Some Super Smashing Symmetry!

Here's where you can try Tenet by Jazzora: app.crackingthecryptic.com/8d...
Normal sudoku rules apply. There are no repeated digits on a marked diagonal or within a coloured region. Two cells joined by a V or an X sum to 5 (V) or 10 (X). Two cells joined by a white dot have a difference of 1. Two cells joined by a purple dot have a ratio of the number written in the purple dot. A cell with a circle contains an odd digit, and a cell with a square an even digit.
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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. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the twelve-time winner of The Times crossword championship and twice Senior World Champion in Sudoku, and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.
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▶ Contents ◀
0:00 Theme Music & News around the channel
2:45 Rules of today’s puzzle
3:55 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!

[@jazzora]

Thanks for the feature! Still a part of the novice setters club, and not sure how often I plan on constructing rather than solving, but perhaps I’ve got my foot in the door. That was still a satisfying solve to watch! Had a feeling it would be Mark, since it's so pencil-mark demanding 😂

[@nordy1220]

Awesome puzzle! The extra regions were very cool

[@psymar]

I loved the puzzle, and it may be the first time I've actually found a use for the Phistomofel Ring. My only complaint is I would have preferred extra lines to serve as the regions -- renban lines perhaps, since a length 9 renban is equivalent? -- so I could use colors to augment my pencilmarks.

[@xdtjv2843]

Very fun and beautiful puzzle, but the title is somewhat lost on me. Seeing Tenet I expected a Rotas-square inspired puzzle. This was merely a beautiful symmetry.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Unexpectedly challenging and classy, notwithstanding the abundance of clues, therefore intriguing and fascinating. 👏👏👏👏👏

[@user-gj5uc4yx3i]

I used the white cells in rows 1,2,8 and 9 just as much as the colored cells. A hidden fourth and fifth region! In line with the renban comment here... "Row 1 and 2 combined, can be divided into two complete regions along chess coloring." Idk, I loved the puzzle!

[@jameskarran5330]

No idea how people are solving this so quickly!

[@BremSterPuzzles]

When I first saw this movie I loved how it played with the concept of the SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS, also known as the Sator Square. This is the five latin palindrome, SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS The fact that it played with wheels they called the Rotas, had characters called Sator, and Arepo and started at the Opera. I was giggling all the way through the movie with the wonderful references to this classic multi-directional palindrome.

[@bristolrovers27]

I tend to shy away from puzzles with large rule sets This is an exception, well put together and thanks

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Unexpectedly challenging and classy, notwithstanding the abundance of clues, therefore intriguing and fascinating. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@emilywilliams3237]

What a beautiful and interesting puzzle. Thanks so much, Mark, for featuring new constructors. That's how this hobby grows, and I know that being featured on CtC is a thrill for them! I loved this video - thank you.

[@77kaczka77]

As usual, Mark found the solution to the puzzle quickly and seemingly easily. Pleasure for my soul. With so many connections (diagonals, dominoes, etc.), sometimes it was possible to find an easier way. I noticed that Mark paid more attention to the top of the Sudoku puzzle and the center than to the bottom part and to the positive diagonal than to the negative one. Just an observation during the necessary skipping from clue to clue.

[@praematura]

Mark would be proud, I pencil marked this VERY heavily, and it worked! 😄 Completed in 20:12 (conflict checker off), many thanks to Jazzora for a very cool puzzle! Update: just noticed some symmetry, not quite GSP, but all symmetrical digits add to one of three values: 5, 10, or 15. Fascinating!

[@jinkela7295]

The symmetrical pairs are: 14, 23, 69, 78 and 55.

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 61 minutes. There was some really nice geometry with the diagonal and colored squares restriction. I really enjoyed this puzzle and its rulesets. They felt very satisfying, even though this was my first time with colored squares. Great Puzzle!

[@tealbaron2808]

i set a puzzle called "Tenet" just a few weeks ago and got over-excited seeing the thumbnail lol. i'm sure this puzzle is fine too though :p

[@RichSmith77]

A very nice debut puzzle. I needed the tip from Mark that the two cells r1c4 and r1c6 only had two places they could go in yellow. I was completely stuck at that point. (It's a little perverse that the grid lines don't pass over the empty white dots, yet do pass over the purple dots. This made it hard for me to see the 3 and 4 ratio digits on mobile. I needed to magnify my screen to be able to make them out.)

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

I had to use the magnifier as well

[@srwapo]

29:57, I watched the video, wanted to try the puzzle, and came back a week later. I don't seem to have remembered anything because I felt stuck a few times. But I did enjoy it!

