatever. Something that changes the dynamics of the position in your favour. However, in the endgame every now and then you don't want to move. All the stuff you have remaining is already exactly where they need to be. After white plays rook to a6, if black could skip the turn, white couldn't checkmate black with his second move. The whole point of playing rook to a6 is that black is now in "zugzwang": white counts on the fact that black must make the next move. As any legal move is detrimental to black.

[@Thungon]

I read this comment thinking ... "that's Morphy's puzzle, right? But what's it doing here?" making this the first time I actually watch at least part of the intro instead of skipping straight to the rules of the puzzle lol

[@roccov3614]

I'm not a chess player but it was frustrating not being able to solve such a simple problem. I did see that black could move its pawn forward which messed up a lot of ideas I had. This solution stops that. Thanks.

[@noxumbra173]

Simon, at the 44-minute mark, the low hanging fruit is the 3 in boxes 2 and 5.

[@eefaaf]

Yeah, when he started to talk about the 3s I immediately thought he saw the one 3 in box that would rule out both 3 pencil marks in box 5, solving the 3s in both boxes. But at some point he started to completely ignore his pencil marks and to (*GASP*) only use sudoku!

[@nulldiamonddragon7094]

That low hanging fruit tortured me for 15 minutes

[@eefaaf]

@@nulldiamonddragon7094 :)

[@Kglëüghb]

​@@nulldiamonddragon7094 Same!

[@gi0nbecell]

@@eefaafNot really. Using the pencilmarks _is_ inherently using Sudoku. Simon, however, opts for the most convoluted logical bounces possible even if Sudoku was available. There is another, even lower hanging fruit at around the same time: The moment the 7 in box 2 is placed it shifted the pencilmarks for 2 in box 2 into r1/2c4 removing the possible 2 in r8c4. This in turn places 2s in r7c6 and r6c5. I wrote this several times: It is remarkable how resiliently Simon refuses to acknowledge his own logic by abandoning a logic chain midway through, completely ignoring his pencilmarks (or their implications on, well, Sudoku) and forgetting his own deductions (unless they are as complicated as humanly possible). Yet, still, I would never be able to solve most of those puzzles in any time close to him. It usually takes me between 1.5 and twice as long as him - I think in all these years of watching CtC I only „beat“ him once, by about 5 minutes (and this was a puzzle he reset the clock at the start of the solve, so it is genuine). This was only possible as his explanations were a bit time consuming and he again managed to ignore blatantly obvious Sudoku implications for about 6 minutes straight - I know why I seldom watch Mark‘s solves (he is just frighteningly efficient) and why I basically never attempt puzzles that take Simon more than 90 minutes - I simply don‘t have the time at hand to brood over a single Sudoku puzzle for 3 or more hours (sadly).

[@MarushiaDark316]

Simon becoming Pencil Mark today. I'm going to argue that actually coloring wouldn't have helped him this time since it would have required him keeping track of which color relates to which number and there's more information to be gained from the numbers themselves - like "three can't go before one" for instance - that color wouldn't provide.

[@nulldiamonddragon7094]

Me: Staring down the pencilmarked two's in box 2 for 15 minutes, and Simon finding the box 8 "2" restrictions in the most round about way possible is definitely something this channel does well

[@CowCommando]

Same for me and the three in box 2 being forced by knights move logic.

[@VecheslavNovikov]

Not to mention the 3 in box 5 that's been sitting there for 30 minutes just waiting.

[@paragonca9736]

That is absolutely beautiful... Every single box, reading from left to right, top to bottom, follows the sequence 1,3,5,7,9,2,4,6,8 looping back on itself, with various starting points within the sequence. Absolutely stunning

[@ronjohnson6916]

My experience with Miracle Sudokus is that it can be tricky to get started but once you actually get a grip they're so highly constrained that you can usually at least grind your way through.

[@qazwiz]

i noticed the trick of originalMiracle so fast i think i can repeat it within 5 minutes of my first solve

[@darcyglavine5860]

Yahh.. once i see the roping its hard for me not to use it to solve.. i know in every box Z digit always follows Y digit, which follows X

[@andrewgrant6516]

As soon as the rules mentioned odd numbered boxes, I started counting the seconds until Simon said Quincunx. 4! 4seconds. Peak Simon.

