The New York Times hard sudoku from May 23, 2024.

You can try this puzzle here:
sudokuexchange.com/play/?s=00...

[@kennethmiu691]

I was a bit stuck until I found the 49 pair in col 1, which led to the eventual solve! I was slow in seeing the 49 pair as I lost focus after a while. Nice to watch your solve!

[@DavidShatz-hw6jl]

An interesting solve as so many long sequences of row and column numbers unearthed digits., ie., in R3, R6, C7 (1, 5 and 1&2 respectively)! Take good care as regards the swimming and have a nice day!

[@AnonimityAssured]

Annoyingly resistant to my normal scanning, this one required a slightly modified approach (98 = row 9 column 8): 98, 22, 66, 39, 36, 69, 81, 33, 37, 35, 89, 87, 17, 27, 14, 86, 93, 52, 47, 57, 46, 82, 13, 11, 55, 26, 76, 24, 94, 74, 62, 51, 64, 54, 68, 72, 71, 43, 53, 42, 18, 73, 91, 12, 21, 95, 75, 97, 77, 25, 15, 28, 29, 58, 59, 18, 19.

[@georgesthibaudeau1533]

Nice puzzle. I should keep some stats about the NYT sudoku for repetitive features. Just in the last week, the same basic trick caused the puzzle to collapse quickly in almost all cases. In this case, in box 1, the 4 and 9 both being away from column 1, the immediately inescapable remote pair of 49 in rows 5 and 7 of column 1, and the puzzle can be completed just playing basic sudoku. In this case, I guess I must add that finding the naked 5 in block 5 and, from there, the naked 6 in block 6, were good catches and also crucial steps.

[@NMalteC]

Sounds like a similar path that I chose

[@NMalteC]

Frankly, those frequent features of the NYT puzzles sometimes make me wonder why I bother solving them.

[@georgesthibaudeau1533]

@@NMalteC Sometimes they surprise us. Recently, a quadruple was my path to solving a puzzle...:)

[@bobdicicco3979]

If I were doing these puzzles at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning like you, I would be exhausted the rest of the day. Do you take any naps during the day?

[@NMalteC]

Not really. I just enjoy an early morning when I feel like the entire world belongs to me. It began when I started to spend half of every year in Vietnam since 2012. Vietnam is noisy in the extreme, and the time from 3-5 AM and from 11 AM to 1 PM are the most quiet. Sometimes I power nap for 30 minutes around noon. What exhausted me this week was my wish to race myself outside my apartment building where there's a large 400 m² swimming area. I'm not used to swimming long distances in Vietnam where I constantly have to fight the waves. But here it's just so easy to do a kilometre ...