I've never thought I would be shouting "FILL IN THE OTHER 8s!" at the screen the same way I shout to the players during a football match, but here I am! Thanks for this great content, Simon!

@Luxalpa

4 жыл бұрын

He first tells us 5 min about the sword fish, then he even colors in the cells, and then he just refuses to use it >.

@vichasown

4 жыл бұрын

He loves identifying... Explaining to us... But then... What fun is it to use it... Naah. He just moved on to more lovelier stuff. We mere mortals cannot move past... Haha

@AMLigtvoet

4 жыл бұрын

I was screaming with you :)

@zlatkakardaleva5738

4 жыл бұрын

I was soooo mad!! And then when he said he'd live with the coloring I was like "nooooooooo".

@GrimOakheart

4 жыл бұрын

@@Luxalpa Exactly my mood for about 20 minutes

I have never played Sudoku and thanks to this channel I am completing extremely difficult ones. However, I can only solve them with Simon's voice in my head going "Oh. Hang on. Yes, brilliant"

@zanzaboonda

4 жыл бұрын

Same! I hear his voice all the time, now.

@bobblebardsley

4 жыл бұрын

With occasional "Now, here's some logic for you" and when you restrict a digit to two cells in one box, then notice you can actually place it in another box, "I can do better!"

@smuckleschmuckler2486

4 жыл бұрын

I know, after watching these videos and going back and trying hard puzzles myself this voice is now a part of my thought process. Its perfect

@maryammehtab3135

4 жыл бұрын

And Simon in my head saying, "and the 2 goes here which fixes the 2 there" 🤣 goddamit

@xXluckyjoe7Xx

4 жыл бұрын

Or when you finally find that digit you were missing "oh thats absolutely wonderful"

Simon: I don't use this word lightly Also Simon: *calls almost every puzzle on this channel a masterpiece*

@essidus

4 жыл бұрын

That's only because the puzzles Simon and Mark solve are some of the best and most beautiful that have ever graced the form.

@matushorvath

4 жыл бұрын

To be fair, many of them are.

@mxspokes

4 жыл бұрын

@@essidus the puzzles are tested and verified for a unique solution.

@MattRix

4 жыл бұрын

just imagine how many puzzles he's solved that haven't been on the channel though :)

“i’m sorry if you guys are already spotting it” sir i have no idea wtf is going on

@Ryujin713

4 жыл бұрын

I was just about to comment to this effect! You don't ever have to worry about that, Simon.

In which you watch a delightful British chap refuse to place his 8's for 25 minutes.

@jaymason2493

4 жыл бұрын

That was a bit frustrating to watch yes. “Finish the bloody 8’s” was going through my head the entire time haha Love the content though and it has helped a lot with my sudoku knowledge.

@Answerisequal42

4 жыл бұрын

This comment is pure gold.

@scottguffie7759

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, I think a lot of people will have been shouting at him for noticing the second swordfish and then proceeding to ignore it for quite some time lol.

@z-beeblebrox

4 жыл бұрын

If you don't finish your 8's, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't finish your 8's!

@DukeOfChirk

4 жыл бұрын

What can I say - we’re all very bored....

1 can only be in one of these two positions, and that is absolutely useless - Simon

@evah4431

4 жыл бұрын

Mood

@beatrizribeiro2417

4 жыл бұрын

Time stamp?

@joeltimonen8268

4 жыл бұрын

Beatriz Ribeiro 11:15

@oNtuobAwoH

4 жыл бұрын

Funny thing is, it wasn't useless. Those two 1s limited one other 1 in the center of either box 4 or 6.

@fifteenfingers

4 жыл бұрын

Right! The way he said "absolutely" sounded like it was going somewhere so positive just for it to end with "useless" lmao

Since you said before that you read all of the comments (although we'll see how long you can keep up with that!): I know you guys are probably getting sick of posting so many videos right now, lol, but I just wanted to say thanks for doing so. I've been watching for a few months, and I really enjoy the differences between your two styles. (Simon is engaging and endearing, and Mark's deadpan delivery is hilarious, especially in contrast.) So proud of all you've accomplished. You guys have meant a lot to a lot of people during all of this. So, thanks. ❤

I must say that the joy he feels when he's about to crack the puzzle is one of the purest joys I have ever seen This channel lights my heart in so many ways

I am now waiting for the "new thermo" by Aad van de Wetering as a response (just like the new miracle).

