"Surely One Of The Best Puzzles Of The Year"

[@DavidStolp]

Pieguy here, thanks for the feature! The original inspiration for this puzzle came from one I saw on this channel a long time ago. I don't remember the name of the puzzle, but it had lots of 2-cell 7 and 13 cages, and ended up being all about entropy.

[@xxshuaishuai]

yeah saw it too

[@davidrattner9]

Fabulous setting from you!? Loved it!!

[@auroreisoard2932]

This one I thought was crazy because you have the modular line 258 and the entropic line kind of dominoes. Like it was a lot of cool maths here

[@shiftcyclicity]

Hey! It might be a puzzle from me (Jeet Sampat). It's titled "Classic-style Killer Sudoku" on LMD. Although the version that was showcased on the channel is slightly different than the one on LMD.

[@DavidStolp]

@@shiftcyclicity Yes, I think that's the one! "Besties" on the channel.

[@nimrodping4438]

Out of the many hundreds of CTC I've watched, this is by far the one I've shouted at the screen the most while watching

[@lwarneminde]

It might be heresy to suggest, but I'd like to see Simon try a couple of puzzles with the Constraint Alert turned on in SudokuPad. I'm far more interested in the logical deductions than the long periods playing Hunt-the-Digit.

[@hopelessnecromantic2794]

I am constantly amazed at the dichotomy between Simon's incredible ability to understand and apply the deep relationships between the strange aspects of these complex rule puzzles, and how he doesnt seem to keep the basic rules in mind when an obvious digit is staring him in the face.

[@emdiar6588]

@@hopelessnecromantic2794 Simon hyper-focuses on one rule/constraint at a time, simply ignoring all others, like sudoku or pencil marks he made only moments earlier. For someone like me, who tidies pencil marks immediately on every new development, and cross checks each new possibility with ALL the rules, it is highly irritating. Even more irritating is that he STILL manages to finish in half the time it takes me. In 4 years of almost daily puzzling, I have beaten his time exactly twice.

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Yes indeed... Where does 3 go in box 4? ;-)

[@wokkawicca]

I did a double-take at the 46 stage. I'm not sure I've seen him start by coloring placed digits instead of the unresolved group members. Might as well just do sudoku. I also found it more helpful to color 28 pairs after finding the 5s. But of course Simon still finished twice as fast as I did, while explaining it all live!

[@10prozenthimmel]

I have just realized another reason why these videos are so good for mental health - it is Simon’s reliability. “I will read you the rules properly in a moment or two’s time…” “I know this because”… Some reference to the correct amount of icing on chocolate cake… “With all this said and done let’s turn our attention to tonight’s puzzle” And of course “Let’s get cracking” as well as enthusiastic praise of the constructor throughout and at the end of the solve. To name but a few. Feels like this, in addition to always finding a solution, reminds me that there still is some kind of order in the universe. Please never change, Simon. And also: lovely guitar intro 😊 With this said and done I am now going to turn my attention to Simon reading me the rules of the puzzle properly. 😅

[@Muse-Katze]

This is so true!

[@Alex_Meadows]

I think that their decision to not post the failures was a stroke of genius, from a mental health perspective. Imagine how crushing it would be to start watching a two-hour epic that ends in failure! Not only would there be disappointment and anticlimax, but we'd be left forever not knowing how the puzzle plays out. It's just heart-warming to watch something where you know that the good guys will prevail in the end.

