I am Stefan Heine, the author of this puzzle and I am totally honored that Simon has included it in his broadcast - thank you very much for that! I've been making sudokus since 1998, founded the German championship in 2005, attended all world championships and I've written the sudokus of many, many international, national and other championships around the world, but this little killer got me into one of the most embarrassing situations of my life. Official German Sudoku Championship 2012: The final, last round, last puzzle and five out of six finalists despair in the same place with the same number of numbers found. It is actually an absolute no-go to change the rules during a competition, but I gave everyone the tip to determine the sum of the two numbers left below and right above. Simon wondered why all the diagonal sums were determined, but these two numbers were not and that is exactly the right approach and rational from today's perspective, but Little Killer was new territory back then. So the participants could hardly train, I as an author was deeply involved, too deep in that moment, and it hasn't happened to me since then. If I had to get rid of one more piece of advice for Little Killer, and that would have saved Simon a lot of time in this case: Always pay attention to the little diagonals (that's why "little") first, first, first! Of course, you also need the normal Sudoku rules, but the key to success is almost never in an extreme standard Sudoku method. To get back to this Sudoku: Fortunately, it remains difficult for a while, even if you have found the "master key" - even with good Sudokus, the following applies: Never rejoice too early ;-) ...
Lieber Stefan Hast Du das kleine Gedicht das ich Dir zu Ehren geschrieben habe, gelesen? Du kannst es hier irgendwo in den Kommentaren finden. Vielen Dank für Deinen faszinierenden Little Killer.
@@amoswittenbergsmusings Hi Amos, na klar habe ich das gelesen - es war das allererste, ich habe es sofort geliked - und ich war so gerührt, dass ich mich erst danach entschloss, hier überhaupt einen Kommentar zu hinterlassen. Vielen lieben Dank dir! Auch wenn ein Vergleich mit Heinrich natürlich vermessen ist. Was in diesem Channel passiert, kann ich gar nicht recht glauben und ich freue und wundere mich mehr und mehr. Liebe Grüße, Stefan
@@raetselmacher "Auch wenn ein Vergleich mit Heinrich natürlich vermessen ist": Mein Vater war ein deutschsprachiger assimilierter Jude aus Außig a/d Elbe, heute Ústí nad Labem in der Tchechei, einer der ersten Ostvertriebenen, als er 1938 in die Niederlande ging, wo ich geboren wurde. Er liebte Heine sehr und erwähnte immer Heines unerwiderte Liebe zu seinem lieben Deutschland - ein Beispiel dafür, was Amos Elon "The Pity of It All" ["Das Traurige an Allem"] nannte. Sein Buch wurde auch, unter dem Titel "Zu einer anderen Zeit," ins Deutsche übersetzt. Ich bin einmal mit meinem Auto von der österreichischen Grenze bis zu Antwerpen gefahren und habe bewußt alle Autobahnen gemieden. Als ich durch die schöne deutsche Landschaft mit ihren freundlichen Städten und Dörfern fuhr, in denen meine deutschen Vorfahren lebten und liebten, erkannte ich den Schmerz von Heines Beziehung zu den Deutschen und dem Land, das er niemals hinterlassen konnte, obwohl er in Paris lebte, um frei schreiben zu können, unbelastet von der steigenden Flut des falschen Nationalismus. Deutsch bleibt in meiner Familie eine Zweitsprache, obwohl keiner von uns in den deutschen Ländern lebt. Es war toll mit Dir zu sprechen. Ein interessanter Link: www.independent.co.uk/news/arts-germany-learns-to-love-its-bothersome-poet-1289557.html.
This was a very nice puzzle indeed! I like how so many of the totals were not individually relevant - I think Simon ignored about 90% of them, apart from their cumulative effect.
Fascinating! Thanks for popping in here and sharing. Just another reason I'm happy I found this channel. Feel like I'm learning so much about a hobby I didn't know was so deep and there are always interesting new puzzles or insights. Great way to wind down and relax after a long day. Brilliant puzzle!
@@nerdiconium1365 If you're really going down that road, you may consider apparatchik or even nudnik. Either way, I somehow think the kid won't be grateful for his parents' name-calling: grey and boring, very annoying or limey - whatever that implies. Nah, not a good idea :-)
I've been subscribed for less than a week, but I just have to say as someone with basically no sudoku skills, you guys seriously deserve 300k. I honestly never thought I'd find a channel like yours that is so engaging and fun to watch!
