Why Arrow Sudoku Deserves A Fanfare

Рет қаралды 45,411

Күн бұрын

** TODAY'S PUZZLE **
It's rare nowadays to find a puzzle with a simple ruleset that attracts such fantastic plaudits but Fanfare by James Sinclair is such a sudoku. This isn't a Genuinely Approachable Sudoku but it's not THAT much harder than one and has some very interesting logic.
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Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle. Digits in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive. Digits in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio (ie one digit is double the other).
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▶ Contents Of This Video ◀
0:00 Theme music and puzzle introduction
0:55 Can You Help Us Achieve Our Ambition?
1:33 The Rules Of The Puzzle
2:35 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!
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Пікірлер: 304

@richardfarrer5616 11 ай бұрын

I feel that Simon's refusal to do sudoku in sudoku puzzles for as long as possible made this puzzle a lot more difficult than it might have been. As well as the 7 in row 9 and the 4 in row 6, he missed some very pretty logic in rows 5 and 6 where the 3 in r5c6 pushed the 3 on the 8 arrows to row 6. In turn, that pushed the 5 up to row 5. This then bounced back and forth between the 7 and 8 arrows to get which way up they went. That would have tightened up some of the later positions, giving fewer cases to look at.

@Tony_Regime 11 ай бұрын

that was driving me mad

@Broken__Reality 11 ай бұрын

@@Tony_Regime Me too. Was sat watching begging him to do sudoku and just look at the numbers he already had. I think he looks for the complex logic solutions far more than basic sudoku.

@walrusahoy5878 11 ай бұрын

I watched the intro, did the puzzle (not using maths - silly me) and felt wholly justified internally ranting at Simon to do more sudoku for the rest of the video. Sorry needed to share 😅

@hhh2hbk4dx 11 ай бұрын

There was a much simpler way to deduce the arrows in middle row as well! The way I looked at it was the circles with 3 arrows will need 3 different ways to add up to it. Which means it could only be 789. And eventually, I also ended up with the back and forth logic you mentioned to get the remaining digits which was beautiful! I think because he looks at such complex puzzles, its easy to miss basic logic so I do sympathise with him there.

@maggieelliott5896 11 ай бұрын

He always overcomplicates things. Maddening.

@James_Sinclair 11 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks so much for this (very unexpected) feature! This puzzle was originally published in my newsletter, Artisanal Sudoku, so check that out if you want more sudokus like this one (can't post a link here, but it's not hard to find). I publish five new puzzles every Monday morning, and I try to keep them fairly approachable-Fanfare is toward the difficult end of the spectrum. As for the title, I don't know... the arrows in the middle rows sort of look celebratory, like streamers or raised hands? Maybe you have to squint to see it. Also, shout out to my sister, who's been the biggest supporter of my puzzles and whose oldest daughter got married this weekend. Congrats!

@longwaytotipperary 11 ай бұрын

I see the celebratory arrows (arms)!😄

@glum_hippo 11 ай бұрын

Congratulations to your sister. May there be many more editions of Artisanal Sudoku!

@concibar4267 11 ай бұрын

This puzzle had a really nice flow to it thanks for setting!

@Trottah 11 ай бұрын

You're very mean, you put in way too many opportunities for Simon to do sudoku in your sudoku puzzle. In typical stubborn fashion, he refused to indulge you!

@humanbirdsong 11 ай бұрын

I received this week’s puzzles today and they were gorgeous, as they always are. Thank you James. For anyone reading, I highly recommend subscribing to James’ ‘Artisanal Sudoku’ newsletter.

@bobstreet2491 11 ай бұрын

"Where can 9 go in row 5" would have been a good question.

@averageyoutubeenjoyer5071 11 ай бұрын

My names Luke silvious from Tennessee, USA and as of this past week I have been diagnosed with stage 2 B cell NHL. I’ve Started chemo this week and it is miserable. I appreciate all your hard work and dedication you put into this channel. It has kept me entertained and sane when nothing else seems to helps. So thank you mark and all for a such calming yet intelligent channel to spend time solving puzzles.

@longwaytotipperary 11 ай бұрын

So glad you found Simon & Mark. Keep looking for whatever lifts your spirits! ❤️🙏🏻

@MrZuhahaha 11 ай бұрын

Get well soon Luke, we all believe in you!

@orosma868 11 ай бұрын

Wishing you all the very best for a successful treatment. I'm having palliative care chemo which hasn't been very effective except in knocking me out so I take enormous comfort watching these at night when I can't sleep, and especially the crossword on Fridays which is my chemo day. Good luck Luke.

@longwaytotipperary 11 ай бұрын

@@orosma868 wishing you the best also! ❤️🙏🏻

@pantheracheshire 11 ай бұрын

I'll pray for you!

