Simon, you are a total genius. I watched alot of your videos and you make solving extremely difficult puzzles look easy. I love how you take the time to explain your logic. You're like a teacher and I feel like a student. I'm so glad I found this channel.

"Schroedinger's cell". Haha. I had no idea that solving Sudoku puzzles could get that involved. I've been watching for about three weeks. Started as a random KZfaq suggestion. I found watching Simon solve Sudoku to be surprisingly entertaining. Wasn't trying to solve them myself at first, but then wanted to be able to do what Simon does. I've always loved the cryptics page in the paper, especially the crossword puzzles. I love Merl Reagle's puzzles and find them fun and entertaining. The Sudoku doesn't always stump me, but sometimes. I find it quite satisfying when I can finish it along with all the other puzzles.So I started attempting some of these. Maybe not the best way to start, like jumping into the deep end of a pool to learn how to swim, because the puzzles Simon is tackling never straightforward. Right now, I try it on my own and when I take it as far as I can, I turn on the video. This time, every time I needed to watch it, Simon was also slowing down and wondering "what next?" But of course, he quickly found it every time and I couldn't on my own. I have another problem that I make logical errors in my notation that can lead to contradictions, or miss a fact or two, and have to update the notation to match Simon and then continue. After he found the AIC and set Column 3 Row 8 to an 8, I went forward on my own, making some kind of mistake on the way and ended out with a contradiction 3 different times in a row. I went back to this step each time and tried again. Ended out leaving it overnight and trying again the next day and finally did it right.

I love how he still is excited about solving these puzzles or finding something new, really passionate about it

its crazy the difference between what a pro can see and what a casual sees. That method of finding the 6 through the symmeterical 9s just absolutely baffled me. The things you do using logic!

That 2 thingy is sooooo clever *.*

I really like these old videos (it was 4 years old when I watched it). I still understand what's going on, even if Simon finds something I would have missed. It's amazing how Sudoku and Simon have envolved over time.

The trick involving the 28 is called an AIC (Alternating Inference Chain), or more specifically a Discontinuous Alternating Nice Loop.

Haha as always I get distracted by seeing the easy clue and frustrated about it, even though filling it in wouldn't help solve the puzzle!

Ask him for the last puzzle in the book next :D

_"...let me know what I missed..."_ I wish.

Took me 36:28... one of the most difficult classic Sudokus I've ever encountered on this channel (unlike the variants, most of the classic Sudokus on this channel I found relatively easy, to be honest) I did manage to spot the trick with the XY-chain to put the 6 into r4c8, but quickly got stuck again and required much more complicated chaining to eventually solve the puzzle... Simon's 'Schrödinger' technique was much more elegant; once again hugely impressed with how quickly he managed to spot the pattern.

I really love how this channel is growing and how the content is still feeling fresh and fun. However, I feel like you guys are at the point in which you should definitely get a better microphone. Having good quality audio goes a long way, even more so than a better webcam, into making your videos look way more professional and prepared. There are some cheap usb mics like the behringer C-1U or the Yeti or [the one shaped like a ball whose name I always forget] that are produced precisely for stuff like podcasts/streaming/youtube vids that sound good and require very little setup or technical knowledge.

What a treat! Great puzzle. Also, I don't mind when a puzzle stumps you guys for a bit, gives me a chance to catch up!

I was able to get to the point you got at around 10:00 after that it went beyond my current ability. Considering it seemed to even be a tough one for you, I don't feel too badly about not being able to solve this one on my own. I did learn a few more tricks at least

I'm new to your videos, having watched it as a random KZfaq recommendation, and I haves to say that I'm impressed. I'm not a Sudoku addict and not entirely familiar with some of the terms you used (I haven't come across ‘skyscraper’ before, but I'll look it up). I was also very impressed with the software you use, particularly the pencilling options. Did you develop it yourself and is it possible to get a copy? I used to be a software engineer myself and specialised in the ergonomic aspects (one of my early projects was a version of Minefield I wrote for an Amiga - which shows how long ago that was - in which I improved the interface considerably. Some of them are now more common, but I still haven't found a version that has all of them), so I'd be very interested to see the code, if it's open source. I didn't think that watching someone solve a Sudoku would be as entertaining as you made it. It's very interesting to see your thought process (with your clear and excellent explanation) and to see how it differs from my own, ie what draws your attention and where you focus. Well done and thank you.

I thought I was getting better at this, but I see I'm still a child when it comes to Sudoku...