I thought I was good at sudoku until I discovered your channel and see the types of puzzle real experts are solving. I often find myself too intimidated to even attempt any of your puzzles. But I like watching and hearing how your brain works through these
You could try to get started on a puzzle and come back to the video every time you get stuck, you'll notice that you'll get stuck less and less as time goes on
Add up all of the side numbers and the unused diagonal to get the 89 pair in the other corners. (Alvaro's 79 pair disambiguates which way 'round it goes)
They also do puzzles made by humans. Many of the puzzles on free apps are computer generated and don't use the same logic and tricks that are often found in their puzzles.
It's amusing how so many diagonals makes it so easy for Simon to miss that he's completed a diagonal but for one space, at at least one point he calls himself out for doing it so many times previously whilst filling in the penultimate cell of a diagonal clue and not completing it...
‘Cracking the Cryptic’ is Known for its images Showcasing challenges, Puzzles with spark. Absence of arrogance, Superintelligence, Always with elegance: Simon and Mark
I'm still struggling at these puzzles, but I am very happy to say that, even though I needed the vid's help to complete the sudoku on my own, I eventually managed to finish it ! It took me nearly 2 hours, but it feels so nice being able to understand and to crack some part of it by yourself. Thank you guys so much for publishing these beautiful challenges online :)
Congratulations on the 300K subs, Simon and Mark. As a big fan of the channel who joined over a year ago, I've anticipated this day too as it came closer. It is most well deserved!
I have always been good at sudoku but didn’t really care about it. Randomly got introduced to your channel and I absolutely love watching you! These puzzles are so challenging and I love how you narrate how you solve them. It has made me start playing sudoku puzzles again hah!
Wow. Bonus done in just under 12 minutes. I think that's the fastest time I've ever had on one of your featured puzzles. Congratulations on 300K! Here's to half a million by the end of next year!
Same time as me. Though I made an error somewhere and decided that the 1 and 7 in box 7 added to an odd digit and needed the 5 in r7c2.... Not my best moment
Congrats on getting to 300K. Got the bonus thermo done in 23:38, which I felt was slow, but I completed it without breaking, so I feel pretty good about it.
I'd love to watch a video of Simon in full speed-solve mode. No talking, just destroying a puzzle at maximum velocity. Just one video, of course. I wouldn't want the whole channel to switch to that. I'd miss "bobbins". ;)
@@KDBA, It might be interesting if he solves a puzzle given at sudoku competition. Maybe even all the puzzles. Might be amazing way to celebrate a round number of subscribers. ;) ;)
I think it would be good to see simon and mark go head to head on a speed solve on a puzzle they have never seen. Like no talking just a split screen of their 2 screens in real time, to see the speed and differences in technique. if that make sense.
I was shouting "Use the clues, Luke!" while you ignored all the killer clues. But your time was really good, especially given how much time you spent explaining your thoughts. Since I was super tired I messed up the addition required to get the 2 remaining corner squares so I decided to watch the video instead :P
Nice, I managed to blow it twice. At the 40 min mark I was nearing completion and found I had made a mistake somewhere, so unwound my logic. At 65 mins got to the same point and realized that I must have repeated a logic error. Now waiting to see a solve so I can understand why my puzzle solution broke.
@@pxzallen That happens to me a lot, although not on that particular puzzle. It's very frustrating that I never know what error I made, fat fingers sometimes I suspect.
My third time through while reducing the video assist, I found that the killer clues near the lower right corner can be especially helpful toward the end. The natural progression allows you to make some good deductions about the 31 and 43 clues and then you can knock everything over quickly.
you'd be surprised, if you keep on practicing... I felt like that would've never crossed my mind a month or 2 ago, and yet today I decided to do it before simon did. Sudoku is about practicing and not giving up
@@billionai4871 Wow, I only started playing sudoku again 3 days ago when I found this channel. The different variants of sudoku made me really interested in it and I can already see myself improving but, of course, I still have a LOT to learn. :P
Thank you guys for your feedback on the bonus puzzle. I wanted to create something on the theme of 300. I think it came out perfectly. Although it was on the easier side , but I let it be as it was because it looked beautiful.
Including some pretty detailed How tos and explanation of basic maths... This channel gives me so much joy, and really helps me to improve my gameplay.
Not only that, but, as he said, explaining everything takes even more time. And, the creator has a comment on here explaining how he had to give the finalists a hint. Simon figured it out on his own.
While I'm aware that I would have taken so very much longer to solve the puzzle, it was a tiny bit frustrating towards the end. I *was* yelling at the screen, but, well... Good on you Simon - it's always a positive that you publish these videos and show that (even at your genius level IQ) it's possible to miss the obvious. Congrats on completing the puzzle, and looking forward to many videos to come
I love how Simon goes into the history of this sudoku and then goes all like "this is an important puzzle and also an outsider has the WR right now - __lets get dangerous, what if we get it back__" and he does it while complimenting the person. I think he could have done it, too, if he didnt have to explain his thought patterns to us slowpokes.