@maartenwitpaard1737 11 ай бұрын

Oh Simon. Never change. So entertaining to see you solve the sudoku without using the 4 in r6c7 or the 79 pair in row 6 or the 2 in r6c3 or many more digits in box 5. It would have made the solve a lot quicker but not that entertaining. Your path through the solve gave you beautiful logic. 😍

@bobh6728 11 ай бұрын

He had to build suspense. When will he use the 79 pair. Then he resolves the 79, so now he will use the 7. Especially when he says, it must be sudoku. But then he Simonizes the end of the puzzle and never uses it. I can’t figure out how he can say “this is a 79 pair” and not use it in the obvious place. Instead he goes to another area of grid and starts working on something else. (Interesting there is a company called Simoniz that makes “GlassCoat” that is a protective coating for cars. So we can say Simon Simoniz’s the digits and protects them from being eliminated by pairs or digits using Sudoku. I know that was lane. Time for bed!!)

@cottonpotter6818 11 ай бұрын

i love these videos so much but watching you highlight the blue cells in the middle and talk about how you’re missing something with the four right next to them was killing me 😭😭😭

@longwaytotipperary 11 ай бұрын

😂

@stevieinselby 11 ай бұрын

I think that leaving chunks of the grid coloured in (especially with such strong colours as Simon's favourite green (which, nice as it may be, is *not* fluorescent!)) long after the colours have served their useful purpose is a big contributing factor to Simon's number-blindness - just as given digits are harder to see because they aren't blue, digits in coloured in cells are harder to see.

@jensschmidt 11 ай бұрын

Once again a perfect example of Simon not doing Sudoku for 37 minutes straight... he could have had a lot of deductions earlier and easier had he done it...

@redlopa1 11 ай бұрын

14:58 Is a great example of him going round the houses. He started off his logical analysis almost immediately saying where 9s couldn’t go on arrows in row 6. If he’d applied exactly the same reasoning to row 5 he could have immediately placed the 9 and thus the 8 in nonet 4 some ten minutes before he instead deduced it in a considerably more complex way!

@rutterbrian 11 ай бұрын

20:30

@davidmiller9485 11 ай бұрын

yeah but that would take all the fun out of watching him solve.

@porkminer 11 ай бұрын

The 4 on box 5 had me screaming at my phone.

@davidjspooner 11 ай бұрын

It's a happy reminder that we all have blind spots and make typos. Plus there is something cathartic in yelling/laughing at the tellybox. Thank you simon

@AndersHaalandverby 11 ай бұрын

So after 6 years of CTC videos every single day, Simon has just discovered that the clock starts when you open the puzzle 😂

@mvanvoorden 11 ай бұрын

Feature request for Sven: activate the clock on hearing the words "let's get cracking"

@techie_nerd_au 11 ай бұрын

He frequently does a reset of the puzzle (including time) during the rule explaining. I thought that was a deliberate move for an accurate time, but maybe not.

@AndersHaalandverby 11 ай бұрын

Hmm , I have seen Mark do the reset almost every time , but I can't really remember seeing Simon ever do it. I thought he didn't really care about the exact time of his solves.

@janerobson2297 11 ай бұрын

Simon must be on holiday. This is obviously one he recorded earlier which is why he's commenting on the time again. It's interesting that his prerecorded streams have so many more instances of ignoring sudoku than even his usual. He must record them when he is tired.

@AndersHaalandverby 11 ай бұрын

@@janerobson2297 yes , his sudoku filter was almost at maximum strength in this one 😂

@robinbrown6530 11 ай бұрын

I feel like many of us can solve a Sudoku like this faster and easier than Simon did because of noticing things he didnt but only because he and Mark have taught so many of us how to look for those things in the first place through the videos we watch on the channel. I know this is true for me. I dont even remember when I started watching this channel but I know its been a while and when I started it would take me hours to do normal Sudoku and that was with an awful lot of unnecessary pencil marks and some trial and error. Now I was able to finish this puzzle with a floating 126 triple in columns 8 or 9 and realizing that if it was in 9 it made a cell in box 9 unfillable. Today at Lunch I actually started to explain how I could place the 9 and 8 in box 4 almost instantly to a Coworker and halfway through his eyes glazed over and I lost him. I thought it was rather simple and it surprised me. Simon and Mark, If you're ever wondering if your videos are helping people learn how to solve Sudoku I want you to know it has improved me by leaps and bounds without me even realizing It. Thank you very much for all you do. I hope you continue to both teach and entertain this wonderful community. Much love and happy days to anyone who is reading this!

@khoozu7802 11 ай бұрын

what u missing is u can't put 25 pair in column 8, it will cause 5 cells with 2359, so u must put 16 pair in column 8, which make R9C8=2

@Jaxom35x 11 ай бұрын

I always look forward to the point in a solve where Simon explains something, works hard to get to that point, then promptly forgets what he had just explained a couple minutes earlier. "If there's a 4 in here then it would go in that square, can I force 7 in the blue....." does so then totally forgets the reason he did that. Love it.

