Thanks so much for the feature Simon! Loved watching the solve!

@tezza7

2 ай бұрын

Great puzzle! Any meaning behind the name you gave it?

@gandalf_le_rouge

2 ай бұрын

@@tezza7 Might be something to do with the mod3 modularity all over the finished grid?

@matt_tressel

2 ай бұрын

@@tezza7 The global difference of 3 was the starting point, but also, three wishes often come with three rules, and the puzzle has three rules (as long as you don't count "normal sudoku rules apply" as one of the rules). The mod3 also pointed me to a '3' theme.

@user-qo7ng5fv4x

2 ай бұрын

Well Made Puzzle 👏👏👏

@user-zx8oy2jf4d

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the puzzle. I really enjoyed solving it!

This is the first puzzle shared on this channel I've actually solved myself! Took me a longer time to complete than I am willing to share... but very pleased to have cracked it as I am pretty new to sudoku 😊

@longwaytotipperary

2 ай бұрын

Congratulations!

@tryingtobeeloquent

2 ай бұрын

woo!! that's such a great feeling :))

@derekjc777

2 ай бұрын

Well done! Don’t be ashamed of longer solves. Frequently I take twice as long as Mark or Simon. This one was a rare exception.

@ottovon495

2 ай бұрын

same with me! 😀

@adrianp5465

2 ай бұрын

I remember that feeling. Well done! :)

Anyone else think that it would be hilarious if you made this a fog of war puzzle? You could add in extra rules like kropki dots or renban lines, and just not have them in the grid 😊

@kamalidimock8726

2 ай бұрын

Lol!!

@stefanhermansen8975

2 ай бұрын

This would probably be the perfect version 👍

@mvanvoorden

2 ай бұрын

I had the exact same thought lol

@Kairamek

2 ай бұрын

Sounds like an April 1st puzzle.

@LukeSumIpsePatremTe

2 ай бұрын

_The 4th Wish_

I made a careless assumption about the center squares that turned out to be correct, but cheapened my success. I have the same gripe with fog of war: I wish the software knew *why* I was placing a digit, so it could silently reject it if my rationale was incorrect.

@TheMeanderingduck6

2 ай бұрын

My thought was "I bet that means the centers are going to be 1 through 9" and even though I was right, I shouldn't have been as direct in my thought process.

@ChicanoryIsMyName

2 ай бұрын

I did the same thing and thought it was too easy. Turns out I was right and wrong.

@RCPlanes59

2 ай бұрын

@@ChicanoryIsMyName Same thing happened to me

@johndaily263

2 ай бұрын

@@TheMeanderingduck6after the first 3 *had* to be in order my reasoning ability left the room.

@bernierossi8062

2 ай бұрын

That assumption crossed my mind but then the suspicious side of me saw that as a trap so I went the logical way!

Completed in just under 20 minutes, think it's the first time I've ever solved a puzzle faster than Simon. It wasn't totally easy but I never felt stuck, just kept looking for middle digits on boundaries and knowing their neighbour could only be an extreme digit, and other such logic. And then noticed the roping and started making good use of that. This really is a true Miracle Sudoku, extremely elegant rule set and doesn't even use a knight's move constraint?? Very impressive and I absolutely loved it.

I figured out the roping 11 minutes in. I realized the entire puzzle just went 1 to 9 and it blew my mind. 14 minute solve. Loved it.

@markes5025

2 ай бұрын

I didn't use the roping I almost only used the middle digit, the difference and a tiny bit of sudoku.

@darreljones8645

2 ай бұрын

In the final grid, there's roping on 147, 258, and 369 in every row. There's also roping on the columns, but curiously, each set of three columns has a different roping pattern.

@reecec626

2 ай бұрын

Yes! I thought so.

@grantfraser5430

2 ай бұрын

​@@darreljones8645The columns are actually identical in sequence, each starting with a different number. I wonder if it's the only possible sequence either with or without the center cell constraint. Doubtful but some sequences can work for one row (or column) while at the same time not leaving a possible sequence for a neighbouring row.

@prgnsean

2 ай бұрын

@@darreljones8645 i was hollering like mad at Simon but he didnt hear me, didnt see it, or at least didnt mention it.