Excellent puzzle as always! Regarding the web app, could you perhaps modify it so the grey cells remain grey even if colored and then set back to white? I spent about a half hour completely lost at one point only to realize some early coloring that I later removed accidentally turned a grey square white.
Jsyk, you can use delete to remove only the coloring if you press it while on the color tab. This should always prevent such issues. (It took me a while to realize it when I first started playing on the CTC webpages.)
Solved in just over 40 minutes. I'd love to see a video of the finalists to know what they missed. Maybe the corners, which for me was the "break in" after the obvious things. Honestly, quite approachable.
38:29 for this puzzle. Done on a tablet which was pretty annoying with colouring / notations. Still pretty happy ive done this. 14:12 for Bonus puzzle, was nice and realy approachable congrats on 300k
1 hr 16 min. Needed quite a bit of help, but actually did quite a bit on my own too! Satisfying! // 29 min on the thermo. I should have been quicker! But also satisfying! Thanks for the bonus content!
20:30 - while boxes 1 and 9 were useful initially, I think easily the most useful trick that helped was to look at the diagonals on the left and right (which Simon covers in the video about halfway through).
I got stuck on the 2nd puzzle and need help please. In the top row of box 4 I still need to place 689 but in box 7 I already got 6 and 8 in column 2. HELP!
I did the bonus in 14:42, and ... well, a good deal longer on the main puzzle. I did see the corners at least! But a good deal more looking at not-quite-the-right-next-clue.
Considering the 7 minute long intro, and you stopping to explain some very complex logics, I'd say you did pretty dang good. This right here is exactly why some of us have requested you do a live solve with little to no commentary. Just so we can see how fast you can be, when you aren't trying to explain it to us.
I wouldn't even consider tackling a "flummoxing" puzzle like this, but I did finish Doulani's bonus one in 21 minutes. There wasn't anything particularly difficult about it, making it a good evening wind-down puzzle.
Both puzzles are fun and not too difficult (19:07 & 7:36 for me). I imagine if it's during a competition, the pressure of solving it fast might make it quite a bit harder.
Completed in 29:22! Nice puzzle, but I ended up not using all the little killer clues! (Other than to get the sum of all of them, to determine the sum of R1C9 and R9C1). Other than that, loved the way the logic works!
13:31! ...for Akash's Thermo. Still pretty pleased with that. I know better than to try Stefan's Little Killer; it's far beyond my ken at this point. Though, hopefully someday...
35:32 is my time. It's not 20m but I suck at little killer, so I'm happy with this. There were actually a lot of givens here if you paid attention to some of the clues. I'm now gonna watch the video.
Aaargh. I can't tell you how many sums I did and never considered the two corner cells. I plead too much information blinded me from what was missing. I tried so many complex combos to get useless relationships such as "these six cells total ten more than these four cells". Broke down and went for a hint from the video, went back to solving and had completely forgotten the gray cell constraint! Finally solved after checking back with the video and having that pointed out to me. I have to chalk this one up as a fail.
Note that one of the sixteen clues at the top and bottom is redondant, because the sum of the main diagonal is known also and that covers the whole board. You could thus deduce the one which would be missing. But I suppose these clues were given altogether for reason of symmetry.
149 minutes - I didn't get the 89 pair in the corners for over an hour and a half so I just stumbled around the grid colouring things in, until I eventually figured it out and then it all slowly fell into place over the remaining time.
22:29 for Little Killer, 8:48 for Thermo. It took me a little while to catch the two missing corners, and then I missed finishing off some pairs, but was finally able to get through it. The thermo fared better, as the pieces fell into place quite nicely.
I can’t crack Akash’s 300 puzzle. I have tried 3 times and at about 30-40 minutes in, and 15 boxes left, it breaks on me. Is there the solve anywhere? I have no idea where I am going wrong
*sigh* ... I was streaking towards roughly a 20-minute time solve for the puzzle ... but at some point I entered a 5 where I meant to enter a 1 (I think I misread the location of one of the diagonal clues along the bottom). Funny enough, that placement put two 5s in the same column ... but all I could focus on was how I was breaking the '39' clue that starts in r3c1. Rather than see the obvious, I took a screenshot and started over. I can laugh at how I missed such an obvious error, but I know I could have bested my actual time of 31:51. That said, I did enjoy this puzzle. Funny enough, I don't believe the two red diamonds are in any way necessary; this puzzle can be solved without them.