@Jordgubbe86 11 ай бұрын

This is the kind of puzzle that was impossible for me a year ago but now I was able to solve it thanks to the strategies Mark & Simon taught me.

@britlion 11 ай бұрын

Why is it that any time I see something easy and trivial (like oh look, the 9 in row 5 here), Simon finds a far more circuitous and complicated way to show what I'm shouting at the screen about? It's uncanny. :)

@longwaytotipperary 11 ай бұрын

Same!

@jacobblunden563 11 ай бұрын

I was honestly questioning my sanity. Like, that 5 felt like it should be the first digit because it gives you so much information and I was confused as to why it took him so long

@jacobknight5497 11 ай бұрын

Also an alternative bit of logic - once you restrict 9 to the top row in box 8 (because it can't go on an arrow), you immediately get an 8-9 pair in row 5 (since none of the arrow cells in rows 5/6 can contain an 8 or a 9, so both 8 and 9 sit in the bottom row of box 5) which is resolved by the black dot. From there, you can complete the puzzle without doing any arithmetic at all!! Thanks again for the wonderful solve!

@zirco77 11 ай бұрын

Every day, seemingly mundane statements from Simon actually add that funny or colorful touch to an otherwise already entertaining puzzle solve, like "...but it's actually quite a bit about sudoku" (15:17). Simon, I just love your ways of saying things, especially because it just flows naturally as you speak or think out loud.

@maxgreve7856 11 ай бұрын

Very fun puzzle. Interesting thing is usually Simon and I take very similar solve paths - which he usually finds much quicker than me - but this time I used a very different method. I think the key is to focus on 8s and 9s right from the start. You can place 9 in box 4 immediately simply by marking it must be in the top rows of boxes 6 and 8, meaning r5c3 is the only place for it in box 4. That lets you place 8 in box 4 as well, and then since the two r7 circles can't be 9 you can place 8 in box 6 as well, which gets you the 4. The next step for me was to realize that the three arrows in box 4 must all be different digits, even the one outside the box, since they are pairs of digits producing a common sum. So it can't be 6 or 7 in the box 7 circle, because that would make the other circle 8 and pair another 4 with the 4 you found; since there are only two ways of making either number without 4, that won't work. That gets you another 8, which gets you your first 7. That forces 8 and 7 down into the arrow cells in box 8 and gets you another 9. From there you can get a lot of other digits quickly. Very surprising to me since usually I am MORE mathematically inclined than Simon, and slower to use geometry. I think my method is legitimately faster, but I won't take much comfort in that since it's probably the first time in 3 years I can say that. Thanks to Simon as always for a great video!

@CrankyOtter 11 ай бұрын

I think yours is a less tricky break in. I had to watch the video to get that far but once he missed the 9 in r5, I broke off & finished because I actually did rely on sudoku.

@samplename5159 11 ай бұрын

Finding a "cleaner" way to break in than Simon once in a blue moon is indeed very surprising and satisfyin. I was very happy to find i could start with the crucial two circles and narrow them down to a 78 pair without set arithmetic or chasing much else around the grid: these digits need to go on an arrow in box 8 (can't be 9), need to have at least 3 different ways of being a sum of two digits (6 or higher), and we can't use the arrows sneaking into box 5 to double-up on a digit (4+4=8 because the 4s would look onto the arrows from the other circle eliminating one of the three ways of adding up to 6 or 7, and in the case of 3+3 because one of the arrows on the other side would need to be 4+4=8 ruining a necessary 2+4=6 arrow) - neither can be 6. It's essentially the same as you've pointed out, just feels like a more useful trick because it's more global not relying on getting a digit from other clues first - and that comes back to how Simon can blank on a deduction when focusing on something specific, not knowing difficulty (or knowing its easy but looking for most interesting logic) and intuiting there's something to be extracted from a certain combination of clues - it's just amazing how often he's finding the best way to approach it straight away and funny how much we're surprised when he goes about the long way!

@rochib21 11 ай бұрын

Amazing solve Simon! I got the breakthrough with different logic seeing that 9 in r6b5 forces a 9 in r5c3.

@Rubrickety 11 ай бұрын

I didn't find this one so easy, but the logic was even more marvelous than advertised.

@scollyb 11 ай бұрын

A true masterclass in Simon finding the most complicated way of doing everything

@scollyb 11 ай бұрын

Simon if you read this go back and look at 3 in box 4 after you put the 3 in box 5 (and 3 in row 4 box 6). The logic of how the arrows work is beautiful

@skasperl 11 ай бұрын

The lengths Simon goes to NOT do any Sudoku nearly makes me angry. I almost want to teach him how to Sudoku. But then I remember that he just doesn't do Sudoku because he has so many more ways to find a logical path through the puzzle and I only find the one. And then I get angry again. This time at myself. It is a vicious cycle.