[@iceberg54321]

57:00 Simon got so involved in coloring that he forgot the 3's were placed in box 2 and 5 by knights move.

[@nickstocker]

I spotted that too with box 5. Great watch.

[@stevieinselby]

Quite. There is absolutely no reason or rationale at all to colouring known digits _unless_ it is to do one digit at a time to make it easier to spot patterns like this. If you're not even going to use that information when it is staring you in the face, all that colouring does here is make the puzzle more confusing and harder to solve.

[@iceberg54321]

@@stevieinselby It does make some of Simon's solves hard to follow, and sometimes frustrating, but you can feel along with how his very quick mind works, which is fun.

[@petterfjeldstad3163]

The three in box five was available for so long. I was sure he was going to spot it when he worked with the threes, but no.

[@petterfjeldstad3163]

The three in box five was available for so long. I was sure he was going to spot it when he worked with the threes, but no.

[@Blazico]

I haven't watched the video yet, but when the grid first appeared on the screen, I burst out laughing! I love miracle sudoku's.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Another *cosmic-class* sudoku masterfully solved on CTC❗That's a miracle that has been happening almost every day for years. Sometimes even twice a day. 🏆

[@Adramelek14]

Just started watching the video. Started the puzzle and quickly got lost. But it always makes me feel better when Simon at least starts the same way I did!

[@Adramelek14]

Once Simon pointed out the trick with Knights move when two digits are straddling a boundary and went back and completed it. Took nearly two hours. Like the opposite of a fog puzzle. Know idea where to look specifically so took ages to find the little simple steps to allow progress.

[@ericpraline1302]

Revenge indeed. I missed a lot on this and one and laboured through it but I persevered which is always a sign of an enthralling puzzle, thanks, and surprising it solves with just one black dot. I found what I think was a nicer way of resolving the central cell which Simon bypassed.

[@craigyoung8008]

The most useful thing to notice in this puzzle is the interaction of *odd digits* in boxes 1, 3, 7, and 9. First across the rows, consider the boxes that see each other. (1, 3) and (7, 9) * One box on each side gets its odd digits in the two upper rows, and the other in the two lower rows. * In the case of box-1, the black dot forces 9 into row 3, at the earliest. * Therefore, in box-1 the odd digits occupy the lower two rows, whereas in box-3 they occupy the upper two rows. * And in particular r3c1-3 is 5, 7, 9. We can also examine the interaction between boxes that see each other vertically (1, 7 now) and (3, 9 later). * The 9 in box-1 takes it out of column 3 in box-7, which is more impactful than it would first appear. * If the odd digits occupy the upper two rows of box-7, they have only one arrangement. Specifically, the first 5 cells of the box. * Similarly, if they occupy the two lower rows of box-7, they again have only one arrangement - cells 4-8 of the box. * Therefore, each *odd digit* in box-7 is in one of two positions, in vertical alignment, ruling it out of the rest of the column. * E.g. 1 is in r7c1 or r8c1 ruling it out of r2c1 in box-1 and placing 1, and 3 in r2c2-3 respectively. * Also, 9 is now ruled out of the rest column-2. So, combined with the knight move constraint from the 9 in box-1 restricts 9 to either r5c1 or r6c1 in box-4. NOTE: The exact same logic will apply for the interactions between boxes 3 and 9 as soon as the 9 is placed in r2c9. This simplifies a number of deductions that Simon chipped away using knights move constraints. E.g. 5 in box-7 is in column 3. Therefore, in box-4 it's restricted to r4c2 or r6c2. Also, as soon as you've placed the 9 r2c9, the resulting arrangement of odd digits in box-9, includes a 1 in column 7. Even though we don't whether that's row 7 or 8, it rules out 1 from r1c7. Therefore 1, 3, 5, and 7 can also be placed in cells 2-5 of box 3, in order.

[@Patient-049]

Every single box in this consists of a shifted version of [2,4,6,8,1,3,5,7,9] in order. For example, in box 2, this same string of numbers has been shifted one row down, and the 5,7,9 wraps back to the top. You can go through and do this with all the boxes.

[@ianoz1]

I really regret getting roped into this. Genius setting.

