Sudoku 101: Hidden Triples

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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. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the eleven-time winner of The Times championship 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.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@SingleHeadedHydra]

This is such a game changer, I'm so used to the classic methods you try. But as soon as the sudoku's become a bit harder you'll have to use these techniques which I didn't know before! I'd love to find more of these informational video's on more advanced techniques!

[@demus8757]

I did it, I did it, I really did it. Took me 2 hours, but I did it.

[@kimberlypreston6204]

i'm about an hour in and came to the comments for help. About to watch the video. I'm stuck. lol.

[@lacavallaviola5707]

Your comment encouraged me to keep going when I felt stuck at around 1 hour in and managed to solve it in 1,5 hours!

[@stefanholbek2449]

Funny enuff ... I spotted the 3-5-7 to the left, but went "the other way around": I pencil-marked 3-5-7 in the bottom left box in the only three open positions and thereby got the 4-8-9 triple in column one, which gave a 9 and a 48 pair. Then I of course got the 1-2-6 triple to fill out the column, and I was "off at a smart trot"! (I think that is truly British!) 😊 Just over 25 minutes ... with a little whisky, a pouring cat and Mozart in the background ... I don't go for speed and lean heavily towards logic (like you) compared to fill out all possible candidates or guesswork, brute force or what have you. I have learned soooo much lately: DANX a million for these instructive and inspiring tutorials! I haven't dabbled with anything BUT classical sudoku, so: KEEP'M COMIN'! 😎👍👍

[@trelligan42]

I really appreciate the fact you let us play with the puzzle before you teach. Not that I could finish it or anything, but engaging and becoming familiar with it lets me follow your train of thought much better.

[@stevenlomon]

I may be the only one who thinks like this but I like to think of it more like the 3,5 and 7 "slicing" the flank in box 7, forcing a 3,5,7 triplet in the triangle-shaped sets of 3 cells to the right of the flank. This in turn forces a 4,8,9 triplet in said flank which in turn forces a 1,2,6 triplet up in box 1 and 4. Same trick, just a different explanation and way of visualizing it :)

[@delighti]

I like this video and how you took extra times to explain the triple. Very helpful!

[@akinsolarin5752]

Excellent tutorial! Many thanks.

[@gepettowins]

2:20 why do we know 1, 5 & 8 are forced to be in the 6 positions? i can see that there's a 1, 5 & 8 in the 7th column, but only 1 & 8 are present in column 9. is it simply because we know the 1, 5 and 8 in box 3 are not in row 8, and therefore must exist in the other positions in row 8?

[@Socrates...]

I made too many errors, was trying to race ahead and use your tutorial as a foundation. Please do more of these remedial videos

[@dave-in-nj9393]

It it fun to have you show the new trick, then pause and go solve the puzzle. I was really stuck before you showed the 1/6 triple on the left.

[@saisaipech]

Before I wasn't good with spotting hidden triples. Thanks to your channel. I was able to improve my scanning skills. My time is 15:11.

[@MacheTheFerret]

Got it in 21 minutes, but probably would've taken longer if I hadn't thought about the title of the video for a moment. Awesome puzzle.

[@adam__smith]

13:28 "And now we are starting to cook with gas". I didn't realise that people still said this. Nice one!

[@dhirasarika]

Thank you so much! I was stuck in a bad habit of having more numbers than I knew what to do with in my cells. Even with my glasses it was a nightmare. Your method has opened my eyes and helped me out quite a bit. Now I just need to be a bit more detailed so I know to go back and check as you mentioned in the video. I heard about your app and just purchased it. It looks awesome.

[@thoughtsofamuser]

11:24 - My only "cheat" this time was looking at the title and trying to spot said "hidden triple". Got something out of the first column almost instantaneously and everything is good afterwards. This is one of my luckiest fluke solves I think

[@grenvillephillips6998]

Something very useful to look for, which is both easy to spot and easy to remember. Thanks!

[@EuropaChronicles]

Several great advanced techniques in this video! Thanks!

[@CUBErt_]

10:03! Very clean puzzle, the 357 in the first column unlocked it for me.

[@lunafaekaida1772]

13:02 My first time finding one of those hidden triples in the wild! helps that the video title clued me in to looking for it but still really pleased with that time. I was actually extremely surprised when i finished and found i was under 20 minutes!

[@evanqualls2172]

Wow, this is an extremely powerful logical tool. They don't even have to be "hidden". You can apply the same logic even if you have more than 3 numbers in a 3x3. Learning this technique has seriously upped my game.

[@TheCyberadam26]

Very useful tip. I will be mindful for these hidden clues for the future.