@AhsimNreiziev 11 ай бұрын

I mean, you can't expect Simon to do Sudoku in a Sudoku puzzle, can you? That would just be plain unreasonable!

@tehbertl7926 11 ай бұрын

A smooth 19:41 for this one. James Sinclair is one of my favorite setters, and I highly recommend subscribing to his weekly newsletter. It usually includes two very approachable puzzles and a third one that's a lot more tough. (I'm not a paid subscriber so I only get the first three puzzles). His puzzles are this wonderful blend of sudoku logic with variant setting, and there's generally a clear and pleasing solve path to them. And not too tough, either!

@user-np1mv3rt8z 11 ай бұрын

27.55 for me, I loved the box 8 logic and the virtual 126 triple. I'm glad I attempted it even though I tend to avoid 'math-y' ones. I feel like Simon took the long way around for the break-in. I just asked, which digits have 3 ways of summing with 2 digits, which limited it to 789, then the 9 in box 8 made the pair. Simon just wanted to show off his math skills.

@casadega2010 11 ай бұрын

Certain ones just click in my brain like humming a tune…and this was one of them! Thanks guys!

@matthewjohnson6360 11 ай бұрын

You need to scan more often after putting in numbers to knock out pencil marks faster.

@Glamador 11 ай бұрын

I'm amazed at how differently I solved this one compared to Simon. I eliminated 6 from the circles by realizing that it needed a double 3 on one of the diagonal arrows, which ruled out all but one possibility on 7 or 8, which forced an 8 and for that 8 to have a double 4 on its diagonal arrow, which in turn bounced back and made 6 impossible. And then, with my 7/8 pair in place, the puzzle basically just unfolded one cell after another. I used the fact that the 7 and 8 arrows shared so many digits to entirely populate the middle box and all of the middle row arrows before even looking anywhere else. It was a very fun puzzle.

@peaches760a 11 ай бұрын

I love how Simon's brain works... at 34:00 I got to the same conclusion a different way. in column 8, r2,3 and 4 were three digits from 2359, so the 7 arrow in that column couldn't be a 25 since we'd need 4 digits to go into 5 cells. The resulting 16 pair put the 2 in R9c8.

@Mephistahpheles 11 ай бұрын

I love the deep dive into sets at the beginning while ignoring the almost given digits in box 4. lol....and again later in box 1. Place the 1 already!

@DrFlash-oi6ju 11 ай бұрын

I solved this without using the maths, you can prove it's a 7-8 pair in the circles in r7c2 and r7c8 because you can't repeat the digits on any of the 2 cell arrows without breaking the one of the sum totals (6-7 doesn't work as the double 3 prevents 3+4 from appearing on the 7, 6-8 doesn't work because you can't do 3+5 and must use 4+4 which breaks the 2+4 for the 6) Cool to see different ways of breaking into the same puzzle, great solve, Simon!

@crystalgehrt8861 11 ай бұрын

I had to keep stopping throughout my solve to say how beautiful a piece of logic was.

@rachel-marieweiss564 11 ай бұрын

Absolutely LOVED that extra bit of logic needed right at the end. I was so ready for the rest to be very straightforward, but it was such a clever finish, really made me smile when I found it!

@bobblebardsley 11 ай бұрын

33:44 "One of these Is a 1-6 pair And I don't know which one But I don't really care" Beautiful 👏👏

@TheBoredNerd 11 ай бұрын

Super fun! 17:22 It took a few minutes of me staring helplessly before it finally clicked and I hit a nice stride. Thanks as always!

@ServantOfSatania 11 ай бұрын

25:26 For me, this puzzle looked quite intimidating initially, however changing my approach and homing on certain digits seemed to have cracked that nut open, but not without showing off some wonderful logic around the middle box