@mathemitmanger3913

4 жыл бұрын

with a rise of two degrees by the climate change?

@XenophonSoulis

4 жыл бұрын

@@mathemitmanger3913 What?

@mathemitmanger3913

4 жыл бұрын

Ξενοφώντας Σούλης it was a reference to the givens in Aads follow-up miracle. ;-) *sings* Wunder gibt es immer wieder...

@XenophonSoulis

4 жыл бұрын

@@mathemitmanger3913 Now I take it. Nice joke!

I feel like those videos should be titled "British man gets progressively aroused each time a new digit is introduced"

@billionai4871

4 жыл бұрын

That's for a different website though

@ttttillermand

4 жыл бұрын

It's funny how one can find any subject interesting if it's talked about by someone who is genuinely passionate about it.

@kilianeagrams6011

4 жыл бұрын

@@ttttillermand I second that 👍

I'd never even done a sudoku before I watched the famous Miracle Sudoku video the other day. Now I'm screaming "Finish the 8s!" at the screen.

@evah4431

4 жыл бұрын

That's the CTC Effect for ya.

That’s highly praise to Mr. Lee, homie said if it was anyone else I wouldn’t have believed it.

33:37 when he FINALLY places that 8. I found my inner peace.

@dczzzz55

4 жыл бұрын

21 mins and I'm already screaming!

@cemalettintas9638

4 жыл бұрын

thank god, that was very intense 20 mins :d

17:23 "Sorry if you guys are spotting it. I'm not spotting it yet." My goal is to one day be part of "you guys." Dream big, right?

Rules 2:26 Let's get cracking 3:02

@0manderijn0

4 жыл бұрын

But then you’ll miss his amazement with this being a real construction. And his enthousiasm for their app finally being on steam!

I wanted him to fill in the 8 in block 6 so bad! I kept screaming at my phone for him to do it. I guess I can pride myself in getting it before him. Great solve!

@Stranglygreen

4 жыл бұрын

same here. but wow. that was epic

@Turidus

4 жыл бұрын

I was very amused that he got into so much detail explaining the star fish pattern and then didn't use it to solve the eights at all! Instead, he took the hard way, which is even more impressive.

@Airantu

4 жыл бұрын

I know the feeling. I kept screaming, "Just finish you bloody 8's at the screen" as he kept doing anything but the eights. I have to say though I loved learning about Sword Fish logic didnt know about that and this puzzle seemed the first 2 digits needed sword fish logic to solve it, so it was nice to learn that.

Solve starts at 3:00 ❤ Btw this channel has been BY FAR the best discovery of this quarantine (except this one mashup of Dua Lipa with the BBC new intro music)

@not-on-pizza

4 жыл бұрын

One search later: Thank you for the music recommendation!

@evantighe696

4 жыл бұрын

Never before have I seen so many statements so agreeable all together assembled 😁

@chavem

4 жыл бұрын

@@evantighe696 omg thanks 🙈

I used to do the daily Sudoku -- just regular Sudoku rules -- in the paper on my lunch break every day. I loved it, but somewhere along the way I stopped doing them. Your channel has rekindled that interest. Thanks to Simon, Mark, and all the wonderful setters.

I am obsessed with this channel and know nothing about Soduko before this. I love/hate when Simon's brain leaps ahead leaving something unresolved until later, because it means I saw it! Your joy for puzzles and logic is palpable and so enjoyable to be a part of

i love it that he is good enough to spot a swordfish but gets so focused he forgets his swordfish

"Right. Okay. Yes."

@TonyRainbow

4 жыл бұрын

Can we get that printed on a tshirt?

@TiaMat99

4 жыл бұрын

Is that what sex with a British guy would be like..?

Happy to have the handholding on this one. Also, I love the way Simon says "look" after a phrase. Such as 32:00 :) Keep up the good work guys. Thanks!

