World Class Solver Sets A Puzzle

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** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
One of the best solvers we know is JayForty - setter of today's sudoku. Jay almost always finishes our Patreon rewards as one of the fastest entries so has some serious mental firepower available. And now we're delighted to present their first ever puzzle... which is absolutely remarkable, it's THAT clever. Give it a try at the link below:
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle. Two diagonally adjacent cells cannot contain the same digit.
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[@jayforty9824]

Wow, I didn't expect this! Thank you for featuring this puzzle and for the kind words. A very lovely solve that captured and presented the ideas of the puzzle perfectly. Thank you to Peter for suggesting it and to everyone else that have solved it over the past week!

[@wossaaaat]

Excellent puzzle JayForty, well done. Out of interest,. what does its title actually mean, just for us plebs?

[@jayforty9824]

@@wossaaaat Thank you! Roughly "King of the Small", referring to the low digits. I probably butchered the grammar, though. :D

[@wossaaaat]

@@jayforty9824 Hehe, cool. Thank you. And thanks for the puzzle.

[@stephenbeck7222]

JayForty grammar looks good. And a very good puzzle too!

[@SheilaMertens]

My hat off for this beautiful puzzle, Jay! A smashing debut for sure! Many thanks :)

[@susanollington5257]

Almost every comment on here is something Simon missed, so I thought I’d chime in by saying: I think this is the most wholesome channel on KZbin and I watch it every evening before bed - I do all the GAS sudokus and sometimes try a more difficult puzzle from the channel, and recently I’ve actually been finishing some! Usually takes me a few 2-3 hours sessions to get through them though, with plenty of restarting because I’ve broken it… Thanks so much for the lovely videos, and any mistakes I see are part of the joy of the channel, giving me a chance to giggle and making me feel encouraged in that it’s okay to make mistakes, and that you can still be a really good solver if you do

[@hazujh7]

I feel exactly the same!!

[@jojoj81Gaming]

Everyone loves to feel smart, and Simon spends 99% of his time making us feel dumb because he makes it look so easy and explains it all so simply. So when we see something he missed it makes us feel so happy because we feel clever again. Albeit briefly.

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

10:18 - *"Beef-witted Apple-John"* - Thanks for using the expression in 2 consecutive videos...! It's from SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy from Feb, 8, 2001. with Alex Trebek, Sean Connery, Ozzy Osbourne, and Mathara Stewart. It's a way to pay tribute to the great Norm Macdonald for creating the best sketch comedy series of all time. Thanks again for honouring my request. "You must think you're pretty smart Trebek. What with your greasy hair and your dago moustache."

[@emilywilliams3237]

Thanks for the explanation - I was totally unaware. I saw the expression used in a comment a few weeks ago and it seemed harsh, but that is clearly because I was ignorant of the actual source of it - this is not at all surprising since I seem to be ignorant of most popular culture references even if I lived through the era being referenced! Oh well, I am glad to know the source. 😊

[@tessabrisac7423]

Thanks for the explanation, I found it very intriguing since it appeared a few days ago.

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

​@@tessabrisac7423 During the "Everything Is Wrogn Again" Premiere, in the chat window, I asked Simon to do me a kindness and call somebody a "Beef-Witted Apple-John"... He liked the expression upon first hearing it, and then said he would only ever use such an insult on himself. It's a clever combination of words especially when it's Sean Connery using it on Alex Trebek.

[@markbennet9058]

That looks so easy to start - I could see all sorts of things - but the logic continues throughout, and gets more challenging - what great setting, we don't get many puzzles with an easy start and a tricky middlegame and finish. Let's hope the GAS setters don't see this and start getting ideas ...

[@Skamba]

52:25 - I was screaming at the screen: you've solved the 5/6 in box 9 in 2 ways yet you still don't see it!

[@yntxrrr]

Day 2: If I might make a slight suggestion for an addition to Sven's software, red pencil marks! If you could concisely mark which digits a cell can NOT contain, instead of writing in every other digit that it can still be, it would speed up the process greatly, and be less confusing both for Simon and the viewer. :)

[@humanbirdsong]

Seconded! Would be a great tool for swordfishes etc., which rule out certain digits from certain positions, but still leave enough options in a box that you don't want to pencil mark all the available candidates.

[@HeroDarkStorn]

You can increase the chance of it happening by commenting on Sven's channel, he streams working on the software (youtube . com / SvenCodes)

[@zaclaplant3001]

Simon solves these x10 faster than I do, but I still want to jump through the screen when I come back to watch to point out the simplest of things that are revolutionary in solving the puzzle

[@killamoosdraree730]

I giggled a bit while staring at r5c7 and r8c7 as Simon was looking for what was next and happily doing more Sudoku around the board. Although this puzzle took me nearly 2 hours, that was the one thing I found before Simon did during my personal solve process. It did help unlock some things thankfully. Thanks for the fun!!