[@jeremyandannadamiano4987]

Yes! I've thought this too. It's comforting

[@davidrattner9]

Perfectly explained and written from you!! Indeed kind order in the universe!! 😁

[@Anne_Mahoney]

@@Alex_Meadows In fact, they did put up a couple of failure videos a couple of years ago, and they were just miserable to watch. Occasionally instructive, but sad. So, yeah, I agree -- not posting failures is the right thing. 😿

[@TheBioRules]

Simon: "We'll use green and violet next to blue, those are blue-ish colors." Me: "Ooh good choice, green and violet are on opposite sides of blue in the rainbow so they definitely go together." Simon: "So with our existing orange, we already have red so we'll use..." Me: "Yellow??" Simon: "...Purple" Me: 0.0

[@mortenrudjensen]

🤣🤣🤣

[@coconuts2513]

41:00 "I'm not sure my 4/6 colouring is helping any more" to be fair, Simon started colouring 4s and 6s, with the 4 and 6 he had already placed, then proceeded to do sudoko on digits, but added colour first. I don't think the 46 colouring was ever helping. 😂 But they were very pretty colours Simon.

[@MichelKoopmansch]

Colouring is the one percent of sudoku skills where lot of us can say we're better than Simon. It makes him more human in some way.

[@stevieinselby]

When I say "Oh no, I've messed this up", I mean that I have made so many monumental errors in logic, pencil marking and scanning that the grid is broken beyond repair, my mouse has caught fire and there are locusts eating my hard drive. When Simon says "Oh no, I've messed this up", he means that he has not said anything that isn't true, he has not placed a single wrong digit or pencil mark, but he took a minute or two longer than he might have done to spot something and so _may_ not have followed the absolutely optimal solve path. *NO,* that is not "messing things up"! 😂

[@riluna3695]

I feel that. I get like this when I cook. Feel like the meal's coming out a complete disaster, and then it's every bit as good as it is when I get everything right. My "fatal mistakes" are things like finishing the noodles 4 minutes earlier or later than I planned, so it falls out of line with the sauce. Truly a heartbreaking moment that will forever alter the course of history...

[@tms1624]

"I got nothing now" after 23:00. Puts the cursour in R7C6 with an obvious colour. "Oh, no I've got something in column 1 actually...". R7C6: "Am I nothing to you, sir?" 😂

[@tms1624]

I didn't find the break in. But past that Simon way over-complicated.

[@RichSmith77]

And this after using the three oranges in the column to colour r6c6 at 22:18. If it works for r6c6, why wouldn't you use the same logic for r7c6 at the same time?

[@AditaBattleForge]

@@RichSmith77 yeah, that made me chuckle

[@johnh2052]

@@RichSmith77 Literally shocked me. :)

[@chrisg6597]

At 38:57 when Simon says that 3 can only not go next to 4, if he'd only asked himself where does 3 go in box 4? It could only go on the white dot in R1C5, forcing R1C4 to be a 2, thus resolving all the 28 pairs.

[@Yazzzzzan]

I tried to restrain myself from shouting at my monitor. I failed.

[@Rukimix]

Yeah, I guess I was lucky to find the right path fast, after I colored every 28 pair and found the 3 in box 4 the puzzle just solves itself, really nice stuff!

[@A_CC_K]

What is better than a CtC video but a CtC video with an amazing music intro.

[@no_name4796]

Every time i watch simon solve the sudoku, and the beatiful logic he finds behind any one of them, i wonder just how do people come up with such ideas? I definitely feel like creating an enjoyable sudoku is way harder then actually solving it Kudos to the creators

[@davidmiller9485]

For those keeping score, At 28:40 If Simon had just looked over at the black dot he would have noticed that you can't have a 4 next to a 3 (ie. 7) so it's a 6 and the other side is the 4. I've been watching this channel for four years and it's wonderful that some things never change. It's one of the many reason I continue to watch.

[@katiekawaii]

Me too. The little quirks are what makes CtC videos so uniquely compelling. There's such a "hanging out doing puzzles with your (brilliant) friend" vibe.

