Maximum Break(-in)

[@emilywilliams3237]

I am pretty sure I had already watched this video a couple of years ago, but this time I decided to try the puzzle - and I did it in less than 30 minutes. I feel absolutely certain that even 6 months ago I would not have been that quick at it. This was a great video and solve, Mark, and I am glad I came here on my tour of older videos.

[@wanderlustwarrior]

13:20 I'm really happy with that! And not just because my time was 4 consecutive digits in any order.

[@BozoTheBear]

43:50 for me - should have waited 6 more seconds!

[@bitzibaerlie]

43:22 for me. Just a second off.

[@57thorns]

Took me 41 minutes. But I have a feeling I would have been utterly stumped if I had seen something like this a year ago.

[@57thorns]

I did begin with the two arrows on row 2, if I had seen row 8 first it would have been much easier.

[@57thorns]

11:07 Of course, it can't be a one or a 2 either, which means there is no 7 in r2c5. Which was perhaps my first deduction.

[@gordonglenn2089]

I would enjoy seeing more puzzles of this (moderate) difficulty. A fun 30 minutes or so.

[@dgdiggz3918]

Hey Mark!! Fantastic videos as always. Small request. My friend Remy and I were hoping you could do more puzzles that don't involve sums. Like chess constraints, consecutive constraints, palindromic constraints, etc. We're more visual, so we tend to like those more!!

[@missioncardiac7599]

I second that!

[@paulbelanger7383]

I'm just gonna keep sharing my method here, haven't joined the discord for reasons. CRaB TAB. Column Row and Box. Thermos Arrows Basics. (Or boxes.) By this I mean, my method of checking after each number I figure out. Takes seconds, and helps every time.

[@TiagoMorbusSa]

What a tremendous puzzle, you absolutely demolished it!

[@davidhughes7174]

smashing

[@srwapo]

22:34, this seems like a puzzle Mark would really excel at.

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

Rules: 3:28 Let's get cracking: 5:05

[@phs125]

I grossly misunderstood the rules and thought "consecutive digits in any order" meant, it could be 1234 or 4321. Because obviously, otherwise it's not consecutive digits. It went smoothly for a long time until it didn't...

[@briannelson605]

Thumbnail is on point

[@Coyotek4]

11:28 - One of my fastest solves in some time. Nice puzzle!

[@boydegg]

Took me 45 minutes but I'm always delighted if I can crack an Aad puzzle. They're usually very challenging for me.

[@treasureboxgaming7109]

Same Brian! these puzzles are always interesting but once it gets to star 4 or 5 I seem lost on how to even get a digit in.

[@FabianPyka]

i appreciate the snooker reference as the world championship just ended like an hour ago

[@MeganCachiotti]

Mark’s thumbnails are always everything!

[@geoff544]

Another clever snooker-based puzzle. Glad I didn't take your previous tip! ;)

[@catnip420]

10 given digits? Given digits at all? Wow Aad van de Wetering is generous!

[@Raven-Creations]

Very classy setting as usual from Aad, but quite easy which is nothing like as usual. There was a lovely flow to the logic, with my solve being almost identical to Mark's.

[@markp7262]

14:23 finish. Never been a snooker player myself, though we have a pub in town with a table. Fortunately this was more math than snooker. :-D

[@grahamrskelly6042]

I loved the break in, maybe because it was hard enough but It felt so good when I found it. :)

[@LednacekZ]

13:13 on this one. Quite an approachable sudoku.

[@rbase96]

20:30 ! Expected to take a lot longer but after eliminating a digit in the top right box everything fell into place

[@AngryViking234]

28:34, nice relaxing bedtime treat

[@ilkkasiiki1115]

That was nice, took me 30 minutes to solve... Now watching the video to see if there's another way around it

[@ErikVanGeit]

8:56 "what can this Selby?"

[@davidhughes7174]

lovely, puzzle and solve. well played Sir.

[@kellwillsen]

Beautiful puzzle.

[@jm56z43]

Very nice puzzle. Took me about an hour to complete (without looking at the video at all)

[@madsohm]

39:16. Proud of myself for this one.

[@thedavecwright]

At last! Three false starts... But attempt 4 in about 45mins. Very happy. Satisfying puzzle 😁

[@raineca]

There was a 3 in the corner, losing its religion!

[@Anivacuum]

Woooph! Thirty-two minutes for me. Nice puzzle!

[@teruokun-us]

Finished in 8:23! Guess I’m having a good sudoku day :-)

[@charlesarnold4963]

I enjoyed that very much. It only took me 76 mins.

[@bristolrovers27]

Nice solve of a pleasant puzzle

[@ericveneto1593]

Remember Mark: you have a significant USA audience. I live near Boston, for example.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Hello, neighbor -- I'm in Boston myself. No better place to live!

[@bristolrovers27]

Is that Boston Lincolnshire ?

[@Anne_Mahoney]

@@bristolrovers27 No -- its daughter city, Boston, Massachusetts. We do remember our roots, though: we have a St. Botolph Street (and I even lived there briefly some 40 years ago). But I think Cambridge (in Cambridgeshire) may have been a larger influence on our local founders.

[@adamheywood113]

Gave it a go, spotted the first same things as Mark but I didn't get very far Hey, if I solve this one, that'll be my one-per-week already met

[@DougBolden]

Not sure of exact time because I closed out the puzzle and then came back to finish it so it reset, but some time under 30 minutes. The logic of the special rules I got mostly along the way, but then jammed up near the end on the more traditional sudoku bits and had to slow down, which seems appropriate.

[@benjaminrealy5661]

22nd solve. 28:27.

[@dwarfigplays9806]

Nice one! 25:53 for me.