[@chrislefler7173]

The real kicker was that he almost immediately after that placed the digit in r7c9, giving him a second way to disambiguate r8c7, which he promptly proceeded to ignore. I'm not gonna lie, though. I do get a small tinge of pride when I spot something before Simon or Mark.

[@SnowTheJamMan]

I'm only halfway through the video but this is one of my favorite puzzles featured in recent times, can't believe it's JayForty's first one. Gives me hope maybe someday i'll set a great puzzle.

[@jayforty9824]

Thank you! I have been setting a couple of puzzles prior to this one, for my own entertainment, but it's the first that has ever been published.

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Yeah, a proper colour festival again! :-) Yet one omission remains: the 3 in the corner had to miss out its song, once more... Perhaps Sven could program some bot which automatically takes care of the 3-in-the-corner part whenever it arises?

[@susanollington5257]

I would love how shocked he would be every time, if the song just blasted through his speakers whenever a 3 was place in a corner and he didn’t notice prior, it would be absolutely hilarious 😂

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

18:40 when i saw the contradiction that colors lined up in such a way that you get a repeat in the columns of 6789, i knew this puzzle was a work of genius

[@tremkl]

Made me a bit nervous when he left the colors in box 1-3 after proving they weren’t exclusively from 1234. The two colorings in r2 were only selected based on the requirements of all low numbers. For example, r2c3 could have been green if r3c2 was high, and r2c7 could have been purple if r3c6 was high. Fortunately, it worked out so neither of those were the case.

[@stephenbeck7222]

Yes and then around 26:00 he started making half-hypotheses about those slash colors. He just can’t help himself with the colors.

[@tonTeufel]

@@stephenbeck7222 it's not just colours, he has gotten into a bit of a habit lately of not cleaning up pencil marks from trying/ showcasing stuff and then later on thinking those are real deductions. Thankfully so far he's always figured out that they weren't real.

[@GavinBisesi]

@@tonTeufel I mean he's mentioned that if he fails a puzzle it doesn't go on youtube, so we don't know how many *do* get messed up

[@yeehaaw]

man, it is always so refreshing to see the love between y’all and the puzzle setters. genuine love for the craft & appreciation of those around you/those in your community. always just very sweet to watch!

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 03:29 Let's Get Cracking: 04:24 Simon's time: 53m48s Puzzle Solved: 58:12 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Bobbins: 2x (16:10, 30:29) Maverick: 2x (39:29, 53:11) Cooking with Gas: 1x (40:17) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Ah: 21x (01:32, 05:24, 05:33, 10:01, 10:37, 10:37, 13:41, 13:41, 13:41, 14:01, 14:11, 14:19, 14:53, 20:08, 20:48, 26:33, 32:34, 43:07, 50:01, 52:46, 57:34) By Sudoku: 10x (04:01, 13:49, 33:01, 47:56, 51:29, 51:33, 52:46, 54:57, 54:57) Obviously: 9x (00:58, 07:21, 09:50, 11:25, 25:15, 27:50, 28:58, 31:44, 57:40) Wow: 9x (13:56, 18:49, 18:52, 23:20, 26:21, 31:21, 32:35, 32:41, 39:37) Sorry: 7x (05:35, 09:36, 28:32, 28:32, 28:32, 36:19, 47:01) Good Grief: 6x (18:49, 32:41, 34:17, 43:28, 43:30, 58:51) Syzygy: 6x (04:46, 04:50, 06:35, 09:50, 14:58, 19:37) Beautiful: 5x (19:09, 28:39, 34:19, 34:19, 58:18) Pencil Mark/mark: 5x (06:23, 18:16, 21:04, 26:57, 52:12) The Answer is: 4x (19:30, 23:39, 47:56, 52:10) Hang On: 4x (04:39, 04:43, 34:08, 36:07) Clever: 3x (09:38, 18:47, 39:34) In Fact: 3x (44:56, 56:04, 56:55) Lovely: 2x (17:10, 20:48) Chromatic: 2x (47:49, 54:55) What Does This Mean?: 2x (52:59, 53:45) Goodness: 1x (26:36) Out of Nowhere: 1x (54:48) Brilliant: 1x (26:36) Elegant: 1x (45:57) Gorgeous: 1x (50:45) Magnificent: 1x (01:14) Think Harder: 1x (41:27) I've Got It!: 1x (36:16) Proof: 1x (59:07) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (3 mentions) One (97 mentions) Yellow (67 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (20) - High (11) Even (2) - Odd (0) Row (14) - Column (14) 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!