[@JoRo-hw8dl]

As always kudos to you Simon, and i didn‘t realise how much my brain is used to colours until you did „full“ pencil mark 😮 thanks for the solve

[@jinxedidols7108]

I often use this channel to fall asleep, but I couldn't sleep cause I spent 30 minutes screaming at my monitor for Simon to notice the 3's available in boxes 2 and 5 by knight's move.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 08:47 Let's Get Cracking: 12:27 Simon's time: 1h1m42s Puzzle Solved: 1:14:09 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 2x (23:37, 1:00:52) Three In the Corner: 2x (57:15, 1:08:51) Maverick: 2x (19:03, 19:07) ​Scooby-Doo: 1x (27:39) The Secret: 1x (1:08:58) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Pencil Mark/mark: 25x (14:51, 15:52, 15:54, 16:27, 16:52, 17:13, 19:47, 23:33, 25:10, 30:58, 31:18, 32:14, 35:06, 38:21, 38:49, 38:59, 40:57, 42:52, 57:33, 59:06, 1:00:26, 1:01:37, 1:03:32, 1:07:57, 1:14:59) Ah: 18x (21:43, 25:33, 26:46, 29:10, 29:33, 29:33, 29:33, 31:43, 33:38, 35:13, 38:13, 41:03, 41:03, 41:08, 44:07, 47:33, 49:38, 1:08:18) Hang On: 16x (14:08, 20:34, 21:43, 24:46, 29:33, 29:47, 29:47, 32:12, 42:01, 42:01, 42:01, 42:29, 47:40, 49:15, 1:06:43, 1:12:55) Sorry: 12x (06:04, 20:43, 23:04, 25:02, 29:00, 29:59, 30:40, 33:00, 35:52, 38:45, 1:02:16, 1:03:21) Weird: 9x (01:24, 12:18, 26:40, 29:25, 35:10, 40:31, 1:05:20, 1:14:06, 1:14:47) Symmetry: 7x (14:45, 14:47, 15:32, 17:32, 18:25, 42:03, 43:02) Bother: 5x (32:31, 33:00, 47:33, 51:30, 1:03:13) In Fact: 5x (02:00, 13:25, 29:33, 33:15, 56:19) Beautiful: 4x (02:45, 04:15, 23:56, 40:29) Brilliant: 4x (08:06, 35:44, 58:08, 1:14:20) By Sudoku: 4x (13:59, 37:00, 1:01:23, 1:12:01) Obviously: 4x (03:18, 04:27, 09:06, 48:49) What Does This Mean?: 4x (24:46, 27:30, 39:12, 1:05:07) The Answer is: 3x (13:35, 38:07, 41:45) Bingo: 3x (45:29, 45:29, 54:13) Lovely: 3x (03:55, 07:22, 19:52) Goodness: 2x (52:33, 1:03:21) Nonsense: 2x (42:32, 58:18) I Have no Clue: 2x (47:51, 52:33) Bizarre: 2x (55:45, 55:51) Cake!: 2x (06:15, 07:14) Unique: 2x (00:54, 01:41) Useless: 1x (1:03:03) Naked Single: 1x (1:10:02) In the Spotlight: 1x (1:08:54) Fascinating: 1x (1:14:26) Ridiculous: 1x (10:12) First Digit: 1x (31:23) Going Mad: 1x (43:02) Hypothecate: 1x (56:58) Famous Last Words: 1x (1:07:20) Disappointing: 1x (59:02) Unbelievable: 1x (47:11) Full stop: 1x (21:09) Which Means What?: 1x (1:05:03) Progress: 1x (15:49) Wow: 1x (1:06:14) Losing my Army: 1x (33:38) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Seventy Nine (4 mentions) One (115 mentions) Black (19 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Even (43) - Odd (27) Black (19) - White (2) Row (15) - Column (7) 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! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[@niyazali7983]

I'm really hoping 'quincunx' can become a 'Simarkism' soon??? 😁

[@myfyrmadocjones]

Full horizontal and vertical roping too.

[@kevinharris9054]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before (but I don't see it on a quick scan), Simon misses the key point when he gets the 2 9s in boxes 1 and 3. It means in one of box 7 or 9 there has to be one 9 in the middle cell (r8c2 or r8c8) as there has to be a 9 in row 8. This means one box is 135-79e-eee (e being any even digit), which then means the other box is eee-135-79e. This places all the odd digits in a vertical domino in boxes 7 and 9, and the puzzle more or less collapses at this point.