Took me 17 minutes (with some help from the video). Box 8 has a hidden 23 pair in c5r7 and c6r7 because the 39 clue is in 6 cells. Because 39=45-6 and 6=1+2+3, r4c7 has no 2/3 in it. Doing maths like this helped me out a lot.
After working slowly but steadily through it, whittling down the options a little bit at a time, after 40 minutes I found a row that didn't have anywhere it could take a 6 😥. Turns out I had inexplicably ruled out 1-2-5 for the 8 cage right at the very start and so had spent 38 minutes going down a series of blind alleys before finding out that I was on completely the wrong route 😭.
I've thought for some time that the classic Simon Solution Method is "add up a bunch of stuff, add up another bunch of stuff, the green plus the purple minus the blue = 42 so this square has a minimum value of 1 and a maximum value of 1" and so on. Adding up 79 out of 81 squares is very nearly the limiting case of this -- I laughed, and I also think it's elegant!
Yeah, I didn't even bother trying the little killer after having heard the introduction. But I did the extra thermo, and of course botched it with some stupid error when I was more than halfway through and had to start over. So, considering my slow boat to China approach I'm not too disappointed with my 40 minutes and having to restart over.
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I am Stefan Heine, the author of this puzzle and I am totally honored that Simon has included it in his broadcast - thank you very much for that! I've been making sudokus since 1998, founded the German championship in 2005, attended all world championships and I've written the sudokus of many, many international, national and other championships around the world, but this little killer got me into one of the most embarrassing situations of my life. Official German Sudoku Championship 2012: The final, last round, last puzzle and five out of six finalists despair in the same place with the same number of numbers found. It is actually an absolute no-go to change the rules during a competition, but I gave everyone the tip to determine the sum of the two numbers left below and right above. Simon wondered why all the diagonal sums were determined, but these two numbers were not and that is exactly the right approach and rational from today's perspective, but Little Killer was new territory back then. So the participants could hardly train, I as an author was deeply involved, too deep in that moment, and it hasn't happened to me since then. If I had to get rid of one more piece of advice for Little Killer, and that would have saved Simon a lot of time in this case: Always pay attention to the little diagonals (that's why "little") first, first, first! Of course, you also need the normal Sudoku rules, but the key to success is almost never in an extreme standard Sudoku method. To get back to this Sudoku: Fortunately, it remains difficult for a while, even if you have found the "master key" - even with good Sudokus, the following applies: Never rejoice too early ;-) ...
Lieber Stefan
Hast Du das kleine Gedicht das ich Dir zu Ehren geschrieben habe, gelesen? Du kannst es hier irgendwo in den Kommentaren finden.
Vielen Dank für Deinen faszinierenden Little Killer.
@@amoswittenbergsmusings Hi Amos, na klar habe ich das gelesen - es war das allererste, ich habe es sofort geliked - und ich war so gerührt, dass ich mich erst danach entschloss, hier überhaupt einen Kommentar zu hinterlassen. Vielen lieben Dank dir! Auch wenn ein Vergleich mit Heinrich natürlich vermessen ist. Was in diesem Channel passiert, kann ich gar nicht recht glauben und ich freue und wundere mich mehr und mehr. Liebe Grüße, Stefan
@@raetselmacher
"Auch wenn ein Vergleich mit Heinrich natürlich vermessen ist":
Mein Vater war ein deutschsprachiger assimilierter Jude aus Außig a/d Elbe, heute Ústí nad Labem in der Tchechei, einer der ersten Ostvertriebenen, als er 1938 in die Niederlande ging, wo ich geboren wurde. Er liebte Heine sehr und erwähnte immer Heines unerwiderte Liebe zu seinem lieben Deutschland - ein Beispiel dafür, was Amos Elon "The Pity of It All" ["Das Traurige an Allem"] nannte. Sein Buch wurde auch, unter dem Titel "Zu einer anderen Zeit," ins Deutsche übersetzt.
Ich bin einmal mit meinem Auto von der österreichischen Grenze bis zu Antwerpen gefahren und habe bewußt alle Autobahnen gemieden. Als ich durch die schöne deutsche Landschaft mit ihren freundlichen Städten und Dörfern fuhr, in denen meine deutschen Vorfahren lebten und liebten, erkannte ich den Schmerz von Heines Beziehung zu den Deutschen und dem Land, das er niemals hinterlassen konnte, obwohl er in Paris lebte, um frei schreiben zu können, unbelastet von der steigenden Flut des falschen Nationalismus.
Deutsch bleibt in meiner Familie eine Zweitsprache, obwohl keiner von uns in den deutschen Ländern lebt.