[@Dr_Trey2001]

Took 52 minutes to realize 4 can’t go next to 3. 😂 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 06:53 Let's Get Cracking: 08:34 Simon's time: 44m56s Puzzle Solved: 53:30 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 1x (15:55) Three In the Corner: 1x (51:20) The Secret: 1x (02:32) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Obviously: 11x (10:45, 12:55, 15:09, 17:06, 22:27, 28:14, 29:03, 37:38, 48:32, 48:42, 48:55) Sorry: 6x (19:04, 23:06, 36:08, 44:44, 46:31, 51:08) Hang On: 6x (10:07, 18:42, 29:15, 34:41, 46:55, 48:05) Ah: 6x (14:28, 14:43, 19:01, 24:05, 29:15, 50:45) Clever: 4x (01:04, 22:15, 25:53, 37:51) Brilliant: 3x (03:27, 04:29, 05:17) What Does This Mean?: 3x (07:37, 14:24, 27:29) Naughty: 2x (26:36, 32:15) I've Got It!: 2x (32:03, 32:03) That's Huge: 2x (21:53, 26:49) Nature: 2x (08:45, 46:21) Cake!: 2x (04:42, 06:29) Good Grief: 1x (37:51) Useless: 1x (23:03) Goodness: 1x (03:59) Lovely: 1x (38:26) Beautiful: 1x (00:34) Going Mad: 1x (36:10) Gorgeous: 1x (22:14) Hypothecate: 1x (28:39) Take a Bow: 1x (54:23) By Sudoku: 1x (39:23) Shenanigans: 1x (37:12) Surely: 1x (00:50) In Fact: 1x (21:51) Whoopsie: 1x (30:59) Wow: 1x (24:44) Fabulous: 1x (05:20) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Thirteen (12 mentions) One (85 mentions) Orange (51 mentions) Antithesis Battles: High (3) - Low (0) Even (10) - Odd (6) White (16) - Black (12) Column (15) - Row (10) 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!

[@harshitsingh3459]

Please let me know how does you system read an hour long video in seconds and process this data and then create a comment and post it in under a minute of video release. PS: I came here to write first one here

[@harshitsingh3459]

Oh sorry, of course you're from Simon's team, silly me😅

[@10prozenthimmel]

@inspiringsand123 can you add the following items to your Simarkism list: “Many happy returns” “Amount of icing” And “with all this said and done”?

[@daliamcandrew3105]

These videos are becoming such a big part of my life since I discovered them looking for something to bore me to sleep after a late shift (0/10 would not recommend for that) Watched many hours of your videos today while doing nail designs on a friend, hopefully have gotten her hooked too so I can chat about this with somebody haha I cannot express how much I cherish this channel and the work and care that has gone into it. Thank you

[@PurajitMalalur]

This is ... incredibly beautiful. Extremely simple rule set that has massive consequences, and just, perfectly designed. I don't think you could set a better puzzle with the same rule set. Wow.

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

"Has that been a 17-pair for ages?" Can only be answered with: yes.

[@f1urps]

There's so much beautiful mathematics and symmetry in this puzzle that I think Simon missed. It has to do with entropy and modular pairs. You can basically fill the grid with 17-pairs, 28-pairs, and 39-pairs, with each having to be kept apart from 6, 5, and 4 respectively. After that the black dot gives you a unique solution.

[@haniapopowska8966]

I literally cannot believe I solved this. With the puzzle being at a 4/5, I was amazed when I was able to actually pencilmark the first cell. After several more minutes came another cell and then another. After I pencilmarked one box I was extremely impressed I got that far. But somehow, miraculously, I kept on pushing forward. And I actually finished after two hours, but the sudoku didn't meet up. But along the way, I understood that I had made an erroneous assumption. So I backpedalled to that mistake and redid the whole sudoku. The whole thing took me three hours. In the middle of the night, not having slept enough for the last three days. This is absolutely flabbergasting. And complete and utter proof that even just watching Simon's solves taught me so so much. I don't think much of myself lately...but this made me feel like my brain is in fact not rotting away. I wowed my own self. THANK YOU, SIMON!! Thank you so much for all you do. You provide a calm, safe and enriching environment like no other. I am so very grateful for you ❤

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 48:26 minutes. For such a simple ruleset, this puzzle was amazing to figure out. I had noticed that 5 was having trouble not existing on the dots. I tested it and it failed every time. I had a flash of thought about modular numbers and tested those in the same tier and was pleasantly surprised to see those also had trouble. I was able to place triplets around the grid. It was even better when I noticed that 5 could never be next to any modular partner as both add up to 7 or 13 with 5. That made things flow so well. It is crazy how much information is obtained from such a short ruleset and a lot of dots. I think I agree with the title as this was an amazing one to solve. Great Puzzle!

