You Know Who.... He's Back!!!

▶ OUR NEW ARROW SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS!
Here are the links:
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*********************************************************************
Today's puzzle is the latest in the seemingly never-ending run of genius sudokus by Phistomefel. You could not find a more enjoyable, rich and satisfying puzzle. You can play the puzzle at the link below:
app.crackingth...
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Cells separated by a knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit. Digits along arrows must sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.
▶ NEW HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY SUDOKU HUNT! ◀
We've released a sudoku hunt themed on The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as our monthly Patreon reward for June. Remember that we will also be releasing a new Murder Mystery Sudoku Hunt for everybody if we reach 5000 patrons.
/ crackingthecryptic
▶ NEW CTC PODCAST - PILOT EPISODE ◀
You can listen to our new podcast at the links below.
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple...
Google Play: podcasts.googl...
Spotify: open.spotify.c...
**************************************************************
▶ OUR NEW KILLER SUDOKU APP IS OUT ON ALL PLATFORMS◀
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store.steampow...
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▶ SIMON REACTION BOARD (!) ◀
With thanks to Andrea for creating this :)
simonreacts.av...
▶ OUR MIRACLE SUDOKU APP IS OUT ◀
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▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀
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NEW: Guide To Our Discord Server:
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▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE - ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀
tinyurl.com/CT...
▶ OUR NEW THERMO SUDOKU APP IS OUT!◀
AppStore: apps.apple.com...
Android: play.google.co...
Steam: store.steampow...
▶ NEW CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀
teespring.com/...
▶ OUR CHESS SUDOKU APP IS NOW OUT!◀
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▶TRY OUR CLASSIC SUDOKU APP◀
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▶TRY OUR SANDWICH SUDOKU APP◀
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Steam: store.steampow...
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▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀
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▶FOLLOW US◀
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▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). We are building a website which will allow you to enter your own sudoku puzzles into the software and this is coming soon!
▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini
▶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.
Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[@dismalfailure44]

At this point Simon vs Phistomefel feels like Holmes vs Moriarty

[@Descending.]

Aristotle vs Mashy spike-plate!

[@verstrickt.und.ausgerechnet]

More like Bonnie and Clyde imho

[@Coyotek4]

Would that make Mark 'Mycroft'?

[@Zardox2]

🤣🤣🤣

[@piozensen2936]

Perfect

[@jovaji72]

Phistomefel + colouring + 3 in the corner = perfect Saturday.

[@th.nd.r]

Absolutely

[@truckerob70]

The only thing that makes today better is that I'm driving across the US tomorrow.

[@mahmoudabdelghany7112]

Can't agree more xDD

[@pinokions6375]

I started looking for "how to solve classic sudoku" tips like 3 months ago when i ran onto the CTC... If someone told me i am going to watch hour-long videos of a man solving sudoku and not get bored(quite the opposite) i would have called him crazy... But there is something strangely pleasing seeing Simon find the logic, even though i have no idea how, and i cant stop watching... Btw love the shorter and "easier" ones ahahah like like 30-45mins short 🤣

[@paulunderwood4162]

It kind of got me like that too. It's just so amazing to be a part of. Legends they are

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@paulunderwood4162 Ditto!

[@Bin1aggin]

My favorite is when he has to use colors to disambiguate the numbers like this one. So much fun to watch. Makes me feel smart when I am capable of following /keep up with the logic thanks Simon!

[@valuial8691]

I feel the same. Never would have thought watching someone solve Sudoku puzzles would be that interesting. Though I prefer the longer ones, where after those 30-45 minutes you maybe see the first number on the grid. And when I shout at him because he missed some clue... That's just because I am so happy to have spotted a clue at last. Usually I'm rather stumped with Simon's genius.

[@gi0nbecell]

Indeed. Also, I nearly exclusively watch Simon, as his style is way more pleasant to watch than Mark‘s utter genius (or, sometimes, wild goodliffeing of the whole grid). Simon‘s display of child-like glee is just enjoyable. And I mean that in the best light, as famous German writer Erich Kästner (who wrote brilliant books for kids, I recommend them to everyone, especially things like Das fliegende Klassenzimmer - „The flying classroom“): „Only those who get old, but stays young nonetheless, is human.“ - a quote I take to my heart.