Although not stated in the rules, the puzzle also obeys the disjoint subset rule, and there is perfect roping both horizontally and vertically. It's fascinating that the same result could be achieved with different rules about each set of 3 horizontal cells in a column are from the same mod 3 set. It is wonderful numerically speaking.

@Senen33

2 ай бұрын

Not only does it follow disjoint rules, the order of the digits is the same in every box. It's 9 identical clones offset by one (and looping)

Finished in 15:41. I didn't notice the roping until halfway through but once I did, I was blown away by how deep it went. Amazing puzzle!

@esperantojoe426

2 ай бұрын

I can't recall ever seeing horizontal and vertical roping in one puzzle before

@derekjc777

2 ай бұрын

@@esperantojoe426 Possibly in another miracle sudoku but it is rare.

@RealCadde

2 ай бұрын

I didn't notice there was roping until i read your comment. The roping is a side effect of all digits having to be 3 or 4 apart from each other.

@josepha3805

2 ай бұрын

Belches of Freedom to you and your Kin 🎉

I would like to humbly suggest that a grid with horizontal AND vertical roping should be known as tartan.

@bbgun061

Ай бұрын

Yes!

I'm a simple human. I see Simon playing the guitar, I press like.

Worth a like for the guitar playing at the beginning. Thank you Simon. I am in awe of your talents

Simons solve was completely different to mine, there's no requirement to think about the columns hardly at all.

@jetranger57b

2 ай бұрын

Simon tended to focus on the vertical relationships and forgot about the horizontal restrictions. For example, at 20:38, the two cells in positions 2 and 8 in box 1 had to be a 56 pair, 789 wasn't a possibility due to the 789 in positions 3 and 9... that would have led to resolving all of boxes 1, 2, and 3

@SarahLivne

2 ай бұрын

True. Once you finished (or almost) row 2 you could get rows 1 and 3 to form couples, then an inspection of row 4 would resolve all the couples and you could go on and pretty much fill it all in row by row with the rules + sudoku.

Considering the inflation of cleverness in this community, this puzzle is no doubt 1-star difficulty. And among all the easy puzzles, this one is just outstanding and mesmerizing!

@buchnejf

2 ай бұрын

Naw, more difficult than one star 😉

The amount of roping you got in this puzzle is astonishing.

@ariondys

2 ай бұрын

16 minutes and I didn't notice. It was just a matter of pencil marking

@bbgun061

Ай бұрын

Wow, that's interesting. I hadn't noticed, but I did realize there is a disjoint set constraint. I wonder why that is. (Both why those features exist in the puzzle and how I couldn't notice the roping...)

As a fellow Paul Simon fan, I must request you post full versions of your renditions of his songs. Your guitar picking is fantastic!

@Frog_Puppet

2 ай бұрын

I had to check for the song name, it's been a bit since I've listened to it "The Dangling Conversation" such a beautiful piece.

@longwaytotipperary

2 ай бұрын

Totally agree!

I'm normally quite dismissive of easy puzzles but this is such a clever idea and such an elegant implementation that i loved it totally. The setter should take a bow!

@rampantunease6517

2 ай бұрын

As Simon said this is a discovery rather than a construction. But it takes a lot of work to discover this.

I knew that this one was gonna get on Ctc I solved it a week ago while on the beach 😉 Great puzzle

Comment section: Simon never uses sudoku when it's the simpler option. 27:36 Simon: "Hold my wine." Also, roping is one thing. That slowest diagonally looping continuous slow thermo though! Seeing this solve further increased the high appreciation I had after having solved it.

Observe the resultant: Every number is 4 more than the one above it. Every number is 3 more than the one left of it, or 4 more across a box border. And every center is .. as noted.

@Sidnv

2 ай бұрын

Patterns like this usually make me want to prove that this is the only possible option but in this case, there's no need to prove anything since the lack of given digits make this the only sudoku satisfying the constraints. I wonder if a non-constructive mathematical proof is how this puzzle was found.

@voncornhole

2 ай бұрын

There are bands of numbers with the same mod 3 in every region

@bbgun061

Ай бұрын

Every number is 4 more than the one above it, mod 9.