[@emilywilliams3237]

Yet again, a great solve on this channel. I really enjoyed that, Simon. In fact, my husband had said the other day that he felt he needed to watch a video in which he could see the use of coloring demonstrated, and so I sent him this link. It was beautifully done in terms of coloring and explaining what you were thinking. Today's lovely vocabulary did not disappoint, either - "profligate pencil marking" made me smile, and I loved "nonplussed" and "apposite." I don't really understand beef-witted apple John, but maybe that is because I am not British? Regardless, it was very fun to watch. Thank you to you and Mark for all you do for this channel.

[@longwaytotipperary]

Emily - look further down in comments for JohnPaul Adamovsky - JPA asked Simon to use that term during the premiere the other day and JPA explains why in his comment. I also enjoyed Simon's eloquent vocabulary (as always) and your comments (as always). 🙂

[@emilywilliams3237]

@@longwaytotipperary Thanks - I did look down just now and found it. I am such a ... numpty ... sometimes when it comes to popular culture! 🤣

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@emilywilliams3237 I'm a numpty when it comes to popular culture also! Thank goodness for Google!! 😄

[@davidrattner9]

@@longwaytotipperary & @ emily...always appreciate you 2 constantly also. Continously make wonderful comments, deductions and a great joy to be part of this fabulous community with you!!

[@davidrattner9]

@@emilywilliams3237 ..constantly appreciate you and long way on this channel. You both make wonderful deductions, comments and are a joy to be part of this community with both of you!!

[@stevieinselby]

That was an amazing puzzle ... I was really happy to figure out that the 4-cell syzygy was a 6-7-8-9 quad, and even happier to figure out that the eyebrow arrows formed an 8-9 pair ... but at that point I went down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out the next step from those eyebrow arrows and kept making fallacious deductions and breaking it ...

[@fleetingfootnotes9133]

I love how despite how much of a tremendous genius Mark is, scanning remains something we can all fall prey to. When the 5 in column 7 got resolved, I was sure he'd spot the 56 pair below it immediately. Only at 57:06 in, by maths on the arrow does he resolve it, never spotting the "by sudoku!"

[@Rubrickety]

This is one of my proudest solves, several hours over multiple days though it took. Wonderful puzzle.

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

27:50 i just spotted IMMACULATE logic. look at box 9, and look at the arrow cell under the 678 bulb. what can it be? if it’s low, it has to be purple. but it can’t be purple as then box 8 won’t have a home for purple due to sudoku and the kings move constraint. so that cell is a 5/6! 31:30 he almost saw it! but found it slightly later! i’m so glad the solve path included this step, i knew simon would love it.

[@RADZIO895]

30:55 I usually never scream at the screen, but this was one of the moments I did, you were so close to deducing that r8c7 wasn't a low digit Luckily you got it 2 minutes later

[@piarittersporn]

With Simon's jump-start and several restarts, this superb puzzle was a very long and ample pleasure for me.

[@Waggles1123]

At ~26:30 when you had your "oh nearly" moment, you really were nearly there. If you had followed the logic a bit, you could find that blue couldn't be 1. If blue was 1, then R2C3 would need to be blue (because each of the arrows at the top needed a 1). That would take the 1s in columns 2 and 3, leaving the arrow starting in R9C4 without a 1. The only way to make a 3-cell arrow without a 1 is a 2-3-4, but if you looked carefully you'd already used up two of the digits from 2-3-4 in column 4 with purple and yellow. All that's to say that blue can't be 1, which leaves yellow as the only digit that could be 1.

[@jayforty9824]

I was quite happy he didn't finish that thought :D Even though what you describe was part of the initial solve path, I like the deduction about 9 in box 8 and what it leads to even better.

[@1a2s3d6a9s5d]

100%

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

I used an alternative method to show that blue is not 1. If *Blue = 1,* then 🔹the third circle in the syzygy (r7c5) would become a *9* (its arrow does not contain blue), ruling *9* out of *r9c4,* and forcing a *1* into the arrow starting from *r9c4.* 🔹r2c3 would need to be blue (as you explained above), ruling *1* out of the arrow starting from *r9c4* and forcing a *9* in *r9c4.*

[@johnh2052]

I almost cried when Simon looked at the possibility that yellow was 1, but _didn't_ look at the possibility that blue was 1. If he had, it rules 1 out of the arrow in box 7 making it a 234 arrow, and that forces yellow to be 1 in column 3. Contradiction! Therefore, yellow is 1.