[@SnowTheJamMan]

When Simon brings out the purples in the first 5 minutes you know it's gonna be a good video.

[@friedhelm5344]

So true.

[@spelldaddy5386]

I'm just disappointed that two different digits were left white. How are we supposed to differentiate between them if you don't color one of them? 😂

[@thoughtbyte]

I'm happy to see this so quickly. It was the first Phistomefel that I solved on my own after seeing it on Logic Masters Germany. I could barely finish medium difficulty sudokus a year ago. It's been quite a ride, thank you CtC and all the constructors out there!

[@trmcloughlin]

I bit of how Simon brings joy beyond the rows, columns, and boxes of a sudoku grid: First day taking the kids to the neighborhood pool; checking on pandemic rules. Manager starts saying the rules are back to normal and all I hear in my head is, “Normal pool rules apply.” Cheers!

[@Nevir202]

Look who's back, back again. Phistomefel's back, tell a friend.

[@tabularasa0606]

Tell a fiend!

[@stevesebzda570]

@@tabularasa0606 Lol Back ageen'.. Tell a feind.. Good one lol Both of them.. (Including the friend.. ) Lol, (Yes, again..) [[Edit. Good ones lol ]]

[@BlakeMcCringleberry]

This puzzle was one of those where Simon hovers his cursor over the important square and goes off to do something very difficult instead. The purple in box 5 was just sitting there waiting to resolve all the purples for so long.

[@afrayedknot81]

You know it was a great puzzle if Simon ever says “I’m running out of colors”

[@bibliopolist]

This is also where he pretty much always can delete several colors... and doesn't, just to annoy me personally. :-)

[@KalOrtPor]

I hope a future update allows extra shades or more colors, while up to 81 combinations should satisfy any crazy solving attempt, at least light-med-dark would be useful for some hard ones where you need more than 9 when you're not sure which color a new cell that doesn't see the others belongs to, or to more easily distinguish colors that are definitely placed vs. candidates. The multi-color mode was a very useful addition though.

[@afrayedknot81]

@@KalOrtPor yeah, I do like f-puzzles’ light/dark versions of each color. That’s very handy. I usually use darker shades for definite placements and lighter shades for candidates.

[@StephaneBura]

I want to believe that Phistomefel put the last 3 in the corner just for Simon :)

[@Stevedawhoop]

No because Simon just miss the 8 that disambiguate the 38 at the top

[@TheGyrocop]

@@StevedawhoopCmon let a man dream.

[@balbinus]

same.

[@martinepstein9826]

I recently watched an old CtC video where Simon placed a 3 in the corner and didn't sing the song. It was the strangest experience...

[@DirkieB]

@@Stevedawhoop knowing phistomefel, as well as any mortal can hope to know him, He would know Simon would do exactly that and end up with the 3 in the corner.

[@jonhansen9622]

"Three has never been assigned a color, so bad luck."

[@Yokimisa]

And it lost it's religion. Poor three.

[@StorymasterQ]

@@Yokimisa Also not being assigned a color means it's white, so in a spotlight. Just reaching at this point XD

[@EjvindGEMDark]

I'm crap at these, I don't know why I watch these and act high and mighty when I spot something you don't considering you did it all in the first place! I'd have been stuck with a blank screen. Great video though!

[@avisian8063]

You and me both

[@susanne5803]

We're all entitled to feel smart for a second!😄

[@pandaspangel]

Ah, my favorite matchup! Phistomefel vs. Simon. With a smiley face in the first few minutes, I already know this’ll be a great one.

[@derekfordyce9]

Have we ever had Phistomefel vs. Mark?

[@pandaspangel]

@@derekfordyce9 I don’t think so? If it’s happened, I never saw it. Still, it’s fun to see Simon solve Phistomefel’s puzzles, is all. A genius solving a work of genius.