I love when you open with gutiar, it just adds such a lovely tone to the start of the video ❤

Love the Entroping in the rows 😍

@chipsounder4633

2 ай бұрын

🎉

@nicka3697

2 ай бұрын

I loved the roping in the columns

Rules: 01:53 Let's Get Cracking: 06:06 Simon's time: 24m53s Puzzle Solved: 30:59 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 2x (14:03, 27:05) Bobbins: 1x (17:40) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Pencil Mark/mark: 11x (07:14, 07:18, 07:21, 08:09, 10:28, 10:31, 14:44, 15:00, 20:40, 27:25, 30:45) By Sudoku: 7x (06:37, 06:43, 06:59, 08:53, 17:50, 27:49, 30:37) Ah: 7x (06:46, 08:05, 12:19, 21:19, 22:52, 24:58, 28:44) Sorry: 4x (11:08, 12:09, 21:11, 22:08) Brilliant: 4x (16:36, 16:36, 26:40, 31:37) In Fact: 3x (01:49, 06:23, 06:27) Obviously: 3x (16:52, 21:47, 26:03) Incredible: 2x (03:44, 31:13) Ridiculous: 2x (30:58, 31:01) Shouting: 2x (05:19, 05:32) Weird: 2x (30:11, 30:14) Good Grief: 1x (31:05) The Answer is: 1x (21:47) In the Spotlight: 1x (27:07) Lovely: 1x (17:33) Going Mad: 1x (07:28) Take a Bow: 1x (31:37) Approachable: 1x (03:40) Famous Last Words: 1x (22:55) Wow: 1x (21:24) Cake!: 1x (05:12) Unique: 1x (01:00) Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video: Ten (3 mentions) Four (80 mentions) Green (2 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Low (7) - High (3) Even (3) - Odd (0) Lower (9) - Higher (4) Row (12) - Column (7) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

That was absolutely ridiculous. In the best possible way. Chapeau!

This is the first CtC puzzle I have solved (with only a little help from Simon)! What an amazing feeling that was when I saw “Yey, Congrats!”. I couldn’t have done it without a few tricks I learnt from watching this channel. Thanks, Simon. And thanks, Matt. How good!

16:22 for me. I can only say the words that are not mine... "This is a work of sublime genius!"

00:29:51 was my time. This is the first Sudoku on this Channel I actually attempted AND finished without a break or giving up halfway through. I loved the simple set of rules and the moment it finally clicked for me was when the 789 triple in Box 5 fell into place, after that it was a very smooth ride. 😊

You seemed to forget the differ by 4 rule in row 4

I'm an absolute novice but this is the first video on the channel where I felt inspired to have a proper crack at the puzzle before watching and found I could actually solve it! I found this a really enjoyable and satisfying puzzle, I knew where to start and I very quickly got my head thinking the way the puzzle does! Thanks for the inspiration Simon :)

Wow, this one was of the utmost brilliance. I believe it was possible to solve the top 3 rows before looking at columns, but Simon's solve shows us even more beauty in the structure of the grid.

I have never, Never, NEVER done a solve quicker than Mark or Simon ... until now! 🥳🎉

Certainly fun to watch. I started solving it on my own and could see that it would be very doable. I'll finish tomorrow, but tonight I just wanted to watch. Thanks, Simon (and thanks for the guitar intro).

10:47. It's quite easy if you work out the connections between the central digits in the boxes in the first row, then how they connect to the central digits in the second row.

This is an absolutely amazing construction/discovery. While I was _pretty_ sure early on how things were going to end up, it wasn't at all obvious that it was forced.

Perfect puzzle - simple rules without any given digits, yet easily solvable.

This really gives an insight into how Simon scans. There were so many comparisons in one direction without looking at the continuation. Like, look at a cell in C3 and then look at the same row to C4 without looking back at C2 or looking at the row below it until after he has moved on and then came back to it.

I finished in 20:59 minutes. These blank Sudoku miracles are some of the coolest and most beautiful Sudokus. This one is especially nice since the rules are so clean. As always, it feels good to beat Simon's time. Great Puzzle!