[@jarvisa12345]

51:28 Once R6C2 became a 5, C6 was the only cell in R7 that could be a 5, fixing several more cells in turn.

[@georgelane6350]

at about 26:30 Simon bemoans that his fantastic logic won't work because he doesn't know that you need two ones in c2 and c3. However, you can use the logic to prove that blue cannot be 1: you would end up with a 2, 3, 4 quadruple in c3.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

37:46 for me. What a beautiful puzzle and a joy to solve, that was truly awesome for a debut as a setter, well done!!

[@jayforty9824]

That's a fast solve, well done! And thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@DirkieB]

I wouldn’t be cross about colouring, but am a little miffed that the 3 in the corner at the end didn’t get a song! I’m sure it was deliberate, and in its moment of glory, all it got was a purple silence.

[@andrewpalmer5189]

I solved this as a previous person who posted did, over several hours over several days. I got the whole break in with the 1, 2, 3, & 4s and the 6, 7, 8, & 9s etc but found it brutally hard from there. I'm normally filled with exhilaration when I solve a difficult puzzle but this one exhausted me!

[@nwdreamer]

I'm SOOOO glad he finally found a way to remove the purple and green 1's from row 3! For about 30 minutes I kept yelling at the screen, but he didn't hear me (probably because he's in the UK and I'm in the US, so different time zones, ya? 🤣🤣).

[@Coyotek4]

42:07 ... I found great joy and satisfaction in solving this one. Phenomenal puzzle!

[@jayforty9824]

Thank you! I'm happy you enjoyed it!

[@davidrattner9]

Sublime from you jayforty!! Congrats on this and look forward to many more from you!!

[@alienrenders]

34:14 for me. I liked what was done with the circles on row 3. Very nice! Now to watch the video.

[@minamagdy4126]

The half-coloring which Simon kept on the top two arrows for much of the solve and used around 37:30 to disambiguate where the ones are in the grid is actually erroneous. These colors originated when Simon was looking into if those arrows were entirely composed of low digits. This possibility is restrictive, but its logic cannot be used on other possibilities. The biggest example that makes Simon's logic incomplete is that r3c2 can absolutely be yellow despite the partial coloring. It is only prevented from being yellow if r3c4 is yellow, which isn't a given. An example possibility that Simon's exact logic doesn't consider is r3c2 yellow and r2c3 blue, with r3c4 being 5 or 6. These cases mean that Simon's logic is no longer perfectly derived, as he did not adequately justify the half-marking of the top arrows to use related logic. EDIT: I am aware that, for r3c4 and r3c7, the markings are not erroneous. I originally wrote in frustration at seeing a loophole in his logic, while not having traced it all the way through. The other cells are indeed erroneously marked, and I can still see ways that these colorations can be used without sound logical foundation.

[@Draddar]

He doesn't actually use that, although he may have been somewhat lucky with that. At the point he determines that yellow=1 it is clear that r3c4=1 from column 2 and 3 logic, and that square can in fact only be yellow since it sees all other low colours. After that the only spot to put the 1 in the right arrow is in r2c7 which conveniently had the yellow colouring from before. To put it another way, he doesn't put 1 in those squares because they are yellow, but he does colour them yellow because they contain a 1 and all low digits are coloured.

[@bernhardrenner5176]

@@Draddar Yeah, that is how I understood Simon aswell. Still I think keeping the colouring after the deduction that not all of those could be low digit was a bit unfortunate.

[@th.nd.r]

Awesome debut puzzle! Some really nice moments throughout, good setting and solving! Also once again Simon, you missed the 3 in the corner!!!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

63:09 for me - what an interesting puzzle. I love how you have to prove the four arrows going through the middle have to use 1, 2, 3, & 4, and then figuring out how they link together with the others, which leads to both of the one on top must use 5.

[@Yamou_kun]

Oh god this definitely was a hell of a puzzle! The struggle to obtain even a single digit out of it was beautiful, simply amazing!

[@Ian_Hay]

Clarity - “Diagonally adjacent cells cannot contain the same digit” - isn’t that just another way of saying “chess king’s move” restriction (which is what we’re used to around these here parts)?

[@glum_hippo]

Yes

[@Andrew-tj4kg]

Chess bisop's 1 cell move .. Not king. king can move in all direction 1 cell. so slight confusion....

[@eirikhoelhiseth3225]

@@Andrew-tj4kg I think the idea is that the other cells (orthogonally adjacent) the king can move to already can't contain the same digit by sudoku.

[@wossaaaat]

@@Andrew-tj4kg I see most people refer to it as a King's move restraint. Orthogonal is already ruled out by normal sudoku rules, and using bishops just adds clutter and confusion limiting it to single cell movements. King feels the most apt.