Es war toll mit Dir zu sprechen.
Ein interessanter Link: www.independent.co.uk/news/arts-germany-learns-to-love-its-bothersome-poet-1289557.html.
This was a very nice puzzle indeed! I like how so many of the totals were not individually relevant - I think Simon ignored about 90% of them, apart from their cumulative effect.
Fascinating! Thanks for popping in here and sharing. Just another reason I'm happy I found this channel. Feel like I'm learning so much about a hobby I didn't know was so deep and there are always interesting new puzzles or insights. Great way to wind down and relax after a long day. Brilliant puzzle!
This man really out here being the david attenborough of sudokus, and i love it
thank you for putting to words exactly how I've felt about simon all along
I would love to like your response, but the number of likes is 69, so unfortunately I can't :(
An analyst streaming from Devon
Explained a sudoku from heaven
With diction so solemn
It felt like a poem
By Heine, not Heinrich but Stefan.
Somehow the first thought i got out of this poem is that “Limmerick” isn’t a bad name for a kid
@@nerdiconium1365 If you're really going down that road, you may consider apparatchik or even nudnik. Either way, I somehow think the kid won't be grateful for his parents' name-calling: grey and boring, very annoying or limey - whatever that implies. Nah, not a good idea :-)
I've been subscribed for less than a week, but I just have to say as someone with basically no sudoku skills, you guys seriously deserve 300k. I honestly never thought I'd find a channel like yours that is so engaging and fun to watch!
Found them earlier this year during spring lockdown, they’ve been a life saver with all the joy they bring
it is a beautiful channel, with the "most wholesome person on the internet"
6:18 Rules
8:06 Let's get cracking!
I thought I was good at sudoku until I discovered your channel and see the types of puzzle real experts are solving. I often find myself too intimidated to even attempt any of your puzzles. But I like watching and hearing how your brain works through these
You could try to get started on a puzzle and come back to the video every time you get stuck, you'll notice that you'll get stuck less and less as time goes on
I got the 1 in the lower right. Can you guys handle the rest?
3top left... next
123 triple on the 6 on the bottom left, your move
Hey, I got the three in the top left. We're on a roll!
79 pair in the top right, next
Add up all of the side numbers and the unused diagonal to get the 89 pair in the other corners. (Alvaro's 79 pair disambiguates which way 'round it goes)
I feel like I can follow these videos so easily and see the thought process, but the second I try a medium sudoku I can't finish it
i feel exactly the same. it's a testament to their explanations that make the solution path seem so natural to understand
They also do puzzles made by humans. Many of the puzzles on free apps are computer generated and don't use the same logic and tricks that are often found in their puzzles.
It's amusing how so many diagonals makes it so easy for Simon to miss that he's completed a diagonal but for one space, at at least one point he calls himself out for doing it so many times previously whilst filling in the penultimate cell of a diagonal clue and not completing it...
‘Cracking the Cryptic’ is
Known for its images
Showcasing challenges,
Puzzles with spark.
Absence of arrogance,
Superintelligence,
Always with elegance:
Simon and Mark
I'm still struggling at these puzzles, but I am very happy to say that, even though I needed the vid's help to complete the sudoku on my own, I eventually managed to finish it ! It took me nearly 2 hours, but it feels so nice being able to understand and to crack some part of it by yourself. Thank you guys so much for publishing these beautiful challenges online :)
Yes, you taking the time to help us learn how to solve these puzzles quadruples your time so you solved the puzzle in five minutes! Thank you!!!
Congratulations on the 300K subs, Simon and Mark. As a big fan of the channel who joined over a year ago, I've anticipated this day too as it came closer. It is most well deserved!
I have always been good at sudoku but didn’t really care about it. Randomly got introduced to your channel and I absolutely love watching you! These puzzles are so challenging and I love how you narrate how you solve them. It has made me start playing sudoku puzzles again hah!
Wow. Bonus done in just under 12 minutes. I think that's the fastest time I've ever had on one of your featured puzzles.
Congratulations on 300K!
Here's to half a million by the end of next year!
That had to be the most useful total ever in a Little killer Sudoku.
40 minutes is definitely not a world class time, but I did manage to finish it.
Same time as me. Though I made an error somewhere and decided that the 1 and 7 in box 7 added to an odd digit and needed the 5 in r7c2.... Not my best moment
Same time, got a valid sudoku solution, but not all of my little killer clues have a correct total... ups
Similar time here too
Congrats on getting to 300K. Got the bonus thermo done in 23:38, which I felt was slow, but I completed it without breaking, so I feel pretty good about it.