@Raven-Creations 11 ай бұрын

7:18 for me, a beautiful, buttery smooth flow from start to finish. It virtually solved itself. This was like watching someone stroking a cat the wrong way. It was a beautifully constructed puzzle, with a really nice flow of easy logic, almost all of which went whooshing by you. You continually to tried to force this puzzle, when all you had to do was use the information at hand. 9 in box 8 is in R7, in R4 in box 6, and so R5C3 with 8 above it, and R6 in box 5. The arrows in R7 cannot be greater than 8, so 8 in box 6 is in R5C7 with 4 below. They cannot be lower than 7, because each needs to have three ways to make up the number in two digits. 6 can be eliminated, because you'd need double 3, which would prevent the other arrows working. The 78 pair pushes 7 and 8 onto the arrows in box 8, and must be joined by 1 & 2. The 89 in C4 means the arrow in R1C3 must be 7 made up of 34, this makes the 7 in box 8 go in R8C4, next to 2, 1, then 8. It also resolves which of the 78 arrows is which. The 4 in R6 must have 3 on the tip. This means the 3 on the 8 arrows is in R6, with 5 in R5. So 5 on the 7 arrow is in R6 with 2 in R5, which means 2 on the 8 is in R6, with 6 in R5. Keep going in this fashion until all the arrows are populated. After this, you're left with 567 in R5C1/2/4, 4 in R5C5 with 5 above it, 12 in R5C8/9, 123 in R6C1/2/3, 8 in R6C4, 79 in R6C5/6, and 456 in R6C7/8/9. We can fix R5C4=6 and R6C3=2. In C4, we have 523 to place in box 2, the 5 must go in the circle, with 2 on the arrow, leaving 1 and 2 on the arrow in box 1, with 3 below the 2. This resolves the 17/35 arrows below. R2C6 can only be 4, with 14 on the arrow in box 3, making it a 9 arrow, resolving the 79 in box 5. The 14 on the arrow in box 3 must have the 4 on the dot with an 8 in the corner. The rest is just simple sudoku, other than the logic you did spot which placed the 2 in R9 under the 16 arrow. @ 33:03 "now, I've missed some sudoku" - understatement of the year. I know that this was a live solve, and we can't expect a perfect solve every time, but for someone with your experience to miss so much easy logic takes real determination.

@emilymiller4349 11 ай бұрын

Took me over an hour, but I'm happy to have solved it. Very nice puzzle! Thank you!

@RhiannonAgutter 11 ай бұрын

18:39 for me. I love puzzles like this where sudoku skills balance out the bigger logical leaps required. Once I get over the hurdle of where to start then being quick at sudoku speeds up my time immensely

@matthiasholzman6982 11 ай бұрын

36:23 for me. This is the first puzzle I attempted “before” Simon, and I’m glad I did. In reality, I was just a little frustrated that I was seeing the 8 and 9 in box 4, and their implications in box 7 before he did. 😅 To be fair, I stole some of his logic in the beginning, but the path I took after was different from Simon’s. I’m particularly proud of how I aligned a 1/2 pencil mark in r9c1 with r9c8c9 and the 1/2 pair in box 6, noting that it’s position (with the digits I already found) squeezed a 1/2 into r3c7. It had to be a 2, and the bottom left corner had to be a 1 to align the 2’s in c8c9, and the rest fell apart easily. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s probably the biggest “eureka!” moment I’ve had in sudoku. EDIT: After reviewing my solve, I realized my unique path came from the opposite of Simon’s issue: too much sudoku. I forgot to use the arrow sums in the middle of the grid halfway through, and brute forced the puzzle instead. Whoops

@battler4739 11 ай бұрын

Simon and Mark, Thank you both for a great channel. I started watching a while back and was pleased when I completed a puzzle in less than twice your time. Today was a red letter day; I beat your time!!!!. (until you noticed your time was in fact better than clocked) Thanks again for introducing me to these puzzle.

@jacobknight5497 11 ай бұрын

Just beautiful!! Another unbelievably enjoyable puzzle, thank you so much for sharing this

@AlexandreRibeiroXRV7 11 ай бұрын

This was difficult, but I'm so proud of my 36:44 time! Watching the channel and incorporating techniques and insights really expanded my view of the game, and I'm so happy that it paid off doing this on my own before watching the video. Thanks Mark and Simon!

@Swisswavey 11 ай бұрын

Lovely puzzle, some really elegant paths. Approachable but really clever and fun to solve. Thanks for sharing it.

@Petrus74-yj4kv 11 ай бұрын

Simon definitely should learn from Mark how to make sure the clock works. And it has to be a thorough 4 to 5 hour long session with plenty of examples. It cannot be "just press the restart button, man!" kind of thing 'cause it won't work - after all, we're talking about Simon and his weird brain.

@andyhoudini 11 ай бұрын

My logic for the circles in r7c2 and r7c8 are that neither can be nine, if one of them is six, the only way to make 6 three different ways is with two threes and you cannot complete the other box because there's nowhere to put 3,4 or 3,5. on the other side. Therefore the two circles contain seven and eight.

@Trottah 11 ай бұрын

I considered that it could be a 6,8 combo, and then the arrows that point into box 5 could be 3,3 and 4,4. In the end that didn't work, but I did see a way to use the double 3 without breaking the other set of arrows.

@iabervon 11 ай бұрын

I had an intermediate version: if the cells on the arrows in row 6 are 1-6, then the other cells are 789, but then if the cells on the arrows in row 5 are also 1-6, r5c5 sees every digit, 1-6 in the row and 789 in the box. So the arrows must add up to more than 42 and the circles must add up to more than 14.