[@stewartm6962]

Does anyone else find the sound of Simon's keyboard clacking oddly satisfying?

[@avisian8063]

What are each of the button presses? There's so many. THERE'S TOO MANY... Yeah maybe we experience it differently

[@WayneRossi]

@@avisian8063 the app he’s using has keyboard shortcuts that switch between entering a digit, corner marking, center marking, and coloring. Also Simon miskeys digits at a pretty good clip - he’s probably also switching modes a lot.

[@msx80]

Here 🙋‍♂️

[@johnholland9371]

I absolutely adore when he's clicking and clacking away forever only to have a 2 show up 😄

[@956675]

Space bar switches between modes. Also Simon is now using a not yet released version of the software allowing drawing of lines, borders and a small x between cells. This added to the normal, corner, centre and colour results in a lot more key presses than previously. Also sounds like Simon got a new keyboard with his new computer. Key presses don't seem as loud as they did before, a little disappointing as I also like the sound of the key presses.

[@mikecaird5554]

Simon, you keep saying red is purple + yellow, therefore red is greater than purple. In box 8, red cannot be on the arrow, so must be in r7c4. That means it is in R1c5 in box 2, thereby disambiguating the purple X wing.

[@mikecaird5554]

You got there eventually.

[@johnnyw4life]

I spotted it as soon as he placed the purple and was waiting 5.5 minutes exactly for him to spot it myself 😅 Then there’s the times I need his slowed down explanation to understand why he can make any move at all lol

[@KalOrtPor]

@@johnnyw4life I'm slick like that when it comes to remembering, scanning and keeping track of what I've done and what to come back to....and it still takes me twice as long to solve a puzzle as they do!

[@johnargeles7019]

It's so satisfying to watch you solve these seemingly complicated puzzles and explain them so clearly so we don't get lost in the process :)

[@markp7262]

36:34 finish. Loved how you had to color and then use the 1/2 pair to break in for digits.

[@ericpraline1302]

The puzzle that keeps on giving. Every time I thought I'd dried up, along came something else. And for once I almost out-coloured Simon. A beauty.

[@MaikaSHTsukiko]

I'm overwhelmed with joy right now!! I watched the first 10 minutes and decided to give the puzzle a go, got stuck once and came back to the video. The only thing I was missing was the deduction that Green was 9, after that I was able to complete the rest myself! My first Phistomefel feels like a dream. Thank you for the great video!

[@ZakAttak234]

I think Phistomefel put that 3 in the corner on purpose and knew Simon would have that as the last digit solved

[@esotericVideos]

I can imagine it's possible to pick which digits are going to be early or late ones to solve, but idk if it would be possible to design a sudoku such that you know which is going to be the very last digit the person will get, even following the intended path.

[@956675]

@@esotericVideos yeah, that 3 could have been done a bit sooner if Simon had spotted the knights move on the 38 pair in box 4. Also at the end could have chosen to finish the disambiguation on 3s and 8s in any order really.

[@dmcdouga07]

Something that I've seen Mark do is pair a color with light gray if it's acting like a corner pencil mark, and without light gray if it's a central mark

[@Qril]

If we could add letters, this entire thing would go away :)

[@chrisg6597]

@@Qril Yes, being able to add free text would be very useful. i.e. 30th May puzzle where there were killer cages with no totals. With free text that could have been done, rather than trying to remember the totals.

[@craigthorsen]

A good and colorful show. Logic prevails. Mahalo!

[@britlion]

Simon's happy face when he realized he could grab the crayon box. Little things that make my day.

[@jaymichaud]

15:11 “I was maligning unfairly this naughty purple cell here...” 😆

[@colinreed9587]

A brilliant puzzle; thanks Simon for all the tutoring. I managed to solve this in 94 minutes and consider this to be the hardest puzzle I have managed to solve.