[@denisdodelin-m1e]

Thank you Simon for giving me the break through. I still cannot start without your help ^⁠_⁠^

[@kosumi68]

Indeed, one of the best puzzles I have seen this year! Loved the break-in, a bit of math and a bit of geometry. The crux for me was to get the first 4, then the coloring finished nicely. Perfectly set, very enjoyable. Thank you!

[@grumpkingames]

I went about this largely the same but with a bit of extra markup early on, and I think it paid off for me. After coming up with the 3-6 black dot, I started marking 3 different colored pairs, for the 2, 5 ,and 8 kropkis along with pencil-marking the known 258's in each domino. We end up reaching the same point where you have to realize 5 can't touch the other critical numbers, which immediately gives you the 5s and 28 pairs. From there, I think having the unique colors for 2, 5, and 8 really sped up the rest of the solve. With that, I didn't have to do any of the wild color marking that Simon went through in the second half -- it all just flowed so smoothly.

[@AaronSmith-i8y]

At 38:35 Simon says he needs one more deduction. The question to ask is where does 9 go in row 6?... This is what I get for commenting mid-video... This immediately disambiguates 2's and 8's. It took me far longer to solve and my grid looked a hot mess of colors and goodliffing cells. I usually don't try 4* puzzles but this one only needed a little magic to get through!

[@OrjanB]

Simon, over the years I have had 3 trampolines flying off here in Norway. One damaged a building. Then I was tipped by someone to use spiral ground anchor screws for securing the trampoline to stay in place. So I bought 4 of those and screwed them into the ground and used a rope on each to secure the upper rim of the trampoline to the top of the spiral anchor. If you just secure the bottom legs of the trampoline it can still easily fly off in the wind. It was well worth the small investment for me.

[@spreekstem]

Tears in the rain Thank you for that beautiful intro❤

[@robertosecco983]

I have been watching this channel since years. At 36:27, I think there is one gem: "Whatever it is, it isn't." Deeply philosophical...

[@TheTaxGeek]

Damn! It's a rare occasion that I can solve the puzzle in less time than Simon!

[@laszloliptak611]

Excellent puzzle and great solve. Solved it in 45:50. I think what happens here that because Simon has so much experience in solving Sudokus, he immediately thinks about whether coloring certain cells will help with the solve, and goes in that direction rather than checking the given constraints, e.g., 4 cannot be next to a 9, and 6 cannot be next to 17. So in this case I think the coloring helped in the beginning, but not much after that.

[@markp7262]

25:50 finish. I started by labeling all of the white dot pairs with 2-5-8, and then eliminating them as I could. I started coloring once I had found all of the 5s, but just the 2-8 pairs and their dot partners. I used the fact that 1-7 couldn't be next to 6 many times, and yet failed to realize that 3-9 couldn't be next to 4 (until the end, when it was necessary to solve the puzzle). A very unique puzzle, amazing!

[@ckdo1974]

39:56 - The remaining 4s can actually be placed at this point: r7c8 must be from 3/9 (consecutive with 2/8, but not adding to a bad sum with the 6). However, 4 cannot be placed next to either of 3/9, i.e. at r8c8.

[@amorverum]

Eaton 3S 850B looks like a decent British Socket UPS. No matter what you get, just make sure to follow the instructions, as the battery will most likely arrive unplugged internally.