[@piarittersporn]

Briliant and very enjoyable puzzle.

[@anaayoung9142]

Amazing puzzle and great solve! =)

[@123pirke]

I incorrectly went with even digits in circles and odd digits in squares. It still leads to a unique solution, the board is just rotated 180 degrees. Lovely :)

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

13:05 for me. Great puzzle!!

[@David_K_Booth]

Made a blunder somewhere and had to restart after about 20m, then on the second try it flowed smoothly to a finish in 29m. A very nice puzzle.

[@mudscuffer]

6:54 I was so confused for a second why I didn't see the notification on my phone

[@davidh.4944]

Drattit. I got all the way up to placing the first 7, then I just could not find any way to break through after that. I had to watch the video to see how the negative constraint worked on the colored regions. After that it all flowed smoothly to the end. My final time was 1:25:44@#3983, but I can't really count it as a win.

[@Rach881101]

24:27 for me. Nice puzzle!

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 52:53 by following along with the video.

[@psymar]

I'm curious what symmetry you used, because I finished in 34 minutes and change using absolutely no symmetry-based deductions at all, although I did have some phistomofel ring based deductions, specifically after getting there were 8 6789s in the ring, I figured out there could be at most that many 6789s in the big corners, and also only two 5s in those big corners, so the non-red cells on the ring *all* had to be 12345. Unfortunately this was completely useless until I figured out the bit about the yellow and blue regions...

[@frankjiang1857]

Finished in 31:40. Seems fairly straightforward as long as you don't mess up which I did. I had to start over, but with some careful marks, I was able to get through it. Fun puzzle!

[@psymar]

Definitely wasn't straightforward for me, I had to get the Phistomofel Ring involved...

[@frankjiang1857]

@@psymar The keys for me were the grey shapes in row 5 and the 3/4 ratio dots. Those limit what can be in columns 2 and 8. That combined with the diagonals and the yellow grouping allowed us to eliminate possibilities in those columns and row 2. Eventually, you get 79 pairs where you can figure out where they exist and that eventually leads to knowing which 79 has to be where. Though thinking about it, maybe straightforward isn't right term. I did feel like I was always making progress on it throughout....

[@user-kt9vr1wj6y]

39:44 for me nice puzzle

[@dempiz]

I don’t understand why it has to be a 6789-quadruple in the phistomefel corners after 6:19? Can’t it be like a 14-pair with a 23-pair on the same diagonal in the middle box?

[@RichSmith77]

Digits cannot repeat in red, and all the low digits (and 5) appear in red in box 5.

[@dempiz]

Ah, read the rules. Logical… 😂

[@Mizerka_]

can someone explain 15:48 i dont get the logic there? is it because you cant fit 6789 into row1 yellows? but why wouldn't r1c3 6, r1c4 7, r1c6 8, r1c9 work?

[@dgshoe]

Okay, so. Mark is asking where the numbers in R1C4 and R1C6 go in the yellow region. It's impossible for them to repeat in row 1, so they must be in row 2, but R2C4 and R2C6 are unavailable, so they can only go in R2C2 and R2C8. Similarly, you could ask where the two yellow numbers in box 2 can appear in row 1, and the result would be R1C2 and R1C8.

[@bait6652]

What a strange delightful design, Without the given and colouring rule u end up w a basic pairwise solve(which the given center is DD). The entire lower set+5 is solved and pairwise is on the High#...don't need the redX just applied colourrule on T or B

[@doncook4097]

Did anyone get 2 solutions too?

[@_-_-Sipita-_-_]

15:23 for me.

[@bruceh8043]

44:08 for me and solver #1344.

[@MMN-pt8il]

Urgh! I'm not really able to use diagonal and region constraints together, it makes me bump my head! And when the rules don't tell you there are no negative constraints, it makes me feel too cautious and inefficient! Why can't there be more sudoku problems involving new constraints instead of confusing puzzles like this? Edit: I'm very sorry for my words, I was unaware the setter was a novice.

[@Pritchie45]

54 minutes

[@1978jra]

Graaahhhhh!!! Ratio! not difference! I wasted over 1.5 hours trying to solve this and more waiting to Mark to notice he has marked purple dot wrong... :-) blllaaaah mirror mirror on the wall! who can't read the instructions!

[@Ardalambdion]

I find these kind of puzzles confusing. There is too much information to process at once. Almost like not seeing a forest because the trees are blocking the view.