[@coolpapabell22]

Yeah, the global thinking like that is hard to do. I am slightly maddened that he doesn't finish the odds in Box 7 as soon as he places the 1, despite all the pencil marks. :D

[@bluerizlagirl]

In the odd boxes, you have to partition the digits {1, 3, 5, 7, 9} across only two rows for Sudoku to work in the rows; and you have to split them in turn into {1, 3} / {5, 7, 9} and {1, 3, 5} / {7, 9} to make Sudoku work in the rows. This forces roping in rows 1-3 and 7-9, and the black dot comes into play. Then you can think about the even boxes, and box 5 is bound to take care of itself eventually.

[@kilimanjarocruz660]

Lovely. That seems to be true for boxes 1, 2, 3 and 7, 8, 9. Great spot.

[@drewskavich]

That’s actually the approach I followed while setting.

[@craigyoung8008]

This isn't quite enough to confirm the roping yet. Once we've confirmed box-1 uses the {1, 3} / {5, 7, 9} arrangement, we still don't know which arrangement box-3 uses. However, once we've placed 9 in box-3 (r2c9), we can't place box-9's 9 in col-9. So, box-9 must use the {1, 3, 5} / {7, 9} arrangement. This places the 1 for box-9, into column-7. Which in turn prevents box-3 from using the same arrangement. And we can now immediately place the {1, 3} / {5, 7, 9} arrangement in cells 2-6 of box-3. Only now that boxes 1 and 3 use the same arrangement, roping is confirmed. Similarly, boxes 7 and 9 both use the alternate arrangement, and roping is confirmed.

[@Apterygidae]

Miracle Sudoku's are my favourites and once again I had a blast playing this one! Got it in 61 minutes 13 seconds, so I managed to just barely beat out Simon!

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 99:57 minutes. I think the most fun thing about doing miracle-like puzzles are figuring out the meta in which the operate. This one was real fun by looking the limitation of where digits could sit in a box, because it also affected those digit in front and behind themselves. I think my favorite part was using the 5's in box 9 as an anchor point for looking at different branches they formed. It caused some limitations that forced only one of them to work. That was such a fun calculation, but it did take me a while to see it. Great Puzzle!

[@Xiuhtec]

Solved in 34:21 which I'm surprised to have done so much faster than Simon but it was a really fun and beautiful puzzle. I used all pencil marks instead of coloring but did it in a nonstandard way (just center marked all possible odd candidates in the odd boxes, easier to read than corner marks, but kept in mind any even was also possible at that stage unless a box became empty, which then forced it even). Loved how the logic flowed across and down the board from the singular black dot forcing the 579, and really after a couple realizations (can't have a top row 1 with a bottom row 9 if another odd box is in the same row) it practically solved itself (even before I noticed the roping).

[@Meh-y6t]

I solved the same way but it took me a couple hours to break out of the top row of boxes.

[@bobbie0976]

The year of sudoku is starting strong! Great miracle we got here!

[@malvoliosf]

*Jedi* transport?!? That was a *Jawa* sandcrawler.

[@craigyoung8008]

I thought he was referring to the top of an All-Terrain Armoured Transport, or AT-AT.

[@malvoliosf]

@@craigyoung8008 It looked closer to a Sandcrawler to me, but what can you do with 9x9 graphics. In either case, though, *no Jedi involved.*

[@craigyoung8008]

@@malvoliosf Obviously Jedi is a misattribution. But a Sandcrawler is more like a rhombus with the with the top-right corner dragged up and to further to the right. Certainly not a flat top. Yes, 9x9 is not much good for representing anything. And as with clouds, different people will have different pareidolia interpretations. I still think Simon was intending to refer to the AT-ATs.

[@zacharyhall2012]

This one is a legit miracle. Every single deduction I did was so beautiful and surprising but made sense in retrospect. Some puzzles transform the way you look at a sudoku board!

[@stangerrits6712]

Over three years of watching this channel, but this is the first time I see Simon putting 5 corner marks in a single cell I think :)

[@titusadduxas]

53:19 - That was brilliant. Amazing idea, and a beautiful construction.

[@cjbarthvdm]

Very clever elegant rule set creating an outstanding puzzle. Thanks!