[@MariaVlasiou]

I quickly filled almost all the board with two types of cells: 258 and the rest. The black dot is on the rest, thus 36. Thus, the box has 12, 45, and 8 with one of 79. Thus 79 is above the black dot. And after seeing all this faster than what I needed to type it, I got stuck. Edit: 5 not working with 28 took me a while. 43:02. Really nice puzzle.

[@rohit71090]

This is the first ever time that I felt Simon go slower than usual... He loves to colour 😁 As soon as I got 2/8 pairs ... I immediately tried entering a 1,3/7,9 next to them ... and the placement of 4s and 6s started eliminating either 3,9 or 1,7. I kept on getting such pairs till one of them yielded a digit. After that it finished in 5 minutes. But that was too boring ... what's life without colours ?😍 Love your solving strategies mate ... my day is incomplete without attempting one puzzle with you 😊

[@Michaelzehr]

It took me a little bit longer than Simon to realize the 258 importance. It took me a little bit from there. I started coloring the cells that couldn't be 258, which slowly grew, until I got a 258 next to a 258. It still took me a while, but I eventually got it.

[@fredneu7645]

Amazing sudoku! I struggled at the start, but by watching the start it helped the brain to think. 19:27 was the first idea I found independently and from there the sudoku is brilliant!

[@markthompson2874]

Spent a half hour staring at the screen at basically what Simon did with Orange and Blue. I was so worried about whether blues were allowed to be paired with blues that I didn't realize that 5 couldn't pair with either 2 or 8 until watching Simon. With that revelation, the puzzle fell a part, but in a way that was still fun to solve.

[@GeldarionTFS]

Tears in the Rain! Already loving this video! Got in the Joe Satriani mood after being reminded of that album a while back, huh? :)

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

I love how Simon totally forgets about the white consecutive dots that would let him place a 9 next to the 8 and the 1 next to the 2. Wonder if the pretty colors can distract that much? I think they can. But I also wonder if the amount of color just makes the dots disappear (in Simon's eyes).

[@simpleman4251]

Notable bit of logic simon seemed to have never picked up on/needed - Any digit that is adjacent to both 4 and 6 is forced to be orange (2,5,8), and similarly, any digit that is already proven blue (not 2,5,8) could not be next to both 4 and 6 (this would have resolved the remaining coloring at the time, I believe)

[@gowon2251]

I saw this the moment he put in the 4/6 pair in box 1. In my head I was shouting at my screen for the entire rest of the puzzle because he didn't see it 😂

[@Rukimix]

Yeah I only colored 2's and 8's, once you get the 9 in box 5, the 4 in box 4 has to be in r4c2, which forces the 3 in r5c1, from there the puzzle solves super fast, managed to finish it in 13 min because I noticed that pattern after finding the 258 groups

[@mstmar]

Simon mentioned that 6 is restricted, but 4 is too. it cant be next to 3 nor 9. This fact helped me, since it means that anything next to 4 and 6 can't be blue (167 cant be next to 6 and 349 cant be next to 4).at 40:00, this gives a couple good deductions. first, r1c2 cant be blue so its a 2 or 8, and r8c8 can't be 4 or it would break r7c8 which lets us write the last 4s

[@corbness]

I absolutely love when Simon does guitar intros!

[@hzl1776]

Solved in 49:50! what a fun entry!

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

29:15 for me. What an incredible puzzle! Took me quite a while to wrap my head around it, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

[@Petta79]

If you are looking for a UPS for a PC, you want to make sure it has sine wave output or you'll probably have to return it for one that does.

[@daanperelachaise]

18:52 for me. After realising the 3/4 combo and 6/7 combo were not allowed, realising every white dot domino had to have either a 2, 5 or 8 in it was helpful, especially because the 5 can't be next to 2 or 8. After that it was smooth sailing. Very, very elegant puzzle. I can't imagine how one finds such a puzzle though, hats off!