Finished in 14:48 without making any assumptions, and without noticing the roping at all (again!!). Everything flowed pretty easily, just by looking at whittling down the options

I needed Simon to point me towards the pressure of middle of region columns in row 4 but I'm very pleased with myself that once I got there I solved it really quickly (for me).

Hats off to Matt Tressel. Excellent puzzle.

I love the miracle sudoku puzzles. I actually attempted this one (first CtC puzzle I've tried). I managed to solve it in just over 23 minutes. I also guessed that it would be 1-9 in the centers, but I waited until logic plopped them on in there instead of assuming. Watching the video after, the same logic path as Simon for the most part. Wonderful puzzle.

9:45 Realised it must be the sets of entropic digits and if each box did not contain its exact number centrally the roping wouldn't work. Genius setting to discover that and add the 4 difference between boxes.

14:17 finish. There was a very nice flow to this puzzle, like a wave that pushed out from the top to the bottom, and then your choice of left to right or right to left. Fun fun fun!

I managed to pull this off in 16:19, which is a fair bit better than I usually do. I found the puzzle flowed quite nicely, avoiding those head scratching moments where I try to figure out what I need to do next. When I did my solve, I generally worked from the top down, filling in most of rows 1-3 before moving to 4-6. I also spotted the roping while working in the middle rows, but didn't really do much with it.

Wow, once I got started it more or less solved itself with only a gentle prod from me. Wonderful puzzle, thank you!

Took about 15 minutes for me, feeling good about this one. Watched a bit of the the start of the solve, and was pleased that I was solving it along the same path as Simon. Didn't require anything complicated, I just forgot the difference between regions was 4, not 3! . . . Possibly a spoiler, but did anyone else notice a peculiar pattern along one of the diagonals at the end?

I have an oddball suggestion. If you occasionally play a series of simple original (non variant) Sudoku puzzles at the highest speed you can solve them, your brain/eye learns to spot numbers that may be leftover in pencil marks or already solved. I find it does sometimes helps me cut down on getting stuck, when an obvious clue is right in front of me. I think of it as Sudoku speed reading. I can run through several simple puzzles at about 2 to 3 minutes each. I suspect you would be much faster!

A cool feature of this puzzle.... .... This puzzle has a radial symmetry where digits on opposite sides of the puzzle add to 10

@Anne_Mahoney

2 ай бұрын

If we assume the box centers are the box numbers (as turns out to be true) and treat them as invisible givens, then the symmetry follows from GSP.

@mscha

2 ай бұрын

It actually _has_ to be, otherwise it wouldn't be a unique solution. (The rules are symmetrical; rotate the puzzle 180° and take 10 minus each digit, and it will be a solution.)

Oh I did this puzzle other day and thought it would be perfect for Cracking the Cryptic. So nice to see you do it!

The whole puzzle is rotationally symmetric around r5c5, and there is roping everywhere with horizontal ropes being modular sets. Also, the grid fulfills disjoint rules, and within a disjoint set, every vertical stripe is also a valid modular set.

when i solved this, i got row 2 fairly quickly, but the entire thing. then i got vertical pairs in each column of the first r3 boxes. the breakout was moving into box 4 via column 2, when then fed back into the first 3 rows, solving all 27 squares there. from there i was able to go row by row solving. quite a beautiful puzzle

That was a very straight forward puzzle, but also lots of fun to solve.

Many people say that they noticed the roping during the solve. I didn´t, but I did notice early on that every digit was exactly the one on the same position of the previous box plus 1 (except that 1 follows 9), and so it kept being until the end. Isn’t that often a feature of miracle sudokus? Really fun puzzle!

15:24 for me. I loved the concept. It felt like it flowed seamlessly throughout

My first time solving faster than Simon! 18:19 🥳 Nice little puzzle and very approachable

finally a miracle sudoku i can solve! it took me almost an hour but i also didn't know what roping was until i read the other comments 😅

I did it almost exclusively row by row from top to bottom.

@stej4314

2 ай бұрын

Same here.🎉

@RichSmith77

2 ай бұрын

Similar. I checked afterwards. I did complete row 2 first, just, but then went rows 1,3,4,5,6. (I then switched to filling in the bottom three boxes by going column 1 through 9. (Well, almost. Went 1,3,2,4-9))

@mwickholm

2 ай бұрын

@@RichSmith77 I did that too.