This is the hardest sudoku that I've ever been able to solve! I enjoyed it immensely, that was great!!!!
Solved it. Took me over an hour but I think it's the first non-classic sudoku posted on this channel I've managed to solve before watching the video.
Simon doing this puzzle without explanations could probably get this puzzle in about 15 minutes or less. Ergo, he is too hard on himself.
I'd love to watch a video of Simon in full speed-solve mode. No talking, just destroying a puzzle at maximum velocity.
Just one video, of course. I wouldn't want the whole channel to switch to that. I'd miss "bobbins". ;)
@@KDBA 100%
@@KDBA, It might be interesting if he solves a puzzle given at sudoku competition. Maybe even all the puzzles.
Might be amazing way to celebrate a round number of subscribers. ;) ;)
I think it would be good to see simon and mark go head to head on a speed solve on a puzzle they have never seen. Like no talking just a split screen of their 2 screens in real time, to see the speed and differences in technique. if that make sense.
@@Wheelz2004 i like this idea
I was shouting "Use the clues, Luke!" while you ignored all the killer clues. But your time was really good, especially given how much time you spent explaining your thoughts. Since I was super tired I messed up the addition required to get the 2 remaining corner squares so I decided to watch the video instead :P
16:35 for the Thermo. That was a very nicely constructed puzzle, not too hard. VERY approachable.
Took me 40:15 lol. Only been doing sudokus for a few days though so I'm just happy I finished it
Nice, I managed to blow it twice. At the 40 min mark I was nearing completion and found I had made a mistake somewhere, so unwound my logic. At 65 mins got to the same point and realized that I must have repeated a logic error. Now waiting to see a solve so I can understand why my puzzle solution broke.
@@pxzallen That happens to me a lot, although not on that particular puzzle. It's very frustrating that I never know what error I made, fat fingers sometimes I suspect.
@@ericpraline1302 Fat Fingers is usually my biggest puzzle killer
My third time through while reducing the video assist, I found that the killer clues near the lower right corner can be especially helpful toward the end. The natural progression allows you to make some good deductions about the 31 and 43 clues and then you can knock everything over quickly.
25:20 - These have to be a 3 and a 7, and that is frustrating... That is no good.
(7 in row 9 whimpers silently to itself.)
It is frustrating ;)
You guys are world class and geniuses!
Simons ability to remember the digits that sum to every combo from 1 to 45 is very handy.
The calculations you made with 405-388 is actually genius. I never would have thought of that!
you'd be surprised, if you keep on practicing... I felt like that would've never crossed my mind a month or 2 ago, and yet today I decided to do it before simon did. Sudoku is about practicing and not giving up
@@billionai4871 Wow, I only started playing sudoku again 3 days ago when I found this channel. The different variants of sudoku made me really interested in it and I can already see myself improving but, of course, I still have a LOT to learn. :P
Thank you guys for your feedback on the bonus puzzle. I wanted to create something on the theme of 300. I think it came out perfectly. Although it was on the easier side , but I let it be as it was because it looked beautiful.
It's the first puzzle I've been able to solve solo in a looong time from this channel! Thank you, it was a lot of fun!
@@veronicafaber143 glad that u liked it :)
Congrats on 300k!!! So well deserved.
Both puzzle with so fun to solve! Incredible setting for both sudokus!
"if you manage to solve it in 20 minutes or so, you would have beaten 5 of the 6 finalists"
*Solves it in just over 20 minutes*
Including some pretty detailed How tos and explanation of basic maths... This channel gives me so much joy, and really helps me to improve my gameplay.
I took 28 while a dog was asking for attention, which I felt pretty proud of! :D
@@derekrocco4344 28 hours? Wow, and I thought I was the only one...
@@justanothergamingyoutuber8179 You meant to type 28 days, right?
Not only that, but, as he said, explaining everything takes even more time. And, the creator has a comment on here explaining how he had to give the finalists a hint. Simon figured it out on his own.
While I'm aware that I would have taken so very much longer to solve the puzzle, it was a tiny bit frustrating towards the end. I *was* yelling at the screen, but, well...
Good on you Simon - it's always a positive that you publish these videos and show that (even at your genius level IQ) it's possible to miss the obvious. Congrats on completing the puzzle, and looking forward to many videos to come
I needed some time to come understand the opening of the diagonals one, but when I did it felt very satisfying.
Loved this puzzle and great to solve!
43:39 for me with 1 hint from the video. I'm quite happy with that. Nice puzzle!
28:30 for the first one; 12:28 for the second. A couple of nice puzzles.