[@solfeinberg8591]

Because the 34 and 67 cannot go together, the pairs in each of the boxes involve a 2 (with a 1 or 3), 5 (with a 4 or 6), and an 8 (with a 7 or 9). Columns or rows which see three dominoes in their line have the 2, 5, and 8 in them. Adjacent cells which have 258 options cannot have 5's! Because 5 cannot be next to a 2 or 8, or else it would add to 7 or 13. Because of the 258 thing, the black dot is a 36. Very straightforward, looking back at it. Great puzzle, per Clover (or someone's) definition: One that makes you feel brilliant.

[@johnmoscatijr8641]

So enjoy watching Simon solve a puzzle. Feeing great that it only took me 30 minutes longer than him! 😅

[@emilywilliams3237]

Kind of a miracle sudoku on 7s and 13s, instead of consecutive digits. I feel as if the colors may have obscured some of the adjacencies toward the end, but I can't imagine a) you not using colors, Simon, nor b) me not also using colors. See how well you have trained me?! Even though this is 4 out of 5 for difficulty, I think I understand it better than many of the 4-star puzzles I have watched you or Mark solve, so I will put it on the list. (I feel somehow prepared for this having done many puzzles in the Miracle app ...)

[@davidrattner9]

Always cherish how you express yourself in writing Emily!! ❤😊

[@ronjohnson6916]

Rigorous pencil marking really helped. Then grinding down the options.

[@Nerdnumberone]

28 can go next to 1379. 17 can't be adjacent to 6 39 can't be adjacent to 4. There were several moments when a 46 cl was next to a 17 or 39 cell, allowing you to determine the 46. There were also cells that were adjacent to a 46 pair, which would eliminate 1379.

[@davidrattner9]

What an exceptional soothing guitar intro from you Simon!! Adds to your incredible persona how deftly you can play!! Combined with your solving of this beauty ..was a masterpiece video from you.

[@Alex_Meadows]

Looking forward to witnessing drunken Mark on Thursday! Riffclown, Tallcat and I will bring the riot gear in case he sets an example for the chat...

[@williammorris7279]

A very warm thank you for your lovely sense of humour, which provides many moments of real joy in chat, both here and for Zetamath's streams. I am grinning now just remembering, weirdly, because I cannot recall any specific examples, only the enjoyment.

[@smahoney1212]

The mods do a great job on the streams.

[@RoderickEtheria]

Solved in 33:42 after working out the ramifications of the anti-7-13 rule. Fascinating restriction. To explain simply, a 4 or a 6 cannot be orthogonal to any digit that does not share its entropy or its modularity mod 3. And a 5 cannot be orthogonal to any digit that shares its modularity mod 3. And any white kropki dot must share entropy with its neighbors.

[@otterotterottercid]

Surely one of the best videos of the year!

[@Daeroni]

Nice one, got it in 35:30. Coloring the 258s and 46s helped a lot!

[@jurgenbaumann67]

I didn´t came into the riddle, so I watched the video till 12:50. that helped me much. Before I only found 3/6-pair must be on the black dot. But than I colored every square must be 2/5/8. Than I realized, 5 never can be next to 2 and not next to 8 (5+2=7 // 5+8 =13). When I had to marked 2/5/8-squares next to each other, I know none of them could be the 5, so the third in the box, row or coloum must be the 5.

[@Coyotek4]

35:15 ... a wonderful journey of various sets of numbers and associated coloring Incredible puzzle!

[@JPgreekgaming]

I will never not be amused by Simon's ability to select a cell that could easily be deduced and then completely ignoring it and looking on the other side of the grid. You have a brilliant brain that works in mysterious ways 🤣

[@Zerotan]

I recognize "no adjacent digits may sum to 7 or 13" from my puzzles - there's a fun three colour strategy at play where 349 258 and 167 are grouped so the middle digits can't be adjacent to their friends.

[@razorsedge7501]

Took me 38:13. Brilliant puzzle! Had a number of times, like Simon, where I completely spaced the 7, 13 dominos.

