Many thanks again for your solve, Craig. For me, your key insight was figuring out that the second cell down in the fourth column had to be a 1 and the seventh cell down in that column had to be a 5. In retrospect, it was pretty easy to see, but I just didn’t get it. Once those fell into place, I found the rest pretty straightforward. (Unlike you, I’m just not clever enough to solve it in the original tiny scale in the newspaper. So I write out a larger version on a piece of graph paper, and then, usually, try to fill in all 49 cells with possible numbers, omitting the numbers that obviously are impossible.
Thank you! Yeah... I do think that I figured out the L-shaped 12+ with the "1" that you mentioned much earlier than I normally would have. There were just so many options that were quickly (and surprisingly) eliminated. And I'm not sure how brave I am, but I definitely have to wear my "readers" to see anything clearly, since the NYT prints the puzzles so small. Finally, are you really writing all the numbers in every square, and then eliminating as you go? That is an IMPRESSIVE amount of work! Whatever works for you though - best of luck!!!
around 7:00 - think of it like this: The smallest numbers available to the left half of the 12 are 4 and 5, meaning the highest that third cell can be is 3. 2,3, and 6 are gone in column 4, so the last number available for that third cell in the L 12 is 1.
Many thanks again for your solve, Craig. For me, your key insight was figuring out that the second cell down in the fourth column had to be a 1 and the seventh cell down in that column had to be a 5. In retrospect, it was pretty easy to see, but I just didn’t get it.
Once those fell into place, I found the rest pretty straightforward. (Unlike you, I’m just not clever enough to solve it in the original tiny scale in the newspaper. So I write out a larger version on a piece of graph paper, and then, usually, try to fill in all 49 cells with possible numbers, omitting the numbers that obviously are impossible.
Thank you! Yeah... I do think that I figured out the L-shaped 12+ with the "1" that you mentioned much earlier than I normally would have. There were just so many options that were quickly (and surprisingly) eliminated. And I'm not sure how brave I am, but I definitely have to wear my "readers" to see anything clearly, since the NYT prints the puzzles so small. Finally, are you really writing all the numbers in every square, and then eliminating as you go? That is an IMPRESSIVE amount of work! Whatever works for you though - best of luck!!!
Over 5 years!!!
@@pamelastar6648 Well, at least since May of 2022! 😂
around 7:00 - think of it like this: The smallest numbers available to the left half of the 12 are 4 and 5, meaning the highest that third cell can be is 3. 2,3, and 6 are gone in column 4, so the last number available for that third cell in the L 12 is 1.
Yup! Exactly right.