@stevieinselby 11 ай бұрын

There's no intrinsic reason that either of the arrows that points into box 5 can't be 3-3, which would allow the circle to be 6.

@andyhoudini 11 ай бұрын

@@stevieinselby at first look this is plausible but try it and you'll have nowhere to place the 3,4 or 3,5 pair on the other side because 3,3 in either arrow split across boxes forces a 3 into row 4 in box 4 or 6.

@stevieinselby 11 ай бұрын

@@andyhoudini Oh sure, you can work through and find that it's impossible to make either of those arrows 3+3=6, but the way you phrased it made it sounds as though you had ruled it out _on the principle that you can't have 3+3=6 on an arrow_ rather than because you had followed it through and proved that in this particular instance it doesn't work.

@AWanderingSwordsman 11 ай бұрын

28:59 for me.This was pretty fun. I got the initial break in logic very fast. I'm a bit proud of that. I've been trying to be more optimal about which things I check first and it felt like it paid off here.

@martysears 11 ай бұрын

Just seen this... James, you are a master at working new and unexpected wonders with classic and familiar constraints. Great puzzle

@warren_r 11 ай бұрын

This puzzle is such a delight. It (and the whole video, really) reminds me of the type of puzzles we saw on the channel a few years ago before setters went mad with power. You could sell me a whole book of puzzles just like this.

@mollymann4192 11 ай бұрын

Thank you Simon for helping me exercise my brain as I work to follow your logic. You have such an elastic mind!

@joshuaneiswinter253 11 ай бұрын

This one was truly awesome. I still can't quite do them without .. "guidance" from Simon, but often I am able to see what he talking about before he says it. Maybe I'm just not being patient with myself enough. Either way, I enjoy watching and playing along!

@ericpraline1302 11 ай бұрын

Splendidly smooth, thanks.

@josephprozinski9311 11 ай бұрын

Simon never changes, steadfastly missing sudoko to make the puzzle easier to solve. There were at least three times he missed blocks of easy sudoko and found a more obscure and difficult way to logically find a way forward. Especially at the end when he found the 2-6 pair in r9c8 and r9c9

@MrVesinokkaelain 11 ай бұрын

Fantastic finish, but sudoku would have given a less pretty one with the 3&7 in the middle box looking at box 4

@conexant51 11 ай бұрын

You gotta give it to Simon that when he flexes, he does it in a very humble, gentleman-like way! It's admirable. ☺

@Svuppedasker 11 ай бұрын

Wow. 34:08 for me, and that is a surprise. I usually need 2-3 times the video length, if I can make it at all. I never thought of the secret, but I had the most wonderful ping-pong interactions between the left and right set of arrows, which made me smile quite a bit (and then worry that I must have made a mistake as everything went too smooth)

@ericsjoberg8167 11 ай бұрын

I thought it looked much harder than it was. Great puzzle! Thanks to the setter!

@adinom687 11 ай бұрын

12:42! For whatever reason, almost all of James Sinclair’s puzzles have been a breeze for me. I’ll be honest though, I do have the pencil mark conflict checker on, since it turns on by default and, though I sometimes turn it off, I’m sure that does help speed up the time

@eerovilpponen4543 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for this puzzle! I almost solved it in an hour but the last few cells took me an eternity (you made it look so easy).

@user-kt9vr1wj6y 11 ай бұрын

32:02 for me As the author says, it is fairly approachable. It is delightful to solve it. Thanks for the puzzle and solving.

@shawnmichajluk2044 11 ай бұрын

Great puzzle! It was neat that I was ahead for a bit but messed up and needed to see where it happened.

@kgeiger61 11 ай бұрын

I love that last logic move that forces a 2 in the bottom row of box 9!

@stevieinselby 11 ай бұрын

10 minutes in and I'm wondering when Simon is going to take the obvious first step of asking where 9 and 8 go in boxes 6 and 4...

@Kinada 11 ай бұрын

Under 30 min tonight, very nice and much needed break from getting stuck on even simpler things because my brain is mush lately. The simpler way of seeing the start is that there are only two ways of making 6 but there are 3 arrow in the box.

@Afterthoughtbtw 11 ай бұрын

I really enjoyed this puzzle. Particular a dawning moment as regards where 4 went in box 5 that got the logic flowing for me. ETA: Of course, you found a much nicer way to do it that ignored that entirely, as almost expected. I enjoyed that moment anyway(!)

@fakjbf3129 11 ай бұрын

16:32 Simon proves that if the blue digits in box 5 contain a four then it must go in r5c5. 20:08 Simon proves that the blue digits in box 5 contain a four. 23:59 Simon finally places the four in r5c5. It’s honestly so charming to see your brain zooming ahead twenty steps and forgetting to do the basic sudoku in your sudoku puzzles.