[@michaelhoffman2011]

That was fantastic... took me 52 minutes, a really brilliant puzzle

[@freddezzo]

I'm sure there's a smart and interesting reason why but I love how every box had the sequence "1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8" just with different start and end points! Almost like separating the digits into odd and even in each box was the only way to satisfy both the odd/even box rule and the knight rule

[@thisisanexcellenthandle]

Wow i did not realize that myself and now I’m super intrigued! I’d be so glad if someone could explain it. I feel like it probably has a simple explanation but idk what and I am very curious.

[@t0wnmap]

@@freddezzo i have only tried setting a puzzle once, I was really with a restriction that is similar to your second sentence, it was whatever digit was in the center of each box, if it was odd, all odd digits had to touch in that box, and if it was even all even digits had to touch in that box, I never finished setting it but I always thought it was very cool.

[@janerobson2297]

Not so much roping as snaking! Yup there will be a maths answer I just don't know what it is.

[@awebmate]

Of all the miracle sudokus, this one is the biggest miracle.

[@zacharyhall2012]

Yes!!!! I completely agree, it’s beautiful

[@michaelbraxner7781]

Honestly ... It's Orange for Odd numbers because Orange begins with 'O', and Blue for Even numbers, because Blue ends with 'E' ... so, yeah ... totally obvious ;-)

[@jimmyh2137]

So you're saying Orange for Even numbers because orange ends with "E"? Got it.

[@michaelbraxner7781]

@@jimmyh2137 Exactly, it's totally obvious.

[@sealed2mybff]

I did not expect this one to be as much fun as it is, and I'm watching the video and being blown away at what things i caught way earlier than Simon. But i also got stuck on a few parts and needed help, so I'm not counting this as a solo win, but i still love it. I had that 975 in box 1 in just 3 minutes, and figured out the 3 in box 5 based on the logic he said about the 1's and 8's in boxes 2 and 5. I'm seriously blown away that he didn't catch that, honestly, cause that's the sort of thing he usually would. He's the one that got me thinking like that. After that 3, it was kinda like dominoes knocking down the rest of the way. Anyhow, I'm quite please with my solve of 56:50 He said there are 330 solves. This is a testament to how awesome the ctc crowd is, because he posted about 10 hours ago, and I'm solver 1617.

[@A_CC_K]

Best way to spend a snowly evening, watching CtC. A Quincunx again! Great, my new favourite word.

[@Steev42]

For a miracle, I thought this was pretty approachable. Just over two hours with a couple of false starts due to bad logic. What finally gave me a break-in was the realization that the odd boxes 1,3,7,9 all look at each other, and couldn't spread the odds over 3 rows in any box. So there had to be a 1-3-5 and 7-9 or 1-3 and 5-7-9, and there couldn't be a blank line in between them. Things started flowing a bit after that.

[@ilsekleibscheidel7219]

I used a similar logic, but it did't flow right away. It took me quite a lot of time to solve even after that deduction.

[@ilsekleibscheidel7219]

ok, I restarted using this method more systematically and indeed, it went much more smooth than in my first solve.

[@KrisCadwell]

lol I almost expected confetti to pop out when Simon placed the 5 in box 5

[@rook8472]

I hope you have a great today! Thanks for all the fun videos

[@vjay4297]

Thank you... I really appreciate your videos and would like to express my sincere gratitude to the creators for their exceptional work.

[@SrCoelhoPT]

56:37 for me, with initial help from you simon! love your videos! first time i cracked the puzzle without your guidance, hopefully i can learn more from u!

[@PassionPopsicle]

Oh, it's been a while since a proper miracle sudoku! And the ruleset isn't even that long, but very interesting

[@minamagdy4126]

Fun fact, the rule per box is a dual to the regular thermo rule, where you know how many digits are there and are trying to find which cells in their order are part of the thermo rather than vice versa. Obviously, it's digits that still determine order, but the digits and cells almost swap logic compared to thermos. An interesting consequence is that goodliffing here takes the form of corner marks vs normally center marks.

[@PassionPopsicle]

My simpler mind went the thermo-esque route as well - deleting the nines in box three pushed all the other digits back too. Which was about the only thing I spotted before losing track of everything and coming to a complete halt 😂

[@dustpan5356]

Something I noticed that helped me, is that in a knights move puzzle you can’t have a triple next to itself across a box border. So for instance, when Simon had 138 in box 3 (row 3) he couldn’t have 138 in box 5 (row 4). Since he knew 1 & 8 were in those cells, 3 gets pushed down to row 5 of box 5.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

18:38 for me. Quite impressed that this somehow works. Interesting ruleset!

