I love it when he says "And now this puzzle is complete" but it's like 20% done

Most important thing I learned: put pencil marks where there are ONLY 2 possibilities.

Been doing sudoku for a decade, and I had read explanations of y-wing an x-wing and seen them in-game, but it never ever clicked what to do with them. Today I learned X-wing and why it's important. Thanks for that. :)

For sudoku players wanting to learn about X-wing technique/strategy, I am providing time stamps. It basically begins at: 5:32 (column 2) 6:22 (column 7) 6:51 (X-wing explanation) This is good and very simple explanation of the X-wing technique/strategy for solving more difficult sudoku puzzles. It would be nice if these timestamps were provided in description or a marked comments etc. I'm going through all vids myself trying to learn and understand all advanced techniques/strategies without falling asleep anf being bored to death.

The X-wing is EXACTLY what I have been looking for for YEARS! I KNEW there was a way to improve! WOOOONNNNDERFUL and THANX! ;O)

This was the first video I ever watched of yours. I was having trouble on a sudoku and literally searched "sudoku tricks" Then you changed my life. I've been rewatching from your start and I love how far you've come...granted the new videos are way more polished but I love the old ones too! Keep going guys! You are my daily unwind!

For anyone else who is new here--isn't it amazing how far the channel has come in such a short time? Like going back and binging all these videos... you really see how much they glew up. Not just in quality of video but behind the scenes as well. So cool to see!

Now Im going to be looking for the X-Wing every time I play. Thank you for this!

Thanks so much. I had a puzzle I could not resolve without brute force (guessing...). Even with the answer I could not figure out how to get there without 'guessing' and I hate guessing. I have been looking at it on and off for literally a few years. I watched your magic rectangle and applied it to the puzzle to eliminate one number possibility. Still could not resolve. Then I watched this video and because of the magic rectangle elimination I had a beautiful X wing. (I still didn't believe it so I tried the number in the bad spots in the rows and it became obvious why the X wing works). I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to have a puzzle poke fun at you for years and finally come up with a logical resolve.

I need to remember it's about focusing on the columns separately to the rest of the puzzle. And that you won't really stumble upon an X-Wing, you have to be looking out for it. Thank you for this!

Was reading a book two days ago while KZfaq was on, one of your videos popped up and I've been going non-stop since! Thanks for making me give it a try and finding a new great hobby!

Thank you very much for this. I was already doing the pencil mark pairs, but what I learned was to spot the X wing BEFORE the puzzle got congested. Thank you for sharing your outstanding techniques. Your voice and style are very suited for a teacher, a damn good one.

!! THANK you for explaining how X-wing works. I have been struggling to grasp it, so many people just say use it but never explained it. I love how you explain each thing with examples.!!

This just showed up in my recommendations today. Amazing how far the channel has come in a year!

This was a sick puzzle! There is actually a second X-wing of eights one square down and to the right from the first one. I've never seen adjacent X-wings like that before, super cool!

This is the best explanation of how to find and use the x-wing. It has always seemed complicated when others have tried to explain it. Thank you!!!

This was really helpful content. I downloaded your app after never doing sudoku because you made it seem fun. The first several puzzles I felt like a dunce because I'd seen your more monstrous solves but it was taking hours for me to do the simple puzzles. I'm hoping content like this, which is more applicable to me, will help me get faster.

15:15 shows another X-wing pattern on the 2's in R4&R5, deciding the 2 in C1. Just a little Easter egg

This is the most console demonstration I’ve seen yet. Thank you! I’ve become quite addicted to sudoku in the last few months and have definitely been struggling with the harder puzzles. 🙏

Thanks. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I've wanted to understand the X-Wing, and now I finally do.

I think this is the technique I've needed for all the puzzles I've been getting stuck on. Thanks!

Thank you I could never get how it worked just reading the description online. This clicked so easily!

Very well explained, thank you!

The 1-6s is a mini X-wing att he lower right corner at 14 mins in. Thanks for this technique. I've smelled it, but never formalized it. Very helpful!