I don't think the word flummoxed has ever entered my brain volitionally. You two make me feel really dumb sometimes 😂
In all fairness, I don’t think the word “volitionally” has entered mine!😂
I love how Simon goes into the history of this sudoku and then goes all like "this is an important puzzle and also an outsider has the WR right now - __lets get dangerous, what if we get it back__" and he does it while complimenting the person.
I think he could have done it, too, if he didnt have to explain his thought patterns to us slowpokes.
Excellent puzzle as always! Regarding the web app, could you perhaps modify it so the grey cells remain grey even if colored and then set back to white? I spent about a half hour completely lost at one point only to realize some early coloring that I later removed accidentally turned a grey square white.
Jsyk, you can use delete to remove only the coloring if you press it while on the color tab. This should always prevent such issues. (It took me a while to realize it when I first started playing on the CTC webpages.)
@@timothymcdonnell1186 Ah thank you for the tip! Cheers!
They've also removed 'white' as a colour option in the new software, that's currently in alpha release.
Solved in just over 40 minutes. I'd love to see a video of the finalists to know what they missed. Maybe the corners, which for me was the "break in" after the obvious things. Honestly, quite approachable.
Huge congratulations for hitting 300K. who would have thought people actually wanted to see daily sudoku solving
Solved the first one with help from the video. Nice idea!
38:29 for this puzzle. Done on a tablet which was pretty annoying with colouring / notations. Still pretty happy ive done this.
14:12 for Bonus puzzle, was nice and realy approachable
congrats on 300k
Beat the thermo in 16:09!
Great puzzle & solve.
27:50 “I keep doing this in the most inefficient way; it’s very annoying.” Simon said it, but we were all thinking it.... ;-)
Congrats on 300 subscribers!!
1 hr 16 min. Needed quite a bit of help, but actually did quite a bit on my own too! Satisfying! // 29 min on the thermo. I should have been quicker! But also satisfying! Thanks for the bonus content!
20:30 - while boxes 1 and 9 were useful initially, I think easily the most useful trick that helped was to look at the diagonals on the left and right (which Simon covers in the video about halfway through).
Awesome! I got so close to Simon with this one :)
I managed in 27 minutes exactly.😁 Fascinating story!
I got stuck on the 2nd puzzle and need help please. In the top row of box 4 I still need to place 689 but in box 7 I already got 6 and 8 in column 2. HELP!
I finished in 28:40. I spotted the break-in immediately, I'm just slow (aka bad) at little killer sudoku. Wonderful idea.
I did the bonus in 14:42, and ... well, a good deal longer on the main puzzle. I did see the corners at least! But a good deal more looking at not-quite-the-right-next-clue.
Considering the 7 minute long intro, and you stopping to explain some very complex logics, I'd say you did pretty dang good. This right here is exactly why some of us have requested you do a live solve with little to no commentary. Just so we can see how fast you can be, when you aren't trying to explain it to us.
I just added 3,10, 22 for box 1.. enlightening indeed Simon.. thanks for the great idea..Now for box 9 =D
29:00 such a tease! I was looking at it for a minute!!
I wouldn't even consider tackling a "flummoxing" puzzle like this, but I did finish Doulani's bonus one in 21 minutes. There wasn't anything particularly difficult about it, making it a good evening wind-down puzzle.
21:22 on the little killer. It was fun and i enjoyed it.
6:57 on the bonus puzzle.
Congrats again on getting to 300K. Next up is 400K, I guess. :)
25 minutes for the second puzzle for me. I'm quite pleased with that. It was a great puzzle.
Congratulations on the 300k!
I had the idea to calculate the sum of the 2 corners not given, and that summed to a very useful sum
Both puzzles are fun and not too difficult (19:07 & 7:36 for me). I imagine if it's during a competition, the pressure of solving it fast might make it quite a bit harder.
I was sent this link incorrectly, but great to watch.
I never imagined that I would be so intrigued by a guy solving sudoku puzzles.
Completed in 29:22! Nice puzzle, but I ended up not using all the little killer clues! (Other than to get the sum of all of them, to determine the sum of R1C9 and R9C1). Other than that, loved the way the logic works!
140 minutes and proud of it.
The 300k puzzle special was so good, finished in 35:32 so there is still some room for improvement :D
13:31! ...for Akash's Thermo. Still pretty pleased with that. I know better than to try Stefan's Little Killer; it's far beyond my ken at this point. Though, hopefully someday...
Congratulations on 300k! Also, cracked the thermo in 7:45
35:32 is my time. It's not 20m but I suck at little killer, so I'm happy with this. There were actually a lot of givens here if you paid attention to some of the clues. I'm now gonna watch the video.