[@CrankyOtter]

This was more interesting than the “usual” miracle sudokus in that it falls out but non-trivially. I don’t think colors early on would have helped. Finishing more 3s and carrying thru logic sequences would have helped more. Still & all an interesting solve.

[@stevieinselby]

Colours would categorically *not* have helped. Colouring known digits is a horrible way to solve a puzzle.

[@sealed2mybff]

I have to save Simon's puzzles for when i have lots of time, cause i find them more difficult. As a result, i haven't done a solve with Simon in a hot minute! It's just after midnight, everyone else is asleep, and I'm gonna try to tackle this one!

[@CauchyIntegralFormula]

50m41s. This was lovely logic all the way through. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering if the grid was going to be antisymmetric or whether the Kropki forced nonantisymmetry!

[@Swisswavey]

A really nice puzzle, just the right level of difficulty 👍

[@BozoTheBear]

Absolutely loved this puzzle, thanks Simon and apetersen!

[@Antiknight]

Great puzzle with lovely deductions especially at the start!

[@SmallTwo921]

I always love how Simon takes "Normal Soduku Rule" as plan B when solving Soduku puzzle. The Plan A always be using logic :D

[@charlievelan7939]

I love how the three in box 5 was available for 40 minutes based on knights move and his pencil marks THAT HE HAD HIGHLIGHTED, but Simon went so far around it he had to use a different three and knight's move to find it.

[@hrenes]

Would I only have 5 % of Simon's brainpower :) I am breathless after this entertaining solve, it's magic!!

[@BozoTheBear]

At 56:00, I think Simon articulated the exact reason he is so great at these puzzles: You have to ask the right question at the right time. This is why we (sometimes) feel smarter watching the solves - Simon asks a question, and we can often think of the answer. But thinking of the right question is the tricky part! Mark does this as well - eg, "Where is the 7 in row 4?"

[@57thorns]

2:45 I just love it when I look at a problem like that and immediately see what has to be done, and with a move in two, it quickly became obvious what the solution is.

[@AnnaVahtera]

The funniest thing is Simon following ONE pencilmark when getting a digit, but then NOT seeing the other one and spending much more time and proving the other digit via some very obscure routes. I laughed aloud at around the 50min mark when Simon got the sevens, and then promptly ignored the twos when one of the sevens just replaced a two pencilmark.

[@matthiasney4871]

This puzzle is so beautiful because almost everything is set up NOT to overuse Sudoku to solve. Simon early worked out that either in box 1 or 3, the odd sequence would have to begin in r2, and in the other box it would have to end in r2. This, basically, was the miracle here. The same would apply in boxes 7 and 9, it would apply in a slightly less constraint way for the even sequences in boxes 4 and 6. Once you spotted this, the puzzle was mainly logic with only few Sudoku and Knights move conciderations, and filled in almost from itsself. I think Simon would have enjoyed it even more, had he followed this logic instead of following colors and pencil marks.

[@ronemod249]

Three in box 2&5, dont know how they go, yes i do know. Continues coloring and forgets about the threes

[@sealed2mybff]

I'm at 43:45 in the video, willing Simon to look at the 3's in boxes 2 and 5. I know he'll get to it eventually, cause he's brilliant, I'm just very excited that I caught it earlier, and without any help!

[@janerobson2297]

Actually he didn't! It was a knights move from box 6 that he used! Much much later.

[@janerobson2297]

But well done for spotting it!

[@Kradlum]

A quincunx, and horizontal and vertical roping!

[@obsidi2]

Faster way @57:08: You have pushed 9 out of the bottom right corner of boxes 7 and 9. That pushes 5 to the top 2 rows of boxes 7-9, which means 5 is in row 9 in box 8, where it pairs with the 1 and sets 8 to be in column 6 row 8 of box 8. That causes massive implications.

[@craigyoung8008]

The 9 in box-3 actually allows placing all odd digits in box-3. By ruling 9 out of column-9 in box-9, the odd digits in box-9 must be arranged {1, 3, 7} / {5, 9} over two adjacent rows. (If you tried taking up 3 rows, you'll break the odd digits in box-7.) This in turn rules 1 out of column-7 in box-3. So, the odd digits in box-1 must be arranged {1, 3} / {5, 7, 9} over the first two rows.