@LavenderGooms 11 ай бұрын

"Where does 9 go in row 5" was where I started the breakin. This was a really fun one.

@JohnRandomness105 11 ай бұрын

11:20 I'm a bit stuck now. Thanks for the math. Here's are two questions: where must 9 go in row 4? Then where must 9 go in row 5? 13:20 It's a lot later now, and I've finished the puzzle. Thanks for the 72 heads-up in block 8. I already had 81, and I'd also removed 9 as possible in one of the circles, so the other two had to both be 9. I used the 45 math -- I'd ruled out 6 in a different way from row 7's circles. 22:50 I used brute force on the arrows leading to the 8 -- similar to Simon's arrows leading to 7 -- something Mark would appreciate. I could whittle down the occupants of the cells. 33:00 "Where are you, Sudoku nonsense?" You can unravel a chunk of green.

@orosma868 11 ай бұрын

That was a great puzzle. I think Simon should be made to do all the puzzles that rely mainly on sudoku to really get going. He's so funny "out of nowhere...." Even i spotted the 9 in box 4 on the white dot from the off. And that 4 in box 5. Loved it!

@tobyg7285 11 ай бұрын

I so much enjoy Simon’s logic, which has improved my own solving in so many ways! However, sometines the logic becomes too complex and the ” actual sodoku” gets lost in the process! (Yes, I am aware that Simons mentions this quite frequently but still 😀)

@ryxiewuff 11 ай бұрын

I love watching Simon get lost in beautiful logic and missing the most basic pencil marks. We need to get him a timer that goes off once every 3 minutes just labeled "do Sudoku".

@josephbalinski 11 ай бұрын

Great solve Simon. I'm getting better. I got to the end but couldn't figure out the last trigger though it was staring me in the face.

@nendwr 11 ай бұрын

How long can Simon not do sudoku in rows 5 and 6?

@RichSmith77 11 ай бұрын

It must have been the blue/green colouring. Seemed to completely obliterate his ability to scan across those two rows.

@AlexandreRibeiroXRV7 11 ай бұрын

That was painful to see lol

@Gonzalo_Garcia_ 11 ай бұрын

8:48 for me. Great puzzle!!

@Crystal-ef3dm 11 ай бұрын

31:18 That was some interesting and unexpected logic. Took me a while to disambiguate all the pairs I had found. That was a super interesting arrow sudoku, definitely worthy of its fanfare!

@jenniferlenfestey5335 11 ай бұрын

Great puzzle, lots of fun 38:32. With 9 limited to row 4 in box 6 due to arrows and kropkis, the 9 in r5c3 jumped off the page and was my first digit. The 9 in r7 box 8 limited the circles in r7 to 7/8, although I see I took some false liberties in not including a 6 as a possibly.

@svnb.3466 11 ай бұрын

i also imediately saw it through that

@rewolff2 11 ай бұрын

Simon finishes with the three that has been available for more than 6 minutes..... "I love that finish! " :-)

@dannydebryan 11 ай бұрын

Wow! That was fun! And pleasantly challenging.

@Alteram 10 ай бұрын

I was so pleased with myself to (almost instantly) get the 9 in box 4 because of the black dot and the arrow secret of not having a 9 on the arrow.

@thommy4078 11 ай бұрын

26:09 for me. As always a great puzzle. The / ending was great 🎉

@10prozenthimmel 11 ай бұрын

I just love how Simon does all this complex stuff and then keeps overlooking 3 in row 5 for over 10 minutes 😂

@lulerogaming1694 11 ай бұрын

What impresses the most is how Simon dodge easy mistakes. I started the puzzle on my own, then watched the video. At first it felt like Simon was slow, then I realized a couple mistakes of mine. I had the right conclusions but in a flawed way. For example, I quickly pencil marked the 78 pair in row 7, but using the fact you can't get to 6 in 3 different ways with the sum of two cells, unless you repeat a 3. But that was allowed on the middleish arrows. If you do, it still doesn't work obviously (you starve the other arrow), but I didn't go this far. I did see one digit was outside the box, but thought I was still good since the other half of that pair saw all the other digits.

@RoderickEtheria 11 ай бұрын

I have to admit, I was stuck for a while at that last part, not seeing that an arrow was ready to shoot itself from the sky if it was filled in incorrectly. Done in 25:54 and really pleased with that spot that stumped me. I solved it by producing two 9s in c8.

@fruit3193 11 ай бұрын

This puzzle fell into place rather nicely.