I never understood what to look for with others explaining, but starting with a blank puzzle and finding it naturally while being walked through what you’re thinking was very helpful

A good one to spot an x-wing without having too many pencil marks.

5:05 These aren't the droids you're looking for 😂

This is a great example of an x-wing, I might finally understand

Thank you so much!Very helpful...finally got the concept!

Absolutely awesome explanation thankyou. My solving skills have improved so much since I found your channel! Great work thankyou! 😁

Thank You. I have read several descriptions in books about x-wing but could not figure out what the point was until you so very clearly made it as plain as the nose on … my face. And I used today for first time to solve the NYT hard puzzle.

Was in the middle of a solve as i was watching this, immediately noticed not one but 2 x wings in my puzzle. Wonderful tip thanks for the excellent explanation

This is absolutely fantastic, keep up the amazing work with this channel

I was great that you took your time for us new subs and ran through some methods. I mostly feel other videoes just skips the understanding of more advanced methods :)

brilliant, can't wait to practise

i’ve been using this trick for ages, good to know it has a name!!

Good job. This was a new solving technique for me at least. Gonna give it a try in the future Sudoku puzzles I face.

good stuff. definitely a new solving technique for me. i never heard of such a thing and u probably muddle thru the puzzles i do solve. thanks for this great video.

Thanks for explaining that. I have been trying to figure out how it works and this was really clear. Looking forward to better results.

Finally I feel like I get what the X-wing is about, thanks!

Thank you! That opens new horizons. Happy New Year!

Thank you for an excellent explanation of the X-Wing. Best I have come across!

Thank you, really enjoying this explanations.

I am happy to inform you that I tried this out the moment I saw it, and I actually found an X-wing in the puzzle I tried solving, and it helped me get through it!

Thank you! I’m not great at these, but I’m obsessed.

Very helpful and makes my journey to solving puzzles faster

Excellent explanation of X-wing, thanks.

This is very helpful! Thank you.

Love these videos. Thank you, guys!

Very well explained. Thank you! Subbed

Cool! I hadn't thought of this technique.

Thank you for opening my eyes. I wonder how many puzzles I was stumped with could have been solved with x-wing.

I am working on your Classic Sudoku bundle #32 - spotting the X Wing - which I worked out after the HINT and doing the puzzle several more times. The HINT helps with spotting the X wing and is great. The second part states that after completing the X wing r2c6 resolves IMMEDIATELY to 1. I have stared at this for sometime and cannot resolve the 1 - this early in the puzzle that is! What I am missing? A side note I am struggling with your puzzles, but learning a lot. I went to another puzzle locale and I am completing their EXPERT puzzles. I do not mind learning at all.

I have a book of "diabolical" sudoku puzzles from the mid 2000s by Wayne Gould. I hear the x-wing was the hardest thing out there back then, so if I learn how to spot and make use of it, this is going to be really useful.

Just cracked my "first" puzzle addopting your technique. I think it took a bit longer first, while trying to identify the pencil-downs and x-wings, but once I got that part figured out, it was quite a straight forward Nd smoot run. Thank you so much for the vid and explanation. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻☺️☺️☺️

Thanks for the video!

I sometimes use an advanced option of this: if an action would lead to two overlapping x-wings, it would cause the puzzle to be unsolvable so the original action is impossible

Great explanation on X-wing. Thank you!!!

Brilliant mate, thanks.

I love how British this is.

I never heard of x-wing before, thanks for the video

Great explanation.

Very helpful - thanks!

lovely technique. Thank you

A better microphone would be a huge quality boost for the videos or less echo somehow

what applications do you use for doing custom sudoku's on your computer?

I've totally done the X-Wing before without really knowing what I was doing. Basically instead of putting pencil marks box-by-box, you get stuck and start pencil marking by columns and rows. You're bound to find an X-Wing by doing that, but it of course should be the first choice.