[@hajislover]

Did it with you in the beginning! Until i got up and running on my own. 27:37! Best time so far!

[@StephShrubb]

25:50 yay, really get a kick out of doing these on my own. Need to keep going.

[@actionic135]

Commenting before view. 19:16. Title was a big help of course. Took me awhile to first find the 126 triple in c1 (since I solve methodically), and it unlocked the puzzle fairly quickly after that.

[@davidwood639]

Simon, you are a great teacher, thank you for these break-down videos.

[@johnlee5709]

Excellent tutorial! This tip is a game changer.

[@chrisengland5523]

It took me quite a bit longer to solve this one, without using any advanced techniques and interestingly, the digits arrived in almost the reverse order. I've used the "open flank" technique before without knowing what it was called but didn't spot it here. So this was a good reminder, Thank you.

[@carolyncopeland2722]

48 MINUTES, so happy. first time to complete a NYT hard in under an hour :)

[@gurrutvurstug8779]

25:43 Finally was able to finish one again. I only used triples once i think, but did have a lot of doubles

[@timsullivan4566]

VERY persuasive demonstration for the advantage gained by seeking hidden trips BEFORE looking for unique or paired restrictions in 3x3s. Count me as a convert!

[@vinnyvillano8862]

Nice technique, seems so simple. I hope you create more videos like this one.

[@wmchristie]

Mark, you are an excellent teacher.

[@One_In_Training]

That's Simon in the video :)

[@wmchristie]

I feel stupid. Simon, I apologize. You are an excellent teacher. TheWtfness, thank you for the correction.

[@RonnieMorg]

I really enjoyed playing the sudoku in the link. (I started playing the sudoku before you got to the full solution) It took me 49 mins and i came back to leave this comment. Great video! And thanks for the tip about how to eliminate multiple solutions.

[@chaotix37]

Holy cow. That was an excellent tutorial. 17:43... New technique learned. Thanks and truly appreciated

[@fowlerbt]

Ditto. I've been pretty familiar with most of your standard techniques up to this point, but this is a new one for me that is already paying dividends. Very much appreciated.

[@KAF128]

I am still a relative beginner/intermediate and I'm not good with triples at all, but I think I would spot that pattern - I think it's what my Sudoku coach calls a "cleaver" (an upside down one !) Thanks for the "uniqueness" point at 15:30 - that is something I had not been able to resolve before.

[@MinimumGnome]

New technique for me. Thank you very much.

[@boydegg]

2nd try - did it in 25 minutes. Delighted!!

[@dylanlenn7836]

I've been trying to do the NYTimes hard puzzle every day lately, today's was no trouble but this one I struggled through quite a bit

[@charlesjohnson9434]

Your triple was better, but I was proud of myself for noticing right away a hidden pair in column 7. The given 4 in row 5 combines with the given 2s in rows 4 and 5 to put a 2/4 pair on the ends of the column and a 3/7 pair in the middle. That gives a few digits.

[@Laserstormelpies]

34min18sec Heeey, the second Puzzle I solved since I started watching this channel, and more or less the first because on the one before that I "guessed" 2x... Now I'll watch the video and find out what Simon means with Hidden Triples, of course I used what I learned over the last videos, but I didn't really notice what of the things I found are called "Triples" (maybe all those Pairs?) Just happy that I did it, without the knowledge from the last 20-30 videos that I already watched on the channel, I probably wouldn't have had what are the requirements to solve it (also it can be a bit of a demotivation to keep trying the easier Sudokus on the channel and never quite solving them, so that's a motivation-boost to keep going).

[@tojare1]

Excellent tutorial!

[@kathytiffin6518]

Very helpful and well explained. Thank you.

[@OMGItsVenom]

Would it be possible to make a video explaining the different types of "triples" as I still cant get my head around it

[@jeremymcguire7069]

That was a fun puzzle. It's cool when I watch the video back and find out that I followed almost exactly the same logic throughout the solve. Unfortunately the logic was at about 1/4 your speed.

[@wmchristie]

I learned something today! Today is a good day.

[@cookiehunter3294]

13:29 and I'm proud. Thanks for the excellent explanations :)

[@JuanMataCFC]

i'm surprised that the first digit i managed to place on the grid 5 u placed all the way at 11:10! :) either way, nice fun puzzle! kinda gave up after a bit, but re-attempted it after watching your explanation "hidden triples" and was able to solve it from there!

[@michaelslavin766]

Love the channel. Falling in love with Sudoku. I Like to try the medium and hard NY times puzzle with mixed results. How can I put pencil marks in centrally and in the corners. Thanks for your help. Michael.