[@integralmystery]

Got it done, but had an even better observation. in the app I've been using CTRL+number to do central pencil markings for ages - and I did notice the ALT+number in an update added corner pencil mark (also works using SHIFT+number) BUT I just got experimental after hearing simon's loud keyboard clacking to swap between settings and found CTRL+ALT+number for colours!!!! what an amazing improvement - hopefully some of you didn't know this already and this is of help (although if Simon starts to use it, we'll have to mentally add an extra 5-10 min to his solves when considering length to determine difficulty)

[@davidellis4031]

Simon was really on form for this video. He's always good, and never slower than my solves (About 50% of the time infinitely faster), but I don't recall him ever coming up with such tricky deductions again and again with almost no time to think in-between.

[@tOSdude]

You know the ending is going to be satisfying when you're 20 minutes in and there are still no digits on screen.

[@elis2994]

Love this! You geniuenly make my day by solving these and it is great to see you solve these incredible, at a first glance daunting, puzzles!

[@benjaminmclaren8782]

I LOVE Phistomefel puzzle's. But I also love to listen to Simon to help me fall asleep. This puzzle, however, was the first video that when I woke up in the morning, I watched the video again. I just knew that I had to know how you solved this puzzle. So thank you for this channel Simon and Mark.

[@Xelger]

I noticed the red/purple paradox a while before you did, but in the end, you still solved the whole puzzle when I was unlikely to.

[@dollarsing]

Colorful fun. Thank you!

[@glum_hippo]

It's funny, I didn't color 3 either, but I did color everything else. Well done, once again, Simon. Phistomefel is such an inspiring setter!

[@glum_hippo]

I took some time during my own solve to prove to myself that the three arrows emerging from R4C6 had to be different, and therefore they had to have 1,2, and 3 along with either 4,5,6 or 5,6,7... this led to some nice but not very clean deductions. Here as always Simon's solve was much 'cleaner' than mine. Kudos, my friend!

[@jondorthebrinkinator]

17:10 to 20:10 was a full three minutes of "Simon, plz notice R7C5, it's right there, that square Simon" but it is satisfying that your yellow, purple, red chain of logic bounced your eyes back to it before too long.

[@kylewollman2239]

Such a brilliant puzzle! Such a brilliant solve!

[@arjc5714]

Once you have all 9 of a particular digit solved, you can "recycle" the colors by removing them from the solved digit and using them for another digit. It makes the scanning easier and doesn't force you to use less-preferred colors. Scanning one or two colors is easier than scanning central pencil marks. Scanning 4+ colors is a patchwork nightmare.

[@jaega4247]

Not done yet, and haven't watched Simon, but coloring circles and their corresponding cells in the grid has never been more exciting/satisfying. : )

[@xeonrisq2919]

I rather enjoy the brief recaps at the end of solves, it shows where the critical points are in the solve, which in turn helps me spot the like in future puzzles. Please continue to recap as this is a satisfying end to the solutions of difficult puzzles.

[@richy77]

Phistomefel delivers once again! Couldn't resist not finishing the video :)

[@jinbe-san]

When there’s a Phistomefel puzzle, I’m always tempted to count how many times Simon says “beautiful”, gorgeous”, stunning”, incredible”, etc

[@laszloliptak611]

Beautiful puzzle. I am happy I was able to figure it out similarly to Simon. Solved it in 63:16.

[@bridgetchapman4561]

my favourite sudokus are ones that involve the knights move and lots of colouring -- loved this solve! :)

[@margaretsinclair6697]

Colour coded simultaneous equations. Love it.

[@MrHatsuka1]

33:00 "It's huge and easy!" Another CTC quote that must never be taken out of context...

[@TheNo1pencil]

There should be a playlist of all the Phistomefel puzzles where you put that Devil picture. It's like an ongoing battle.

[@SondreGrneng]

I've never been so engaged in a youtube video as when Simon was about to realise r7c5 couldn't be red.

[@mahmoudabdelghany7112]

Phistomefel is easily my favorite setter so far. Consistently extremely genius setting!. When I am smart enough to see the break in to any of his puzzles, I start seeing the logic flowing like a smooth nice story (and nothing is more fun xD).

[@michaelhill4091]

Another nice smooth logical puzzle by Phistomefel.