[@tyrgannusgaming6657]

I think it goes back to tradition. If you talk to people around at the beginning of sudoku, you'll commonly see it referred to as an Untouch or No Touch variant. While I personally use antiking myself, I can understand that diagonally adjacent is simple enough that there were multiple terminologies for it in popularity. Unlike antiknight where that really is the most concise way to describe two over, one across.

[@dustinkeier9176]

Absolutely beautiful puzzle, and just as beautiful solve. Rex Parvae : The Little King

[@psyckwhoever4197]

That was WAY too hard for me! You're awesome to figure this out so fast :D

[@markp7262]

47:24 finish. Loved the logic on this, very fun! Simon, that's two in a row that have had a songless 3 in the corner. We need our pseudo-R.E.M.! 🤪

[@Jimbot001]

Beastly puzzle and well solved!

[@1a2s3d6a9s5d]

I color the done digits dark grey , all of them , it helps me focus if you want to try it

[@RichSmith77]

Interesting idea. Might try this next time.

[@cgstreet08]

Simon, at 27:21 you missed a small deduction to conclude yellow=1. When looking at 1s in columns 2 and 3, ask if r2c3 can be a 1. If r2c3=1, then r5c2 (blue)=1, which forces a 234 in the bottom arrow. Column 3 now has 5 cells with 1234, which breaks the puzzle. That forces a 1 into bottom of arrow in box 1 (r3c2 or r3c4). Carrying that over to the arrow in box 3, the only place for 1 is in r2c7, i.e. yellow = 1.

[@bevstarrunner9472]

Simon @ 57:15 - "That has to be yellow in the corner - no song for you" Also Simon @ 57:40 - Puts 3 in the corner with no song 😥

[@pengchengwu447]

22:40 Immediately after 9 is removed from R6C3 and R6C7, R6C1 must be 9. Because if the arrow of R9C4 has a 1, a 1 will be pushed to R3C4, disabling blue to be 1, which makes R6C1 9; if the arrow of R9C4 doesn't have a 1, it will be 9, also making R6C1 9.

[@mipsuperk]

I get cross when we DO have full coloring. Once they aren't helping disambiguate anymore, the colors stop adding anything information and just make entering numbers take 3x as long.

[@RichSmith77]

Saying I get cross may be over stating it. But certainly mildly irritated. 🙂

[@LednacekZ]

nice one. quite hard, but so insane theories needed.

[@LithmusEarth]

17:38 it won't work because of the 6789 below it that it sees has the same Y+G+U coloring. I am sure you are about to spot it. 18:27 same exact problem in it's column as well, both of those row 3's cannot be 3 cell arrows with all low digits. 26:25 Remove the 1's pencilmarks from the Psuedo Pink and Psudeo Green Spaces in row 3. Both sets need a 1, and 1 is a colored digit, so it's either blue or yellow, which means if it's in either of those psudeo pink/green spaces it's well the pink space sees a blue and yellow, the green space only sees a blue, so i guess it could be the yellow 1, and the other yellow 1 for box 3 would be above the circle, so okay... maybe, but yeah thin ice. Also thanks for the props for spotting something, I don't often get that in these comments.

[@JohnRandomness105]

7:50 Instead of coloring the circles, label them FGHI, and label the 1234 numbers ABCD. For example, to the left, A + B + C = F. One can rule out letters in a way that one isn't able to rule out numbers. The way I've defined my letters, R7C2 can only be 5 or C. 9:45 My brain's given up too, unfortunately. I've narrowed some cells to particular letters, but not enough. 12:00 Letters work better than colors. 14:20 One can pencilmark letters in to reflect what can and can't go in row 7. I have 5C, 5B, 5A, D, and 5ABC in row 7. (Your yellow is my D.) 31:00 With letters, one can rule out a low digit from R8C7, forcing 5 or 6 there and 89 into the circle. I finished the puzzle. Near the end, the grid featured a mishmash of numbers and letters -- such as 3 and 4 along with B and C which stood for 3 and 4. I wouldn't call it a poster game for the use of letters to represent unknown numbers. The 35 pair surrounding the 9 in row 3: the notation means that if left is 3, purple is 3; if right is 3, blue is 3. I used a similar notation with letters.

[@meerjos247]

Surprised you didn't notice that , since one's could only be in yellow of blue cells, you could delete the green and purple one's from cells C2 and C6. Buy hats off how you reasoned your way to that point i mentioned !!

[@y_prime]

solved in 50:54 - made an early mistake in assuming row 3 had to have both high digits, nice puzzle anyway

[@colemanhansen206]

Haircut Simon? Looks great 😄

[@ericpraline1302]

I found this a tough nut to crack so happy to finally be able to file it under 'cracked'. The standard of puzzles on CTC is just unrelentingly high. Personally it would deter me from setting so glad it doesn't have the same effect on others!