[@mikenolan2675]

Learning new technique is very helpful

[@rcabr31]

Corner pencil marks: show which cells could have specific number Center pencil marks: show which numbers could be in specific cell

[@eddaumpeddaump4509]

Great tip. It's not something I look at normally.

[@nathanblaxall8703]

Great tips!

[@BlueCyann]

Oh god I'm so bad at these. Took me almost an hour and a half, with several long breaks during which I reflected on my suckitude. Never found a single hidden triple, and it was not for a lack of looking for one. People talking about various 357 triples in the first column/bottom box; what I found eventually was a 48 double in the same spot; maybe it amounted to the same thing? Edit: That 48 double was there from the very beginning! Column one rows 8 and 9. 1, 2 and 6 ruled out by the cell, 357 by the column, and 9 by the rows. Same thing as the people in the comments, same thing as Simon found, just another aspect of it. I don't know why these things are so hard for me to find. Like I said, I looked in several "open flanks", having been introduced to the concept in an earlier video. I think I just gave up too early. Figured I would come back to the idea later and wound up never looking there, at least not in quite that way. Pretty sure I'm going to continue to stink at this. Logic I'm OK at, but pattern recognition is not my thing.

[@howardtoob]

You are VERY instructive. Many thanks.

[@10mins]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@decalice4272]

26:10 It might be the first time I've finished a Times puzzle without watching your solve

[@thomaswilke6312]

Another great lesson

[@glennmelven3414]

Saw that triple in C1, but didn't realize that the 4 was now a hidden single in C2. Once Simon said that I was able to finish the puzzle with a blazing fast time of 45 minutes.

[@StefanPettersson]

I used this technique for one puzzle in the Classic Sudoku app. It solved very fast for my standard and after the solve, the app asked if I spotted the two Swordfish that it was designed to train. No I did not. This technique solved it easliy anyway.

[@pooka217]

Hi, is there an Android app which allows centre marking? Is your app software available on Android? Thanks and 👍 for the great videos.

[@ragnkja]

11:03 "It's definitely worth getting into the habit of making both types of pencil-marks." That comment was directed at Mark (as well as anyone else who might need it), wasn't it?

[@ianpearse4480]

Nice. Thank you.

[@texanonline1244]

thank you for the help

[@garanceadrosehn9691]

You looked at the central box for the first example of a possibly useful hidden-triple. You decided that example wasn't going to be helpful, so you switched to the second example. However, both column two and column three already had a 2 in them, so the '2' for row six is proved to be limited column 8 and 9. So that was somewhat useful. Not as useful as the second hidden triple, but it was a little bit of help.

[@JustFun-iz9rf]

very helpful thanks

[@sagarchinna4682]

sir this is great. thank you so much.

[@CHICKENRED-hg3ql]

15:45 I have a Sudoku Book where there was a sudoku puzzle that had two solutions and the two numbers were 6 and 8. Just like how you talked about the 3 and the 7 could have been in either spot, the 6 and 8 was just like that in the Sudoku book that I have and it was in either spot that it could be, so that is why I cant rule a number out just in case that happens again to where there is two solution puzzle, and it was a puzzle where if you turned the puzzle upsidedown the start pattern would be exactly the same as it would be rightside up, so not upsidedown.

[@NirajAlok]

Found the triple using 357 on the first column. Took just about 10 mins.

[@phos4us]

The part where you do a big chain solve in a row was fun

[@DukeAi]

Another easy one for a confidence boost. Mucho Burundi

[@megaminxpll]

Ah, yes really easy one, just one pair & rest was singles.

[@boydegg]

37 minutes! But I needed Simon to show me the hidden triple first.

[@seanm3189]

45 and same

[@chilli3775]

Is there a way to notice naked singles? I always end up needing all pencil marks to notice them, as soon as it gets a bit complicated with 2 numbers just pointing there

[@johnwrou]

Another thing about the first triple found is that automatically there is a 489 triple on the lowest three cells of that column which in itself can easily lead to resolving the nine.

[@woodchuk1]

Took me 3:58 after importing and building the candidate list. Nothing harder than a few X-wings, but still a nice puzzle!

[@wbtittle]

Thank you.

[@maxfriis]

I spotted a 3,5,7 triple in the bottom left box for placing the 9 he is starting with :) Different triple same result.

[@shinyy5184]

28:46, making progress!

[@WildAnimalChannel]

41 minutes 56 seconds. Not bad for me. THanks for the tips.