[@compiling]

Did this one earlier in the year when it was linked on Artisanal Sudoku. I solved it back then in 31:35, with similar logic except I didn't do so much colouring. The negative constraint was really powerful, since 4 cannot go next to 3 or 9, 5 cannot go next to 2 or 8, and 6 cannot go next to 1 or 7. So the 2,5,8 rule sorts out the orange squares, and the 4 and 6 rules create a lot of 17 and 39 pairs. I can see why you decided to colour this puzzle because it looks like a puzzle that should require colouring to make progress, however I don't think it helped this time.

[@alexanderkornyukhin7241]

Simon not seeing R4C3 being resolved the moment he puts 9 in R4C4 (and therefore boxes 7,9 and 6), almost drove me crazy :D

[@rockyshi6714]

I noticed the entropic stuff from the beginning when I checked the black dot in box 5. I started to shade all the cells with 3 colors for low, mid and high. Then I used circles to mark 258. I also noticed the 5 can't be next to 2 or 8. But the circles in different coloring cells don't help me too much so I spent more time to get all the 5s. But then I shaded all the cells and it was easier than Simon's solution because 3 colors are quite clearer than 6 colors.

[@kevinbrownsword9558]

I did it pretty much with colour up until the end. I used red, green and blue with three shades for low, middle and high. Middles had to go on white dots in every box. Then green was the middle group (4,5,6). Low green could not go next to high blue or red. High green could not go next to low red or blue. It all just fell easily at that point. I only used the initial numbers to work out which colour had the 5

[@RussellPaez]

42:16 instead of going through all of the coloring, just look at box 4 and ask where the 3 goes. There is no 3 in R4C1 or R5C2 or you would make a 7 domino, and there is a 3 looking at row 6. Therefore R5C1 is a 3, and R4C1 must be a 2. most of the puzzle fills in from here.

[@fishor6527]

Absolutely loved this puzzle - something about it just clicked fast in my head

[@jesperwillems_]

22:43 for me so I think 4/5 might be more difficult than the puzzle actually is

[@MadsOcto7]

Simon pencilmarked 3's next to 4's a lot. The negative constraints are hard for him and for many others.

[@MorganZex]

I hear the guitar intro, I hit the like button.

[@woodchuk1]

Joe Satriani FTW! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@christophsuster8371]

One of my proudest moments... Spotting the break in with the 258 triples in column 1 and 9 after about 1min, and therefore faster than Simon Also solvetime was less then the double of Simons time 🎉

[@srwapo]

61:58, fun solve! I broke it at some point and looked at the video to see how much to unwind (almost all of my coloring). I'm happy/surprised that I figured out each of the white dots had to have a 2, 5, or 8 on it,which allowed me to pencil mark the grid, took a while to see that the 5 couldn't be next to the 2 or 8 to disambiguate!

[@grahamania]

00:41:03 for me. Totally agree with Simon about the quality of this puzzle! Kind comment.

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 16:44 by following along with the video.

[@srFeudal93]

Here another fan from Argentina!

[@LorisLaboratory]

Guitar ❤❤❤

[@wokkawicca]

What an awesome puzzle. Seemed frustrating at first, but I loved how the scales fell away. It's a parity puzzle...no, wait, it's sudoku & coloring the 258s, except I'm stuck...but wait, 5 can't be next to either 2 or 8. By the time it got down to 7/13 exclusions it was an easy finish. Still 99 minutes for me, bc I'm always slow.

[@valkopuhelin2581]

Loved this puzzle, thanks.

[@MarkBennet10001]

The first time I have screamed quite so loud for a while: column 4! What a great concept for a puzzle, and how quick and smooth was that spot ...

[@MarkBennet10001]

And then R4C3 for not 13 sum with 9. And yet ... the solve progress with logic I did not see

[@grantfraser5430]

It took me an hour and 10 minutes to discover the 258 approach to the puzzle, obviously going nowhere in the meantime. It took Simon 5 minutes. This just might be the reason that people watch Simon doing Sudoku instead of watching me.