[@AmmoBoks]

"We can do agadmator style here", Lol. Even pause the video in CTC video's 😁Lovely to see you like chess too.

[@istvanmagi473]

Can someone explain to me what is happening at 30.32? Simon asks the right question, the answer is entirely obvious, he stares at it for a long time... then he gives up. It is mind-goggling.

[@handulldtd]

An interesting bit of logic I found early: the 6789 in box9 cannot be 9. If you try to make it 9, then it must be made from 234 in box6, so the cell you call green in box6 must be a 1. Since all cells in the 6789 in box3 sees the 1 in box6, then you couldn’t have a 1 in its arrow, and the 6789 in box3 would also be a 9 (made from 234), which clashes with the 9 in box9. Wasn’t enough to get to the solution, but thought it was cool

[@aidarosullivan5269]

Maverick is so desperate to get into CtC it flies dangerously close now.

[@masheroz]

The 5 in column 7!

[@NoobixCube]

19:20 "if you can't see it, pause the video", no, I couldn't see it. I got this far and couldn't see it, that's why I'm watching now... :(

[@Andrew-tj4kg]

33:18. why is r7c9 yellow. That could also be a 5 if I'm not mistaken. (which is very likely as I usually am)

[@BryanLu0]

See 13:44 (I assume you mean r7c8)

[@ricmndy1]

I'm just curious how you ruled out a 5 on the 4 diagonals so fast without any numbers placed at all? Could not one of those have been a 512 combo for 8 or 513 for a 9? I absolutely agree with the circles being 6789 but you could make one of them with a 5 and not break any rules.

[@steve470]

The four circles are 6789, which total 30. The digits on the arrows therefore must add up to 30. Any combination higher than 1234 in any of the three rows or boxes will make the arrows together add up to more than 30.

[@bobh6728]

R8C7 was a 6 for a long time. It was either 5 or 6. Then r5c7 was a 5 making it a 6. Then the arrow in box 8 and 9 needed a 6. Still didn’t put the 6 until almost the end. I can’t even get started on these, but I think I can finish faster than Simon. We may make a good team.

[@Xiuhtec]

My solve path was different, interestingly. Where Simon "nearly" saw the box 7 arrow couldn't contain a 1 I saw it must contain a 1! I did so this way: The box 9 arrow has to contain a high digit by the same logic as the row 3 circles: If you force all lows onto it it must be yellow-purple-something, but both yellow-purple circles in row 7 see the row 8 circle by King's move. Since that circle then becomes one of the row 3 circles, but can't be orange by King's move, it's the box 3 circle. Now the box 7 arrow circle CANNOT BE 9 as the 9 in box 8 must be either the box 9 arrow circle or the orange circle that has the 9 already. 678 all require a 1. This gets you yellow=1 at a much earlier point than Simon stumbled into it. I love puzzles with multiple valid paths though!

[@jayforty9824]

Well done! That was a bit of a hidden easter egg that I hoped someone would look for after using the same logic in row 3 :) It was the original idea, but I don't mind that there is another path using box 8 to exclude all low digits from that one cell on the arrow. It all leads to the same main points anyway.

[@logiciananimal]

Born to the purple!

[@theashen]

So happy I managed to solve this.Took me forever, but i got there

[@theashen]

the sneaky agadmator channel reference was fun , especially for a chess move restriction

[@josephrion3514]

40:55 now the 25 the two is either green or blue so eliminate it from pink which means that you can find the seven maybe.

[@josephrion3514]

42:06 that sounds like the non cue up top is either 26 with two blue or 35 with 3 in either pink or blue meaning possible restrictions here . I guess you could have pink three and blue four so not cut off yet.

[@adrianhead6272]

Completed in 25m56s.

[@WhoStoleMyAlias]

heheh, that was a fun puzzle. I actually started with a wrong assumption, realized that it was wrong and so I wiped the incorrect pencil marks, then started counting and placed the exact same pencil marks back ;)

[@DivineHydra]

He finally got 3 in the corner and didn’t even mention it

[@Pathogenus]

I had a go at it, got all the deductions up until noticing top arrows need to have 5 or 6 on it in the first 3 minutes. then got stuck and gave up.

[@tremkl]

You actually could have proved yellow was 1 from the moment you thought you found restrictions on 1s in box 1, 4, and 7. If r2c3 was a 1, as you noticed you’d need a 234 in box 7, but that would put 5 1234s in column 3. From there, you get a 1 in r2c7, which forces 1 into yellow in box 6.