At 9:02, my puzzle looked almost identical to yours, pencil marks and all. Feel pretty proud of that.

Am genuinely loving the thumbnails as of late!

I agree that was brilliant solving loved watching it.

This sudoku lost me 2 hours of sleep. Interestingly, I found the 2 in R7C9 very quickly somehow, but after backtracking I have no idea how I did it. Got stuck on the part requiring the "schrödinger cell" or AIC as someone pointed out. Ended up watching you find that before I could proceed :/

👀 I can't believe my eyes! Simon using two chaining techniques (XY-Chain and AIC) one after the other!

I tend to go thru puzzles numerically so the first thing I did was fill in all the 1s without needing any other numbers. Not long after that I missed that the 2 in the top left cube was obvious so I floundered there’s for a while and I completely missed the weak box in the center. Nice catch there.

I'm new to sudoku, so I try methods as I see them on your channel. I did the washing machine with ones fairly early into the puzzle, and that gave me all the ones plus some other digits. Then I was stuck again, but when you showed us that 6, I was able to solve the puzzle right away because of the washing machine method that I'd done earlier.

That was AWESOME!

Puzzle took me 32min. If this is the first puzzle of the book, I don't want to know how hard the ones in the back are.

18:44 "Therefore it can never be a two in the first place. And that..... is NICE"

I done it in 22 minutes. Going back through my logic though I made a big mistake at the start of the puzzle placing an 8 into r6c1 thinking it was the only spot for it without realising it could have gone into r6c3, thankfully through a stroke of luck it worked out to be the correct spot and having it so early made the puzzle a lot easier.

Had to restart the first aquarium puzzle 3 times because I kept mixing up horizontal and vertical logic on that rightmost column.

nice trick at 14:45 for the 6. At 15:45 I would be sooo "a-scared" being stuck - "We'll be right back after a short commercial break :) :)". Of course there were hundreds for followers YELLING cuz you missed some "obvious" spot.

More aquarium puzzles!

48:30. Whew. I lost twenty minutes to missing an obvious deduction, but I got there. Now to see how Simon does it.

You erased a penciled 7 in box 7 without filling in the other possible cell. Looking back now though, I'm not sure it would've helped much.

Love it !

Two techniques I didn't have awareness of, so I don't think I would have finished it successfully before now. Now I'll have to be more careful to look for those logic tricks.

My brain screams after watching this video. What a jenius way to solve a puzzle.

I was stuck in the 1st 10 minutes but now I realized that theres triples,. In addition what technique was used on 13:37-14:43? Schrodinger's cell... @_@ that was pretty new to me. Finally solved it in 47 minutes

The new spreadsheet let me find the two bonus Aquariums from before I found the channel.

very nice, thanks...

Wish I had answers to the Aqua puzzles, cuz I'm not confident in mine. I mean, though, if there's only one answer, the numbers do add up... I just hope I'm not missing something.

Getting better, took me only 21 minutes this time :) i did "bruteforce" at one point tho

Have you done a Futoshiki puzzle on the channel yet?

Also, I absolutely love the aquarium puzzles. Makes me feel really smart! Haha did them both in about 4.5 minutes each.

A little late see and commenting on this video. This was great. The problem I had with this puzzle wasn't really the puzzle, it's my marking. I'm from the old marking school, but I like this notation style a lot better. It's cleaner and faster. I'll fill a square with the number and there another square in the block which has two marks in it, the number I just entered and another number, so, in the old way, the contents of that cell must be the other number. No, not necessarily. And as I get towards the end, I end up with two numbers in the same row, block, or column and who knows how long ago I made the error. Again, a great learning video. And Simmon said he needed to slow down in the middle because he didn't want to miss anything simple, I too need to slow down and think when I see two pencil marks in a cell. They might not be binary. They might just be possibilities.

@14:30 Is there a name for that pattern? I think I've seen Simon use it before. Double y-wing? I dunno.

You lost me at the 7 8 leap, the test made sense

Of all the KZfaq channels I've seen, this one has the most informative, polite comments of all (except for the occasional dim bulb who types "first.")

Quite a challenging puzzle. Nice forcing tests with 29 and 218 to crack it open.

Dang, that was hard. Had to resort to bifurcating, and even then I couldn’t see the logic that would have solved it for me until I watched the video. Some years ago I gave up doing Sudoku because of puzzles like this, because there was no web app to make bifurcating so easy (bifurcating with pencil and eraser is really messy) and there was no KZfaq channel to show you how you could have solved it!

the Sudoku was too hard for me, but i managed to solve both the Aquarium puzzles. the second Aquarium was a lot easier than the first! :)

How do I submit a puzzle to you? I'm stuck and can't logic it out.