[@werefrogofassyria6609]

Another great solve. A request, though: When there is a marking in the grid that doesn't have rules associated with it, please explicitly state the marking is there for flavour only. The Werefrog went over the rules a couple times to verify the green wasn't mentioned before starting.

[@glennmelven3414]

Mark does mention it late. 5:19 For me, if it is not mentioned in the rules I assume it aesthetic.

[@werefrogofassyria6609]

@@glennmelven3414 Yes, and that was nice. The Werefrog don't start the video, though, until after The Werefrog have tried the puzzle. The Werefrog only listen to the explanation of rules in the video of the rules written don't make sense.

[@Jennicello]

14 minutes for me...really enjoyable solve 😄

[@kslingsby]

Nice puzzle, very neat. Just wish we could have a bit less time on the introductory blurb, and a bit more on the explanations during the solve. And of course the check button!

[@davidh.4944]

Mark tends to under-explain things, while Simon over-explains them. I guess that's balance, of a sort. 😏

[@everythingcoffee8901]

So I've been thinking about a new puzzle type and trying to get it to work, this is the sort of thing I should probably put on the discord but I don't have it so whatever I'll just put this here I don't quite know the easiest way to explain it: For any three consecutive cells (in a line, not like in an L shape) the difference between them cannot be the same. Like 1-2-3 would not be acceptable because 2-1 and 3-2 are the same. (As though the numbers loop, so it also can't be 2-1-9 because 2-1 and 1-9 are the same in a loop, as 1 and 9 would be right next to each other?) I don't know if that makes sense but I'm wondering if it's even possible for a sudoku to fulfill that, I keep trying and it always breaks (then again, the same thing often happens when I try to make puzzles, so idk)

[@Sibula]

32:40, not bad.

[@chaosenergy1990]

I have a question: Are there any (standard) sudoku puzzles that you personally have failed to solve and given up? I mean proper ones that are actually solvable by a human. I’m a beginner, so I’m asking is there logic which is too complex for you, as a master, to spot or is the ‘logic ceiling’ relatively low (for normal rules sudoku) once you are experienced?

[@glennmelven3414]

Never been a Snooker fan myself, but I love Aads puzzles.

[@alvaropallete]

19:53 for me, it's really cool how some clues have only one valid combination, over and over again till the very end

[@lewsouth1539]

Okay puzzle. Certainly not one of Aad's best.

[@nix_]

It kept breaking before I realised the consecutive digits could go in ANY order

[@craigroberts7013]

18m 21s. My eye went first to the top in box 3 but I think it would have been faster to start with box 8.

[@davidh.4944]

FYI: The 'ban' in renBAN sounds like lawn, dawn, or Aad. There is no flat 'a' sound (can, man) in Japanese. [Sorry, after years of the language, it stings a little when English speakers get even simple words, like kariohki or tamagawchi, wrong. 😆] Anyway, it's nice to have a relatively straightforward puzzle for once, after several days of toughies. It took me exactly one hour, with no major hiccups, other than having to backtrack once due to a mistakenly-placed digit. In fact, it was a surprisingly pleasant solve, considering that arrow variants aren't my favorite cup of tea.

[@transient_]

Leave Aad out of it, the 'a' sound in his name doesn't sound like the 'a' in lawn or dawn. ;D

[@AREmrys]

As a German I always have to think of "Rennbahn", which is the German word for "race track".

[@davidh.4944]

@@transient_ Thank you. That's what I get for trying to be clever when posting. 😏 I have confirmed through Wiktionary that you are correct, in general, although there is some overlap in pronunciation of these sounds across English dialects. And in my defense, the way Mark pronounces the name in the video is pretty much exactly as I wrote. So I guess that's two languages he's getting wrong. 😁 @AREmrys Perfect!

[@rosiefay7283]

Those who use the "can" vowel might well regard "renban" not as a Japanese word, but as an English word derived from a Japanese one. It's quite usual for a language, when borrowing a word from another language, to conform the word's sounds to the language's phonology. Witness how Japanese adapts words that it borrows from English.

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

Stopped the timer and forgot to restart... I think around 30-35 minutes for me.

[@michaels.4847]

just to mention, if "renban" is not japanese but refers to the German word then the correct spelling is "Rennbahn".

[@maverickstclare3756]

147 - let's not mention the optional Orange and Magenta balls either

[@Michal_Sobierajski]

Mark Selby for 4th time

[@nathandts3401]

Did he actually smile?

[@adrianhead6272]

Completed in 13m17s

[@Edos512]

the center insisited on being hidden xD

[@MottBotMinecraft]

I got it in 40:02!

[@billyoung8118]

Palindrome time!

[@nendwr]

Surprisingly easy for an AvdW puzzle.

[@TheMinijulie]

🤩

[@ericveneto1593]

Gets cracking at 5:05

[@squallerrleon]

official time was 148 minutes... thought the lines had to be consecutive digits and walked away from the puzzle

[@tomtheultimatepro]

14:08 for me.

[@christianarbeiter6235]

Broke it twice. Until I read "in any order".....

[@michaelhoffman2011]

24 mins for me... Nice easy and fun puzzle... I tried to checkmate the battleship, but then I realised I didn't know the rules for snooker lol

[@OldHunterTom]

I do sudoku on the toilet. That's poodoku

[@Kelters]

For those poor , un-iniciated people who have not had the fortune to be introduced to snooker (it rivals chess as a queen of mental tactical games) please check out the hundreds of YTube videos of complete games at championship level. You will not be disappointed. Check out some of the terms the commentators are going to use first.

[@gyrgamer8936]

I betted €50 on Murphy :(