@studgerbil9081

2 ай бұрын

ditto. Simon made it somewhat more difficult than needed, but that's who he is.

@dinane

2 ай бұрын

Same

Wow! This was a fun one to solve! And with total horizontal AND vertical roping! 👍👍👍

16:23 A very neat, tidy ruleset. Miracles never cease around here. 🎉

I think SImon was overthinking this one qute a bit. I found it pretty easy to go from row 3 to row 4 just using the two given constraints, and then similarly down through rows 5 and 6, and then quickly wrapping it up in boxes 7. 8, 9 by using the remaining triplets in each column. Perhaps my solution was a bit plodding, but it was smooth, straightforward, and involved no actual sukoku per se. BTW, this was featured by the wonderful "SUDOKU SLEUTH"" three days ago, under the title "Three WIshes (Miracle)".

@daavor

2 ай бұрын

Definitely agree. The biggest thing that led to overthinking IMO was that he didn't notice the way (and need) to break the symmetry around r2. He had so many pencil marks in r1 and r3 before he considered the relation between r2c2 and r5c2 (the centers of boxes 1,4). Doing that earlier makes it much easier to actually place digitts rather than just a litany of pencil marks.

23:59 simple and sweet puzzle like dominoes. I have no idea how the center squares line up so perfectly.

Once the first three rows were penciled in, you could see that the 234 in column 2 had to be spread out to rows 579. Filling in the top boxes and then the left boxes quickly followed. I rarely have a smoother solve than Simon.

Yay! What a milestone! After so many years, I did my very first puzzle quicker than Simon! 22:04

all the collections of cells in the same position within their boxes form disjoint sets, and each of those are filled sequentially corresponding with the box numbers. that's pretty neat. e.g top left cornes go 3-4-5- etc. and so on for each position.

Anyone else notice the horizontal roping? It’s the same 3 sets of digits through the entire puzzle.

Loved this puzzle as a casual miracle. 12.01 for me because it just clicked and flowed nicely. Will now watch the video and see if the approach was the same!

Yet another reason to love a simple 9x9 grid.

I don't generally do the puzzles myself, as I don't have a lot of time, but this one looked pretty easy and fun. Finished in 15:16. Great puzzle. If I had just "trusted my gut" instead of logically following every step, I probably would have finished in about 7 minutes, when I noticed that roping looked like it was forced both horizontally and vertically, but I couldn't convince myself I was right, so I logically followed every cell through the puzzle.

I was so proud of myself in finishing this 10 minutes quicker than the length of Simon's solve (from "Let's get cracking" to the end of the video). Then once I started watching it I realised my presuming that all 9 central digits could be filled in was completely wrong, and I just got very lucky... 😂

i quickly realize it has to be 1 to 9 in order. this is that kind of puzzle when you figure out the clue it's totally cakewalk. great puzzle.

Love guitar intro!!

@annek3296

2 ай бұрын

I think every one of Simon's solves should have either a guitar or poetry intro or outro - preferably, both!

@longwaytotipperary

2 ай бұрын

@@annek3296 totally agree!!!! 😄

This one was a lot of fun! Got it in 11:26, using sudokupad's conflict checker pretty heavily but it was really neat to see how easily the rules made this one emerge.

24:10 Yelled at poor Simon for five minutes straight about R4C6...😅

I didn't figured it out yet, but I guess there is a perfectly logical (maybe mathematical as well) reason for all this roping, like in each box, each line is a set of digits with the same mod3 modularity. I think the reason Simon didn't find it easy at all is that he didn't find that logic during his solve. This logic might be the key point of this. Adding the rule of the central digit finishing to find each order and place of each little set. Quite remarkable puzzle, quite good solve as well. Thanks Matt!

27:39 - It took me a bit to long to spot the perfect roping but once I did of course I flew through it.

What a beautiful puzzle! I worked down the columns but simply from left to right. In fact column 2 was very productive. And very quickly roping became obvious so the grid gets filled in very quickly then just apply the rule. Lovely.

Very nice puzzle! Apart from all the roping (both horizontally and vertically) the solution also obeys a disjoint subset constraint. Moreover, those disjoint subsets contain the digits in their natural order. What a discovery!