[@minorasimulator]

ngl simon's colouring gave me a hankering for clinkers....

[@easye9186]

Parvae is Latin for little small, but is feminine plural. Rex is masculine singluar and means king. So im guessing its meant to be "King of littles", rather than "little king," but my Latin is rusty.

[@woodchuk1]

Correct. “Rex” (king) is masculine and “parvae” (small) is feminine plural, so the latter used as an adjective cannot be modifying the former since the gender and number do not match. The word “parvae” here is “partitive genitive” (thank you Anne Mahoney, it’s been 25 years since I took Latin!) which signifies that the “little” digits are part of the whole set of all digits.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

@@woodchuk1 Actually, in this context, parvae can only be feminine genitive singular. Feminine nominative plural would make no sense.

[@darthfishis]

im a beginner and i dont understand why the first quad could not have 5 or 6 on the lines. Thanks for the vid guys i love your stuff :)

[@jayforty9824]

Hi Ben! You can look at those four arrows together and use some maths. The sum of the four arrows must be equal to the sum of the four arrow circles. In rows 4, 5 and 6, the arrows together use 4 cells in each row. So the smallest digits you can put in those 4 cells in each row is 1234, which adds to 10. Counting all three rows, it adds to 30. Now let's look at the circles in row 7. The largest digits you can put in the circles in row 7 is 6789, which adds to 30 as well. So now if you would put a 5 in one of the rows 4-6, that would mean the arrow lines would sum to at least 31, since that row would sum to at least 11. But we just showed that the circles can never add to more than 30. So that wouldn't work.

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

Rex parvae = king of the little things

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Yes, parvus is "little" indeed, but "parvae" is actually a female form of a noun or adjective. It is either genitivus or dativus singular female, or nominativus or vocativus plural female. "King of the little things" would have been "Rex parvorum", I think...

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

Anyway, in this case it could only be a genitive, I guess, so then parvae is a singular female adjective form.

[@penningmeestercgkdelft9159]

There is actually a rather similar Latin proverb, which reads "Concordia Res Parvae Crescunt", which means so much as "unity gives strength", but that will be Res instead of Rex, so then the "x" is missing.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@penningmeestercgkdelft9159 Thank you for explaining all that!

[@difoolgc5211]

@27:00 Simon get hit by his aversion to clean up his pencilmarks, in row 3 the 1s should have been removed fro R2C2 an R3C6, when green and purple no longer could be 1.

[@jonotick]

hmmm bugger! I made a mistake somewhere obviously and ended up with a good solution but it breaks the adjacent cells not containing the same digit! back to the drawing board.

[@dkamm65]

I was screaming at the screen for you to notice at 51:22 that the 5 in box 6 fixed the 5/6 in box 9, and then screamed even louder at 54:30 when you placed the 2 in box 9, doubly forcing the 6 by virtue of needing to sum to 9. You got there eventually, but I think it would have collapsed the puzzle much more quickly!

[@danielwcrompton]

And the 5 in box 8 fixed the 35 pair on the arrow spanning box 2 & 3

[@Kroonkurkable]

Haha, channeling agadmator!!

[@glum_hippo]

I solved this, but took a very obtuse long time narrowing down and sorting out the small values. It was with the effort though!

[@glum_hippo]

At 23:30, I managed to see that purple could only appear in R8C4 or R9C6 of box 8, so it should never be in R8C7. This meant that R8C7 sees all the low digits and therefore that arrow sums to 8 or 9. Turned out not to be a useful deduction at all, but I did subject myself to the requisite self-flagellation

[@glum_hippo]

…aaand it looks like you drew the same conclusion at 32:40 😅

[@danielwcrompton]

3 in the corner didn't get a song

[@clausewitzianwar]

"This is a very unpleasant medley of orange and purple." As a college sports fan who dislikes Clemson, I whole-heartedly agree.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

There is a coffee chain, originally based in my area, whose logo is orange and purple (some of you will recognize DD) -- that's what this made me think of.

[@DOSSTONED]

This is extreme hard for me, took nearly 0.9625hours for me to solve it. Actually the color is helpful when you did not abuse it, what I learned is for I would go mad when coloring is above 3... Keep simple and dig deeper, you'll find a route to it/

[@65Superhawk]

Isn't that essentially just a king's restriction?

[@alasyon]

That’s 3 in the corner.

[@sueinnes6959]

I think I must have missed at the start… why couldn’t it also be 1, 2 and 5 to make 8 for example? Why was Simon able to rule out a 5 on the arrow sum lines? I know this is a stupid question, sorry!