Aaargh. I can't tell you how many sums I did and never considered the two corner cells. I plead too much information blinded me from what was missing. I tried so many complex combos to get useless relationships such as "these six cells total ten more than these four cells". Broke down and went for a hint from the video, went back to solving and had completely forgotten the gray cell constraint! Finally solved after checking back with the video and having that pointed out to me. I have to chalk this one up as a fail.
Note that one of the sixteen clues at the top and bottom is redondant, because the sum of the main diagonal is known also and that covers the whole board. You could thus deduce the one which would be missing. But I suppose these clues were given altogether for reason of symmetry.
You are far too hard on yourself, you are an absolute genius at puzzles.
Oh wow, never been such an early bird on CTC! Puzzle looks promising!
149 minutes - I didn't get the 89 pair in the corners for over an hour and a half so I just stumbled around the grid colouring things in, until I eventually figured it out and then it all slowly fell into place over the remaining time.
38:01 for the thermo. My favorite type even though I'm slow
22:29 for Little Killer, 8:48 for Thermo. It took me a little while to catch the two missing corners, and then I missed finishing off some pairs, but was finally able to get through it. The thermo fared better, as the pieces fell into place quite nicely.
Congratulations on 300k!🎉🎉
congrats on 300k!!
I can’t crack Akash’s 300 puzzle. I have tried 3 times and at about 30-40 minutes in, and 15 boxes left, it breaks on me.
Is there the solve anywhere? I have no idea where I am going wrong
i just always think of queens gambit when you talk about puzzle championships haha. instead of chess its sudoku
Got this done in just under 40 min, which by my standard is fast! And congrats with the 300k
*sigh* ... I was streaking towards roughly a 20-minute time solve for the puzzle ... but at some point I entered a 5 where I meant to enter a 1 (I think I misread the location of one of the diagonal clues along the bottom). Funny enough, that placement put two 5s in the same column ... but all I could focus on was how I was breaking the '39' clue that starts in r3c1. Rather than see the obvious, I took a screenshot and started over.
I can laugh at how I missed such an obvious error, but I know I could have bested my actual time of 31:51. That said, I did enjoy this puzzle.
Funny enough, I don't believe the two red diamonds are in any way necessary; this puzzle can be solved without them.
Took me 17 minutes (with some help from the video). Box 8 has a hidden 23 pair in c5r7 and c6r7 because the 39 clue is in 6 cells. Because 39=45-6 and 6=1+2+3, r4c7 has no 2/3 in it. Doing maths like this helped me out a lot.
But there COULD have been a 2 or a 3 on this diagonal, there is even a 1 in the final solution... You were right with the 23 pair but lucky 😉
@@francoisduez601 Oh, well then I just got reeaaaaallllly lucky
Oh my, congratulations for reaching that goal!
happy 300k! thermo in 11:07
the other too long to say anything about it (had to use the tip of summing all diagonals.)
loved it. took me an hour so thats good i guess
the other one was nice and enjoyable
Disgraceful!!!
....😆...hardly my friend....another stellar 🎭.....
falling back on sudoku logic slowed you down a lot, made you forget the side clues for some easy progress
After working slowly but steadily through it, whittling down the options a little bit at a time, after 40 minutes I found a row that didn't have anywhere it could take a 6 😥. Turns out I had inexplicably ruled out 1-2-5 for the 8 cage right at the very start and so had spent 38 minutes going down a series of blind alleys before finding out that I was on completely the wrong route 😭.
On the plus side, I finished the bonus puzzle in 14 minutes so I'm happy again 👍🏻
I've thought for some time that the classic Simon Solution Method is "add up a bunch of stuff, add up another bunch of stuff, the green plus the purple minus the blue = 42 so this square has a minimum value of 1 and a maximum value of 1" and so on. Adding up 79 out of 81 squares is very nearly the limiting case of this -- I laughed, and I also think it's elegant!
congratulations on hitting 300k
Congrats on 300k. The thermo took me 10:15 felt slow.
Got the bonus puzzle in 13:49!
This took me an 106 minutes :O ...but I'm glad I could manage it by myself :D
Do not play the drinking game where you drink a shot every time Simon types the wrong number and immediately corrects it. You will die.
It would be cool to see you solve a puzzle without talking through on occasion, just to see how fast you can go compared to other world class solvers
Second puzzle took me 18:30, but I solved it from scratch!
Yeah, I didn't even bother trying the little killer after having heard the introduction. But I did the extra thermo, and of course botched it with some stupid error when I was more than halfway through and had to start over. So, considering my slow boat to China approach I'm not too disappointed with my 40 minutes and having to restart over.