First attempt I misclicked and it screwed me over way at the end of the puzzle because I didn't notice it. 2nd attempt took me 11 minutes. To find the mistake on the first attempt though, took me like 30 minutes. Very frustrating haha

I am stuck on the first Aq puzzle. Do rows on the bottom and left but can't see any logic to move me forward. Is there a solution anywhere?

Ok, now this is very funny. I found an alternate solution. actually two alternate solutions if you count exchanging 2 numbers in 4 corresponding squares.

Does anyone know if there is a name for the strategy used at 13:50? It seems to require four bivalue cells, but interestingly no remote pairs are required.

How you get 6 for r4c8 blown my mind!

I tried to solve this with the limited knowledge that I have. After two hours and nearly having the board complete, I realized I made a mistake somewhere and was unable to complete it.

I actually need information. At the beginning of the puzzle, I noticed that there were 3 1's in boxes that fit something you had shown earlier, I don't remember what it's called but a number in a box where the box in its own column and row. I walked it through and found two solutions that were different and there were three cells that a 1 could go in but none of those three cells were part of either solution. I pencil marked the 1's leaving those cells out. As I worked the puzzle I got stopped so I watched you and I had the triplet in the upper left box, but I didn't see it. The point is that as soon as I found one of the 1's the rest followed. Was my discovery with the 1's valid, or a fluke? Gene

dang

Does anyone know what book this puzzle came from? I've been looking to get a sudoku book and would love to do more like this!

Excuse me for the rookie comment or my lack of experience solving sudokus, but what’s the logic process involved to find the very first two ? I couldn’t understand it

How did you know at about 8 minutes that the 1 - 8 had to be a 1 (middle box on top) ? There was no certainty to exclude it could be a 7 ?

I was also stuck on that shordingers cell part but it would have taken me much longer to figure that out ( i cheated and watched him at that point)

I took 45 min to fill in the middle row, and got stuck after

Good

the aquarium ones were easy but fun, where can I find more of them?

What’s the intro song name

Simon, I watch you a lot, probably too much, but you drive me crazy by not making one pass at first for the low hanging fruit. Drives me crazy. Obviously not easy to do this with folks watching, but....

The table is too short and figures aren't seen correctly. CAN SOMETHING BE DONE ???

This one really pisses me off. I've done it twice and failed both times due to an error that I can't find, probably because it's too far back in the progression for me to be able to.

Who was screaming "8 in bottom of 3rd cell!"?

Please make a dark mode in your software and use it!

Took me over an hour for this one, but I'm always faster on Pencil and paper rather than Screen and mouse for some reason....Anybody else get this?

Sir, At video time 18:43 you mentioned that if cell R8-C3 (2,8) were to be 2, then cell R2-C3(1,2) becomes 1. Till now I agree with you. But you mentioned that cell R9-C1 becomes 1. I have not understood this logic. How the cell R2-C3 got any interaction with cell R9-C1? When you make cell R8-C3 as 2, you have to see in box 7 there is no 8 as you mentioned cell R9-C1 contains 1. Therefore whether you make cell R8-C3 as 2, still cell R9-C8 will contain only candidate 8. I have not understood your logic making cell R9-C1 as 1 if cell R8-C3 were to be 2.

7 minutes in, I have 7 numbers on the grid, not great, but decent start for persumable hard puzzle. 25 minutes in, I have 8 numbers on the grid. That's not going well at all.. 49 minutes in... no progress at all, I gave up. I'm curious to see what I've missed.

This is a pretty hard puzzle. Not uncommon but Andoku after finding a few 3-4 cell chains couldn't finish.

I was completely stuck until you showed me the 6 in the middle right.

Tough!

Z-Wing?

Like you, I spotted the centre column, then the rest just fell into place. Not very difficult.

My program rates it at 2400 / extreme. I did it in about 2 min. center column is the key.

He talks to himself

Does it not feel like cheating using corner / centre and even colours? Surely those Sudokus are hard because it’s hard to keep everything in your head. Using these aids is taking all that complexity away.

I gave this video 3 likes; one for each puzzle!

'What am I missing?" he says. How loudly was I screaming at the sceen to tell him what he's missing??? And which program are you using?

No

I had it mostly solved in my head while you were still hemming and hawing about placing annoying little numbers in!! Don't need all those little numbers---its plain simple logic!!