[@prahas777]

I just loved this puzzle. Bravo to you both.

[@msx80]

What a journey. Such high level duel between these two masterminds!

[@GreatUSTreasureHunt]

"I'm going to start doing sudoku puzzles." "Do you have a full set of colored pencils?" "Huh?"

[@bradleyreed8876]

Great solve of a great puzzle!

[@davidfwooldridge3430]

This reminds me of the Thermo puzzle that phistomephel put out where all the thermos interacted to give you a chain of valid digits.

[@amandeepkainth2510]

First flurry of digits for a Phistomefel puzzle are all 6's... sign of the devil no? :)

[@mkmcem]

"We reded the grid - the grid is reded, the grid is purpled" :D

[@amartyajyotisaha309]

'I think red Trumps blue' -Simon, 2021 9:23

[@user-it5wu5iv1w]

I don't know anything about sudoku except for what I've picked up form this channel and also some magazines I've borrowed from my mum and grandparents, but I immediately knew that this video referred to Phistomefel (which I'm probably spelling wrong oops)

[@alienrenders]

42:26 is my time. At first, I was at a complete loss as to how this puzzle is possible. This puzzle is a little crazy. Looking forward to seeing how Simon solves it. I had to colour most of the grid.

[@jamesahibbard]

30:00 The Blue in Box 6 must be in the top row The bottom row is ruled out by the blue in B4 The two Blues in B5 both see R5C7 The two blues in B9 both see R5C8 & R5C9 34:00 Slightly different way of coming to the same conclusion - Orange is 5 If orange was 4, R4C7 has no valid entry 3 (summing to a red 7) is ruled out by the 3 in Box 4 And it can't be another 4 (summing to the red 8) because that would put two 4s in the box.

[@Tom-df2jc]

Dam 42:00 for me, i somehow 'flew' trough this phistomefel, very enjoyable solve!

[@TheBoredNerd]

"That's three in the corner" really got me. Great way to end a 40 minute solve!

[@Coyotek4]

There have been Phistomefel puzzles that I've been able to figure out with alacrity, where I was very proud at how I did. There have been other Phistomefel puzzles where I got stuck, made an educated guess, and claimed a partial victory. This was neither of those puzzles. I got fixated on thinking the break-in involved Box 8, and it just did not occur to me to try coloring on this puzzle. The logic Simon used in coloring the red cells, in particular, was what I missed; using that, I was able to figure the rest out. Tough puzzle!

[@glennmelven3414]

What a finish! That 3 in the corner lost it's religion.

[@darleneofthetallpines5742]

Phistomefel and Simon are magnificent!

[@jenandtimhodgson]

All the colours of the rainbow... very satisfying puzzle

[@minerva5025]

Wonderful to watch, I have learned so much from you, thank you so very, very much for sharing.

[@onizhang2748]

Lovely Phistomefel puzzle!

[@cranken75]

There are some terrific arrow sudokus from Phistomefel in the new arrow app

[@istvanmagi473]

This is maybe the first Phistomephel puzzle that is not insanely hard. Not easy, but even an intermediate solver like me could do it.

[@martinepstein9826]

Great video! Arrow + anti-knight is one of my favorite variants for sure.

[@Raven-Creations]

I lost count of the number of times I shouted "red is greater than purple". Eliminating red from R7C5 unlocked so much of the puzzle, and was available for ages while you were ferreting around gaining no information of any consequence. Also, you could have placed 4 in box 6 much earlier, and that had multiple effects. I think that by the time you did place it, there was nothing left to be gained, but placing it when it became possible would have sped up the end of the solve. Another classy puzzle from the horned one. For once, this was approachable, without having to use obscure set theory or complicated mathematical deductions to get started.