Wow. This puzzle is spectacular. Very entertaining solve.

There is a symmetry against the x and Y axis. Digits on opposite sides of the axis are always the "opposite" digit from each other, 1 is opposite 9, 2 is opposite 8 and so on.

Love the guitar and singing! And the sudoku.

Truly beautiful puzzle. Very approachable although it took a bit to get going. Finished in 18:33. Although puzzles like this one aren't particularly hard they are some of my favorites because of how beautifully they unfold.

Dang, a miracle for me in 12m25s. The relatively heavy constraints made this a fun and easy one.

The way that Simon's brain switches between utilizing the most complex sudoku logic and the most complex number-difference logic while ignoring the most obvious deductions from both is astonishing; it really says something about his brilliance and the level of complexity that he is used to operate at!

The rare situation when I see on CTC puzzle previously solved on another channel. Very nice one!

Simon makes this so much harder than he has to. Find the 3 in the corner already!

Finished in 12:14. Pretty approachable, you just have to keep the differences straight between the regions and within regions. Fun puzzle and a wonderful miracle sudoku!

(Miraculously) 9.10 for me, this is one of the most creative sudoku idea i have ever seen for a while, love it. Wish the best to simon and the creator of the puzzle ❤🎉

Took longer than I care to admit for it to “click” that this was basically just the non-consecutive rule on steroids, but once it did the rest of my solve went very quickly and smoothly, indeed. Very enjoyable!

Goodliffing ain't so bad after all ... Some puzzles just begs for it :-) Loved the solve, loved the puzzle.

People mention the roping, but moreover, every cell position cycles across to the next digit and rolls over back to 1.

Oh for the first time I see you do one I already finished a couple of days ago, it's really satisfying to solve this

It's funny you say that you could remember it, because I completely forgot that the clue about orthogonally adjacent cells differing by at least three was rule that applied to EVERY cell in a box, not just the ones adjacent to the center. I filled out the complete cross-stitch pattern and was stumped for a moment until I reread the rules. Still finish in 00:26:29 though!

Haha I completely missed the roping in this until I read the comments! Astonishing puzzle, my favourite miracle in a long time.

The digits in the columns, in each box, are always in the same order, but never in the same column. You can just place the digits in the last 3 rows by knowing that. For example 3,7,2 6,1,5 9,4,8. It's actually amazing

Loved it! Solved in 25:42, totally oblivious to roping and the center-cell pattern 😂 As I’m now watching Simon’s solve: 21:58 why can’t the 5 and 9 switch places? R4c2 can’t be 234, but Simon then jumps to saying it has to be 9 to keep its distance from R3c2.

@RichSmith77

2 ай бұрын

R4c2 also cannot be 5 because 5 is pencil-marked as being in c2 in box 1. Once you restrict r4c2 to be 6789 for this reason, it has to be 9 and r3c2 the 5 to have a difference of 4.

So funny to see you solve this just the day when I sent you an e-mail about it. But yes, I would've hoped a lot a of people recommended it. It was a fun discovery! Thanks for sharing your reactions and your way of solving!

Expected this one to take me a bit longer than it did, but got it completed in just 8:10 (conflict checker off), what an amazing puzzle! Many props to Matt for this incredible puzzle!

13:59. Incredible puzzle. The top three boxes were a very interesting jigsaw to get the values in (my first pass, I misremembered the difference between boxes as also being 3), then the rest fell apart to sudoku almost instantly Edit: I did not notice the roping or the pattern in the middle digits (other than the top three boxes) until reading the comments. Wow XD

So good. Lovely puzzle, now a lovely solve and now fun reading comments including the birthdays!

I wonder how fast Mark could solve this one. This puzzle begs for focus on scanning and rigorous application of logic. I'm sure he'd get fined for speeding...

@derekjc777

2 ай бұрын

Definitely Mark would have noticed obvious things Simon overlooked. I think Mark would solve this in 5 minutes.

17:31 after a retry, it is way better than my average. After getting a good grip of the first 3 lines, I saw the snooker maximum (I don't even know what that means, but I know the number) and all the roping (I just noticed the vertical roping, amazing) and went on an hunch.