@mstmar 11 ай бұрын

my solve went quite a bit differently than simons, basically no math on rows 5 and 6, and pretty much filled boxes 4-6 without looking at other boxes except box 8 slightly. first thing i noted is that the circles in r7c28 have to be at least 7. this is because they need 3 distinct pairs, otherwise you'd need to repeat a digit in the box above. like simon, you can say they aren't 9s or they would put a 9 on a 2 cell arrow in box 8, so they're a 78 pair. like simon (at 14:27), i concluded 8 and 9 have to be off the arrows in boxes 4 and 6, so r5c37 are an 89 pair, but 9 can't go on the black dot. this gives us an 98 on the white dot and an 84 on the black dot, giving us a 3 or 4 in r5c6. Like we mentioned before, the arrows need 3 distinct pairs to fill them, in particular, the 7 needs a 34 pair somewhere, but if the 8 has a double 4 arrow, we'd block any chance for 7 to get a 4, so 8 has a these pairs on the arrows: 17,26,35. with that, we know the composition of all 6 arrows, and can fill the blue with a 4789 quad making the center square a 4 by sudoku. the 3 in row 5 tells us the 8 gets it's 3 from the bottom row, and so it's 5 from the top, which bounces to the 7 sorting out the 52 pair, which bounces back to the 8 sorting the 26 pair, then back to the 7 for the 16 pair and back to the 8 for the 17 pair. so in total, we have 567 in row 5 for the 8 arrows, and 123 in row 6 for the 8, a 12 in row 5 and 56 in row 6 for the 7. with a bit of sudoku, you can then limit all squares in boxes 4-6 to 1-3 options. without really ever looking elsewhere. the rest of the solve is similar but slightly aided by less options. I did find it funny that the last thing simon did was sort out the central boxes, while it's what i started with.

@KrisCadwell 11 ай бұрын

I got stuck in box 8 and had to sleep on it for a while. I basically pulled a Simon: I was just missing basic sudoku that created a 78 pair in the box. This was a really fun puzzle though, I enjoyed discovering all the interactions between the arrows in box 4 and 6.

@Zachx420 11 ай бұрын

Thought I royally screwed up, retried 2x, then realized digits could repeat on an arrow. Great puzzle!

@Sam_weiqi 11 ай бұрын

18:29 for me. Break in flowed really nicely.

@Kelters 11 ай бұрын

Excellent puzzle. -- After a couple of false early developments, I found that I had to be rigorously logical to find the correct solve. -- This would be a good choice for book 3 ;-) Well done to all involved.

@thomashughes8800 11 ай бұрын

i subscribed. i like . i comment. and i have many days where i still have to use search to get to my cracking the cryptic

@eleanorpenklis9883 11 ай бұрын

❤❤❤ go for gold. I watch every night and am obsessed. You saved me during covid. Like literally.

@JZuCuadra 11 ай бұрын

Almost got this one by myself, I did not see the 126 triple with the arrow and the 2 cells on the bottom of box 9. but as soon as I saw that, I was off to the races. Finished with a time of 53:00 exactly, and I'm pretty happy with that.

@johnwelton6554 11 ай бұрын

First time I have beaten Simon's time. Amazing what you can do by just using sudoku!! The 9 in R5C3 was a write in from the start.

@nikitashaitan9984 9 ай бұрын

23:17 Started with circles within the centre Got that they are 789, cause it’s at least 123456 in the middle box rows for circles Than 9s were in the top row of box 8, so those circles were 78 8/9 are i the bottom row of box 5 So 8/9 are in the only 2 places in boxes 4 and 6, which determined placement of 8 on a dot 4 is on the arrow, so the other digit on that arrow is only 3, because otherwise there will not be the 3rd arrow for 7 in box 4 (it needs 4/3 as 3rd option) Basically the whole breakthrough After that i got a few doubles and tripples while placing digits 7, 8, 9s are restricted for box 8 So it came down to the fact it’s 9 in the circle in box 8 and in the circle of box 9 at the bottom row

@TheClawNinja 11 ай бұрын

My ideal day in England. 8:00pm David Gilmour concert with Mark and Simon. That's all I need.

@miyahollands6136 11 ай бұрын

Simon - this was the first time you got me talking at the screen regarding the 4 in box 6 and it's influence on box 5 😂

@ThomasJH268 11 ай бұрын

I admit, halfway through my solve I gave up. After watching Simons final solution, I saw that I was on the right track since all the digits I managed to place were correct

@annesorensen4004 11 ай бұрын

Exactly 42:00 minutes 🎉🎉 - that in it self is a win 🥳

@josephbentley7780 11 ай бұрын

46:51 for me, happy I was able to actually solve an arrow sudoku, i find them kinda tricky.

@ingvarsuigin609 11 ай бұрын

In box 5,the 9 is in row 6. So out of the three purple spots in row 5, one is in the same box (can't be) one is on a black dot (also can't be) and the only possible is in box 4. Could be seen much earlier, but you cycled back to it.

@stevesebzda570 11 ай бұрын

Oh, btw, the 9s are in row4 of box6 , which throws the "9" on the other side of the wht dot in box4 (which places the 8 in there). EDIT: even before @6:30