[@darkpheonix77]

That had been true for 7 mins. He had removed the 9 which pushed 7s down then he just stopped noting doing the 5s!

[@chocolateboy300]

Hello Simon, Brantley is my nephew. Thanks for shouting him out. I hope to show him this and perhaps inspire him to do more sudokus (and perhaps some more $5.00). Smiley Face Emoji.

[@RichSmith77]

Nah, don't use Brantley. He overcharges. I can do your sudokus for you for $4... 😂

[@raccomunk1717]

For every position within a 3x3 box, if you read from top to bottom, then left to right, the digits are all in ascending order. Thought that was neat.

[@ningeek212]

Solved in 16:32, very surprised to have solved it that quickly. Really enjoyed the combo of the ordering rule with knights move, finding which possibilities led to impossibilities was very fun!

[@GamerDuDimanche1456]

I usually don't comment on videos but I make exceptions on content I really like. I absolutely love the content you and Mark put out every day. Something that does make me tick though is calling left to right, up to down 'normal' reading order. It is in most of the western world, but it's not the case, especially in other cultures. I find number puzzles such as sudoku (and their variants) wonderful, because you don't need to share a language in order to engage in them. Would it be possible to word the rules including reading order slightly differently ? I hope I am not making too much of a fuss over a small detail.

[@gatlygat]

Fantastic puzzle. Lots of fun. Thanks

[@JalebJay]

I think an important thing that would save time in the solve of this is noting that 9 can't go in R9C1 or R9C7 as it would repeat 7 in r8. (Also does the same for 1 in R1C3/R1C9, but I don't believe it would have helped much in the solve). Thinking about it more: You can eliminate 1 from column 3 in b7/9 as well, so you have 1s (and 7s) in R456C39 and 3s (and 9s) in R456C17

[@berend5766]

Thank you so much for all the videos!

[@TheVillan1980]

38:14 The pencil marked 2's in box 5: "Are we a joke to you?" 😉

[@theduck3072]

"my little brain" as he solves a sudoku puzzle with nothing but a dot and rules

[@davidhughes7174]

Thank you Simon, another enjoyable solve.

[@EnPee91]

That type of chess position is called a "zugzwang" which is German for "compulsion to move". Basically, black has no good moves, so if white just moves the rook to a6, you force black to make a bad move and they lose.

[@RichSmith77]

Unless you move rook to a6 though, black can push their a pawn to a6, and then white cannot complete the mate in 2. Rook to a6 forces black to move their bishop instead, allowing rook to a7 mate (or pawn takes rook on a6, allowing white b7 mate).

[@EnPee91]

@@RichSmith77 I missed that detail, thanks. I’ve edited my comment.

[@benjaminclegg7109]

43:18 Didn't Simon prove at this point right here that the 3 has to be in box 5, digit 4, because it cannot be in the first row of box 5 anymore?

[@ScottyP_OG]

@@benjaminclegg7109 yes and the same applies to 5 being dead centre at 54:00

[@bryanhickernell7189]

Me: stares at 3 in box 2 and 5 for most of the video Simon I love your solves you’ve helped me so much with logic with things

[@Rubrickety]

I finally solved this one. Astonishing puzzle.

[@MaierFlorian]

Simon: falls in love with quincunx. People: find and suggest quincunx puzzles. 😁

[@patrickburns2274]

THE YEAR OF THE QUINCUNX

[@craigyoung8008]

Seems appropriate for a year that has 5² as a factor.

[@bigben0012]

A nice piece of logic I haven't seen elsewhere in the comments that could have been applied at a few points in the solve, such as at 41:46: You can never have identical triples in consecutive rows immediately above or below each other. So if there is a triple at the bottom (or top) edge of the box, like the 138 triple in row 3, then it is impossible for there to also be a 138 triple immediately below it in row 4. If there was, then both digits on the edges of the top 138 triple would have to go in the center square of the 138 triple below it, due to the knight's move. So since we already have 1 and 8 locked into those three squares below the 138 triple, the 3 cannot also go there and thus can be placed in R5C4.

[@stangerrits6712]

I really don't think colouring would have worked better here. How on earth would you remember what colour you've used for what digit? You would substitute the five odd numbers with some arbitrary colours, and then somehow need to remember in what order they go.