[@bristolrovers27]

Brilliant puzzle Simon in his element

[@peterwen3936]

Man one of my favourite puzzle yet this year! So beautiful! Thanks Simon for helping me solve this hahaha

[@spandexalii]

this video was an instant classic and such a joy to watch ☺️

[@mwoody_]

Colouring really helps Simon see knights moves. Well, most of the time ;)

[@Playmaker6174]

Phistomefel brings out knights and archers to battle against the Sudokuman, the battle will be legendary :}

[@musicismylove92]

43:56, after ignoring the knight's move by the 8 in Box 1 for four minutes, naturally Simon finds another way to disambiguate the 3-8 pairs. Of course all my shouting was for naught haha

[@RoderickEtheria]

the cavalry archer is looking north west, the other arrow going north west is the feather in his cap.

[@OnAFitnessJourney]

Did it in 48:07 my second phistomefel puzzle, awesome, really like the beauty of knight move and coloring.

[@boristolokonnikov5172]

You do know, that the fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself? :))

[@LednacekZ]

38:54 for me. wasnt extremely hard. about average for Phistomefel. You just need to be really careful about the knight rule.

[@yueshijoorya601]

20:00 it was tough watching him not noticing, that red cannot be on the v-shaped arrow in row 7. Purple + something = red, not red + something = purple.

[@scottishrob13]

This was the first time I was able to "yell at Simon". Feels like a bit of a milestone to be honest, not getting dragged along behind the master's logic.

[@trekyncc1071]

"It's HUGE and EASY" -Simon 2021

[@NijiRanger]

Absolutely stunning as always from Phistomefel. Nothing _too_ hard, just all beautiful and well balanced. Btw, i don't think the people complaining about incomplete colouring, would mind if you simply remove all of a colour when it's no longer useful.

[@Zach010ROBLOX]

The red in box 8 bugged me for so long y'all. 😫

[@michaelhoffman2011]

I thought I was on the way to a world record time... 40 mins... but then I come down to the last 4 squares and I went back over my numbers and found my 7's were a knights move apart... Just watching back looks like I got 7 and 8's mixed up... must be a bad assumption... ohh well.. great puzzle =)

[@michaelhoffman2011]

Ok I redid it... and was able to solve it ... still a very clever puzzle

[@andrewnelson2525]

Solving a Phistomefel puzzle is like dripping water on stone. At first it doesn't seem possible to get through the stone. And it doesn't seem like each drip is accomplishing much of anything. But eventually the stone is gone.

[@chrisphillips2467]

Not seeing yellow in box 7 get placed based on boxes 8 and 9 for 15 minutes (and then based on different logic) was frustrating :) but a lovely puzzle either way, really nice journey.

[@srwapo]

2.5 hours of me spinning my wheels. I probably spent half an hour not seeing that r1c5 was putting pressure on r2c3 by knight's move.

[@fowlerj111]

Blue was placed in box 6 as of 28:22 because all the other available cells would have ruled it out of either box 5 or box 9. But that still would have intercepted Simon's solve path with his deduction that r4c7 was 2.

[@francoisduez601]

How brilliant to finish with a 3 in the corner 😁

[@ruths.5544]

I've stopped at 31:00 just to comment because I'd never have thought that a sudoku puzzle would turn into a colouring book.

[@brettaspivey]

Hooray for the Mozart of Sudoku!!!

[@brettaspivey]

Just finished it, a work of absolute genius! 3 cheers to Phistomefel!

[@PathOfShrines]

Relatively easy one from Phistomefel. The break-in is mostly just a bit of persistence in coloring plus a cute bit of logic with the 12 pairs. Unfortunately I lost my timer again due to accidentally tapping the “legacy app” link while solving this on my phone, but I think it was around 40 minutes.

[@danp6101]

Phistomefel and the Simon Square for battle Let the fray begin

[@adamheywood113]

I was able to make some restrictions (R7C3 must be the same digit as R8C6, for example) and a couple of others, but I'm just not seeing it.

[@johanrichter2695]

The logic of coloring is very nice, but visually I think coloring makes the grids look very cluttered. Some have suggested making it possible to write letters into the cells, and I think that would be better.

[@sofussverressnnfinne204]

Spotted the 11:30 logic before simon. A bit proud. Such beautiful logic though

[@tricia1072012]

Was grinning like a Cheshire cat by the end of this video. I loved everything about it.