I been doing expert level sudoku for years and have heard of this trick. But nothing ever explained it well enough for me to understand. Just that 3min section was HUGE. This will easily take 10% off my solve times...

Thank you. I understand it now. Bought a book but it's going in the bin after watching this.

Great X-wing technique explaination!

This has been giving me brain ache for a while. Thanks to your lesson I now understand X Wing

Finally. Now I get it. Thank you.

To ask a very stupid question, what software are you using to work these puzzles?

I'd heard you mentioning x-wings a number of times, but I never really understood what they were -- until a few days ago. I took a very long time to solve that puzzle, but I did notice fairly early on a couple of 23 pairs, accompanied by a pair of threes on the right and a pair of twos on the left. They were all at the top and bottom of the board. I figured that twos and threes were barred from the respective pair of columns. Then when you did the puzzle, you spotted the same 2s and 3s, and called them x-wings. So I finally got the tactic.

I notice that stuff all the time. I just bypass and continue solving the puzzle. My personal faves are the puzzles with 2 or more solutions. I’ve only ever found 1 but it’s intriguing none the less.

What a throwback 😊

I am finally able to solve expert level puzzles many times in a row after watching your videos.

Thanks for the video, I'm new to Sudoku, and fine your videos helpful

It has shades of The Hunt, Sudoku. First there is stalking the prey, and then the chase to fill in the numbers once its tricks have been grasped!

Merci, très utile

How did you determine (at 4:12), in the upper left 9x9 square, that the 5 went where it did. You put it in the far left column...how did you eliminate the possibility that it could have been placed in the far right column of that square?

Very informative

Been stalling and kind of stopped doing sudoku because I promised I would learn x wing first, and I could only find reading material about it, come to find out the guy I regularly watched and motived me to keep going had a video on it, who knew! Also pretty simple to follow along,been procrastinating to keep playing for something simple lol.

Please tell me there is a keyboard short command for big and little...

Never have used X-wing. Thank you much. I understand it and will use it to make the most difficult puzzles easier.

Thanks alot mate

Nice and cozy puzzle.. Made notation free in 12m45s. The X Wing of 8s needs to be spotted, but it is well telegraphed in this puzzle. Once you have the X Wing and accordingly place an 8 in r7c5, the puzzle crumbles and it is clear sailing to the end.

thank you so much, im getting into sodoku for the first time since high school and it just much fun competing with myself hehe

Really nice! Previous explanations I've seen implied that spotting an x-wing somehow told me how to fill in those squares, but now it's clear that it's about those other squares in those rows and columns.

What is the tool you are using to work the puzzle?

Oh hello! Useful video. Anyway, I have a question. If we had other options regarding the possibilities of the centered eight, between the x-wing, can we apply the x-wing? Without using this sudoku example.

Thank you

Thanks! Glad I watched this... will save me time on my solving. I use the pencil marks as well but use the top of the cell for 3x3 and the bottom of the cell for 1x9 I use pencil and paper or my Remarkable notepad with a pdf. something about interacting with the puzzle directly is more satisfying for me.

Always nice to see when experts come to the same conclusions and tricks. So that's called an X-Wing. Much better for showing off ^^ Thank you :-D

Immediately after getting the first 8 X-wing, there's an opportunity to identify a second 8 X-wing offset one square right and one square down. The instant any one of these squares is filled in, you can deduce all four of the 8s in one go.

I'm supposed to be studying for finals, yet here I am learning how to master sudoku because that's more important

Awesome video. Made total sense. Not sure why all the focus and complaints about the sound.

It's really great explanation. Thanks you bro.. By the way, May I know that software please. I would like to try on my PC, can I?

There is a simple trick for solving x-wing that also works for swordfish and jellyfish. If you list row-by-row all the columns occupied by a number, you then look for "self-contained" groups of two, three or (rarely)4. These can then be eliminated a candidates from all the other rows.

terrific video. Now I finely got it! Actually there is another X-wing too with 8, row 3 and row 8.