[@tobiasreckinger2212]

I always thought it was an exaggeration that people would scream at the screen sometimes on your videos. But this time I really did that. From time 39:40 the 3 in R5C4 was available because you couldn't put all of 1,3,8 in columns 4,5,6 in row 3 and 4 at the same time. It took 32 minutes until you put that 3 there. It was really agonizing for me.

[@craigyoung8008]

That's a brilliant deduction, that I've never noticed about the knight's move constraint before. Two adjacent rows/columns on an edge can't have the exact same composition of digits. Because each corner digit forces the same digit to take the middle cell of the other row/column. At most they can have a 2-digit overlap with the impact that led to Simon highlighting the purple cells in the first place.

[@EkuuleusNorth]

Great puzzle. Over an hour for me.

[@НабокаДарина]

Yey another quincunx 🤣🤣 Now I want a T-shirt with this word

[@A_CC_K]

I would buy that so quickly.

[@TheBioRules]

The other way to prove the middle box middle cell that I'd found much earlier (in fact it was my first digit): We have it down to 4,5, or 6. If it was 4, that means in boxes 2 and 8, the 4 needs to be in cells 4 and 6 (following our reading order). If it was placed in cell 6, it would be too late in those boxes, because it would put 1,3,6, and 8 into the 3 cells at the bottom. So the middle digit can't be 4, and by the same reasoning it can't be 6, which would put 2,4,7, and 9 into the top row of one of those boxes. So the middle digit must be 5.

[@srwapo]

76:39, had to get help pencil marking in box 5, I wasn't seeing how 1 and 9 were being limited over there. I was surprised to see the very similar patterned of the odd digits in boxes 7 and 9.

[@adamheywood113]

I just don't see how to even start this, besides guesswork. I think I can pencilmark 9 in the top three boxes, and maybe 7 in box one, but after that I'm dry On to the solve, and I'm not complaining about having to watch one of the best channels on KZbin

[@dwebb2805]

it's so funny that simon's brain somehow does sudoku better using colors than using numbers, when their function is literally exactly the same

[@piarittersporn]

Brilliant puzzle.

[@PathOfShrines]

A lot of cool ideas here. 35:23 for me. I seem to have mostly just applied the ordering reasoning much faster than you did, Simon, most notably to start placing digits in box 1. I do think you got lost in your Goodliffing a bit!

[@Gnarlf]

Your sisters friends sound like they are boring at parties, Simon. You are magnificent human being. Let noone ever tell you otherwise.

[@Cassiebsg2]

Typical Simon, places a 1 in box 7 (1:07:00), and then ignores his pencil marks, that would have placed 3, 5, 7 and 9 in the box. :D, Then a few minutes laters places 3 and 5, ignores the pencil marks again, and labels the bottom cells, 279.... And then solves the box by knights move from box 8! :_D Not to say I would have done better, mind you, took me x4 Simon's time. Love to watch these videos. Keep them coming. :)

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

I started and saw some of the logic with the centre boxes being influenced by the left and right boxes, but couldn't get very far, so I'm just going to watch Simon.

[@christianmcneill699]

The placement of 5 in the middle could be gained earlier, because of the possible location 4's & 6's in boxed 2 & 8. 6 can't go in cell 4 of box 2 because 2& 4 would need to go in row 1 and there is only one . This means that there is on xwing on 6's in columns 5 & 6. And the same logic applies to 4 in column 4 & 5. Both ruled out 4 & 6 in column 5 leaving am interesting logic that ruled out all numbers from the centre cell except 5.

[@jonkess2768]

43:48 at this point 3 can already be placed in the middle box by the same rule that created the 1/8 pair there cant be also double 3 in those two trinominos because those two cells would now be 1/8/3 which is impossible so the only remaining cell in the box is now row 5 column 4.

[@jacob9692]

When i did the puzzle i realized 2 things 1. Looping and 2. Repeating of numbers sequence when i had 1/4 of the puzzle solved than i just used that for my benefit and finished it

[@Kairamek]

7:50 Simon as a Dwarf. How appropriate for The Hobbit hunt.

[@GregDorn]

Like so many miracles, we again got both horizontal and vertical roping and disjoint subset on positions. I wonder if it could be logically proven by the rules in this one.

[@stuartmcconnachie]

7:40 Simon doing his Superman impression.