[@thanderhop1489]

Simon singled out 6 as a constrained digit since it can't be near 1 or 7, but 4 and 5 were in the same boat: 4 can't be near 3 or 9, and 5 can't be near 2 or 8 (that fact was used early on of course)

[@megacalorie]

You made is so much more difficult by no remembering 7/13 rule!

[@ingvarsuigin609]

Not only once you put 9 in box 5, can you immediately say that its neighbour can't be 4 (because 13), but when you write 17 in box 8/column 4, you also can say that its neighbor cannot be 6 (because both 6+1 and 6+7 are forbidden) so you can dis-ambiguate column 4 in either direction.

[@efa666]

You should do Satriani's Midnight for the next intro!

[@woodchuk1]

Or Day at the Beach!😊

[@LednacekZ]

44:17 for me. i got the logic in 15, but then just could not spot it for about 20 minutes. could have been a solve under 30 minutes easy.

[@GeHeum]

This is absolutely amazing. Love this puzzle

[@Gsudi]

47:11 Thus puzzle was much fun and not that hard, after xou figured out the coloring in 258 and not 258 groups. And that 5 cannot be next to a field in the 258 group. I got stuck for a 1-2 times for a moment but al in all it went pretty smooth. I liked it a lot.

[@johngilbert7359]

What a cool puzzle! Took me a while to settle on the best method to color this one…

[@SakuraNyan]

33:24 me thinking: "Nine has already been eaten in that box"

[@RichSmith77]

30:30 Why? They're known digits. What's the benefit in colouring a known 4 one colour and a known 6 another colour? Colouring 46 pairs when you don't know which is a 4 and which is a 6 I can get behind. This though. This makes no sense. If you can propogate the colours, then you can propogate the actual digits. 😂

[@titirenee]

Titi's Time: 41:56

[@johnh2052]

I coloured the 28s quite early. I just used two colours, though. This worked very well, and I got the overall solution in less than 35 minutes. I found Simon's colouring confusing (especially when he didn't use yellow to go with orange and red). Anyone else do it my way?

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Very alien logic. Not familiar at all to me. Hence fascinating. Perfect construction. Hence even more fascinating... Stratospherically brilliant solve by Simon. Hence magnificently magnificent video.

[@jasono8783]

26:18 for me! Really fun puzzle

[@EkuuleusNorth]

Fantastic puzzle

[@Press_goal]

The trampoline is super relatable lol. Mine blew onto the shed roof this summer.

[@kennetsdad]

Excellent puzzle.

[@therealAQ]

i see pieguy, i hit like

[@diederikvandedijk]

Really surprising that Simon started colloring 4's and 6's starting with a known 4 and known 6. That was totally useless as 4 and 6 are evidently different already.

[@stevieinselby]

There's nothing surprising about Simon colouring known digits ... the bigger surprise was when he removed colours that he no longer needed 😉

[@ryboits75]

At 40:00 I think you knew there was only one spot for 4s in box 9 because otherwise you'd have to fit both a 3 and a 9 in r9c7

[@MyriamTT]

I liked this puzzle a lot !!!

[@mousev1093]

It's almost a tiny shame that Simon ended up solving it like a more traditional sudoku by 3/4 of the way through. I usually love color coding solves since it's how I naturally like to approach puzzles as well but I feel like he may have missed some more of the dot and 7/13 beauty. There were a handful of digits that were available without the color pairings with just a touch more thought. But I can't talk, it took me well over 3 hours to solve this one since I went down two enormous logic rabit holes that led me nowhere for ages. I didn't find the 258 square logic for a very long time

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Yikes. That took me 2:22:30, and I had to come back to it over night with a clear head, and check my logic against the puzzle. I'll try it again in the future and hopefully will have improved.