[@twirdman2]

35:29 with a break in the middle to do a couple things. Probably could have been a bit faster had I not spent time in very beginning trying to find triples.

[@Mephistahpheles]

I'm not particularly great at these, but this puzzle was pretty easy, imo. Started with the 48 pair in the bottom left & the naked single 3 in R4C7. Used 1 x-wing in the puzzle, but otherwise it was all basic pairs & singles. Didn't use ANY triple.

[@alicelaybourne1620]

@@Mephistahpheles Yeah, not needed, but I think he used this because when it was sent in, he saw a triple on the left side that easily illustrated the technique. He did say it was an instructional video to help intermediate solvers.

[@Mephistahpheles]

@@alicelaybourne1620 Yup. I certainly appreciate it. As noted, "I'm not particularly great." Every bit I can learn is good. This is pretty much my only source of sudoku education, and I know I'm improving, thanks to Simon, Mark and audience commentary.

[@RO8s]

I always look for triples, and I got the right one, except that the rest of the puzzle took me an hour! He just accelerates at such a blinding speed...

[@pooka217]

Concerning 1,5, and 8, I'm confused with the initial logic. Why can't 5 possibly be in r4,c9 and r6,c9? I can see the rest of the initial assumptions work for the other numbers. Thanks for any help.

[@jurjenvanderhoek316]

Indeed, and also r7c9

[@pooka217]

@@jurjenvanderhoek316 Yes that looks true too. So why the statement 1, 5 and 8 are locked into the middle column?

[@FunkySwerve]

5 actually IS in r4,c9. He misspoke. The actual triple is the 162 in c1.

[@KAF128]

Where can I find the Richard Stolk puzzle, pls?

[@weightlosshelp7827]

Can I know why don’t you go number by number when starting your search? For example start with number 1, mark or fill up all possible boxes, then move on to the next number and so on?

[@alastermyst]

"Take a look at the Richard ???? puzzle if you haven't already." Interesting idea. Unfortunately you haven't provided a link as far as I can tell and that isn't enough information for me to successfully search for it.

[@CrackingTheCryptic]

Apologies, I think there is a Card at the beginning of the video. It's this puzzle:kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3WYY6mvos6SrJo

[@brucerose4383]

Simon - Sudoku is physically demanding .. proper hydration and electrolytes can cut down on cramping (winking emoji)..

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Magnesium tablets'll do it

[@macmitch1234]

18:51 for me today, pretty proud of that time

[@MegPomitakaDoc]

loved it

[@dndsmith1ify]

Hi, long time CTC fan. One question I've never asked is why so many key presses on these older videos to enter a single number. Don't get me wrong I actually really like it.

[@xueyixin2959]

Nice tutorial! 17 mins for me

[@reddcube]

I do like Uniqueness patterns. I’ve been solving some challenging Masyu puzzles that rely on uniqueness to solve them.

[@rblossey]

kakuro too, I use uniqueness there a lot!

[@drengskap]

33:19 on the second attempt - I got some 2s and 4s scrambled the first time around!

[@britchie7224]

Can someone give me some help? I've purchased the cracking the cryptic, I've downloaded the Stream, have an account and have no idea now how to access it. Also does this allow me to play on my Android AND my computer?

[@rudybecker9680]

I am not sure about this method, where is the right place any chance you can add more videos explain where is the suitable locations I am training to use I am making many mistakes, Thank you Rudy

[@peterkastorf7652]

In this SUDOKU we have an 8 and a 7 next to each other in row 5 and a 9 and an 8 in row 2. More numbers next to each other make more than 15. How does this go as in another vlog you said, that no numbers should exceed 15?

[@alastermyst]

I would love to get into the habit of making both types of pencil marks but unfortunately I haven't found a normal sudoku app that allows it.

[@sallyklemcke1368]

Soduko 101 Hidden Triples. What do you do if there is not a 4 or 8 at all on the game before you start? So what does that do to column one?

[@IanMcGarrett]

I saw it the other way round: the 3-5-7 in the first column forced their placement in the lower left hand box which in turn meant that the 9 in that box had to go in the first column.

[@MesaperProductions]

Yeah, the lack of explanation of how the 1-2-6 is "forced" as a triple is severely lacking. The 3-5-7 combo however, *does* force the 1-2-6. I think he has this technique exactly backwards.

[@JohnWasinger]

At 10:21 how did you get to placing 3 there?

[@tomtheultimatepro]

15:20, messed up my pencil marks at the end and was searching for the next clue for a few mins

[@paollodeoreyes]

36:15 for me, I might have not solved it without knowing in advance what to look for (hidden triples).