[@jayforty9824]

Hi Sue! Not a stupid question at all. You have to look at those four arrows together and use some maths. The sum of the four arrows must be equal to the sum of the four arrow circles. In rows 4, 5 and 6, the arrows together use 4 cells in each row. So the smallest digits you can put in those 4 cells in each row is 1234, which adds to 10. Counting all three rows, it adds to 30. Now let's look at the circles in row 7. The largest digits you can put in the circles in row 7 is 6789, which adds to 30 as well. So now if you would put a 5 in one of the rows 4-6, that would mean the arrow lines would sum to at least 31, since that row would sum to at least 11. But we just showed that the circles can never add to more than 30. So that wouldn't work.

[@maralenenok]

@@jayforty9824 I came to this comment section to ask this exact question. Thank you so much for explaining!

[@sueinnes6959]

@@jayforty9824 Oh I see! Simon did say that, I just didn’t quite click. That does make sense, thank you so much! And thank you for taking the time to write such a clear explanation, I really appreciate it.

[@purpleli4760]

3 in the corner, but doesn't comment on it

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

is everything okay simon? this is 2x this week you didn’t sing “3 in the corner” despite pointing out other corners not getting a song only moments before

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

30:52 - It's hard to watch Simon when he's highlighting a cell which if low can only be Purple, and then rules itself out of box 8. (R8,C7)... You just want to give him a little nudge. *So, so, so, so CLOSE...!* Thus (R8, C6) is an 8 or 9.

[@jayforty9824]

I was so nervous at that point that he might miss it and take another path. Fortunately he came back around and used it a few minutes later from another angle.

[@johnpauladamovsky86]

​@@jayforty9824 Ya, shortly after abandoning his focus on (R8, C7), he bounced right back into the Purple conjecture from box 8. Great puzzle.

[@OryxTheMadGod3]

This videos title sounds like the opening line to a joke

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

can someone why my logic doesn’t work. after we concluded that a 5/6 goes on the 3 cell arrows in the first 3 boxes, a contradiction should have arisen. since a 5/6 must be on the arrow, none of the colors can be a 4 or else we break the arrow. wait i just realized, this means that all 4 colors can’t be on both arrows or we’ll have to pencil in a 4. but since we know blue or yellow has to be 1, we have to knock off a green or pink or both blues/yellows.

[@no_name4796]

Hope gas prices go up so simon won't be cooking with gas anymore...

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Once again I couldn't get it on my own. I blame myself, not the puzzle though.

[@glennmelven3414]

Not everybody gets cross when full coloring is not given. I don't get cross.

[@robertjung8929]

it has at least one more solution .. i got a different one, but took me 146 minutes :)

[@tessabrisac7423]

Check the king’s move in your solution, it would be very surprising if a published puzzle had two solutions after all the testing it goes through.

[@RichSmith77]

Also, don't trust the check function. Unless it's been changed, it doesn't check for a valid solution, it only checks standard sudoku rules. Plus, if there were multiple solutions, Simon would have had to make a mistake somewhere in his solve in claiming a cell had to be a particular digit, and it would most likely have been commented on.

[@robertjung8929]

@@tessabrisac7423 ​ you're right... check function is not checking for the king's move rule .. and surely i found 3 places during a manual check :D

[@robertjung8929]

@@RichSmith77 yep. that's the case.. trusted the check fuction and didn't found my mistake right away ;)

[@HunterJE]

I feel like sometimes Simon's insistence on coloring every instance of a value beyond and past usefulness, while admittedly pretty, makes him miss Sudoku stuff. Specifically, I wonder if he would have noticed the 5 in column 6 pointing at the 35 pair in row 3 more readily without the rainbows all over the whole grid...

[@RichSmith77]

I felt we achieved a small break through when he uncoloured 1s and 9s at 47:35. 🙂

[@Pritchie45]

93 minutes

[@bristolrovers27]

Beat the bot

[@spudd86]

Just a comment it seems like you really should have removed most of the colours from the pyramid arrows after deducing that they must have at least one cell 5 or more since some of the colouring was only possible on the assumption that they are all low. That is you could only eliminate some colours from certain positions based on the assumption that the other two positions were also low, which you proved wasn't true. (For example, if r3c3 can be 5 there's no reason r2c4 can't be green)

[@stephenbeck7222]

Yep.

[@RichSmith77]

Agree. (Think you're cell column references are off?)

[@tzeneth]

Second time in a row of 3 in a corner near the end without a song :'(

[@Ratzfaz]

My time 146:57 is it possible to be more worse than me ?

[@emphyriohazzl1510]

Oh yes dont worry :). I'll stay silent on my time though, but when you miss something simple, you can sometimes miss it for a very long time ^^