@aBamieh

4 жыл бұрын

I agree! its like a rapper ready to drop the punchline

This one made me really stressed. Finish the swordfish on 8's! edit: ok, I've calmed down now.

@martindedek772

4 жыл бұрын

And then discovered 8 in totally different way so it was almost useless, I was very triggered >:(

@not-on-pizza

4 жыл бұрын

He said it himself, basically. He was trying to juggle so much, that he forgot what everything was pointing to. Even came up later, when he forgot what the colouring was for...

@aaronwinter1105

4 жыл бұрын

@@not-on-pizza I know. I also know that there was no way that I was going to solve that sudoku myself. I just needed to release some tension.

@not-on-pizza

4 жыл бұрын

@@aaronwinter1105 If you think watching this channel is bad, try watching re-runs of The Crystal Maze...

@bradfooks4485

4 жыл бұрын

He went to all the trouble of explaining swordfishes and then moved on

So far Mitchell Lee's puzzles are my favorites. Took me several hours over several days, restarted three times, but I got it, with your help :)

I wouldn't have placed a number in the grid and yet I can feel smug about seeing somethings before you. A very nice balance

You know honestly, this channels comment section is a nice breath of fresh air compared to all the negative comments you see on a daily basis. Always a delight to see people talking logic and yelling at their screens cause of some 8's. This channel got me back in to doing daily puzzles. Just keep on keeping on, you guys are doing a great job. - From a Texan.

"going around the world delighting people because it's such an extraordinary puzzle" My dude, it's not the puzzle that's delighting people!

Everyone on here going on about finishing the 8s and I'm still hung up on where the 9s came from 😂 this channel is phenomenal

@essidus

4 жыл бұрын

Allow me to help, if you will! So the most important part is that because the numbers on a thermometer can only go up from the bulb, the only place a 9 is allowed to go is on the tip. Understanding that, look at columns 1, 5, and 9. Because of that rule, each of those columns can only host a 9 in three places- two tips and an empty square each. Now, because those spots are also parallel in the rows, all nine of the squares interact with each other. That pattern is the swordfish people are talking about. Now, have a look at 9:49 to see Simon's highlighting. The yellow places all cannot be 9 because of the swordfish interaction. So when you look at column 2 with Simon, you can see that two tips and a blank are now blocked. We already know that a 9 can't go anywhere else on a thermometer, leaving just one square available in the column. Column 8 uses the exact same logic. Then in the center region, the two 9s we've already placed block the top and bottom row, and the swordfish pattern blocks the remaining squares in the left and right column, leaving the central square as the only option. Hopefully that helps!

The pattern of the 9s here is absolutely beautiful. EDIT: Oh, hey, didn't even notice the swordfish! I resolved the 9s as a set of looping empty rectangles in the corner boxes. Same end result but a slightly different path. (I did find the swordfish on 8s, though.)

I have been watching your videos for 3 days and I can already keep up with you and find what you're missing. I vastly improved in Sudoku too. Really helpful channel. Thank you

The Bob Ross of puzzles. Could listen to this fella all day.

Finds swordfish pattern, disregards it for other logic.

@johanjanssonmedia

4 жыл бұрын

So frustrating

@diederikvandedijk

4 жыл бұрын

First 3 digits in the grid were result of the swordfish pattern...

@priqe

4 жыл бұрын

Diederik van de Dijk he coulda placed 8s in the grid wayyy earlier with his own logic and coloring

@vctrsigma

4 жыл бұрын

and leaves the 8 swordfish coloring after completing it.. because he didn't use it for the last digit and therefore didn't notice?

@diederikvandedijk

4 жыл бұрын

Only the 8 in box 3 he could have placed after placing the 1 on the swordfish in box 6.

I absolutely love this channel and I absolutely love Simon. The purest and most honest of joys that Simon gets from experiencing and solving these excellent puzzles always rubs off onto me too. I couldn't help but feel though that in this video Simon was feeling maybe a tiny bit off/grumpy, but I don't want to read too far into it. Hope you're taking time for breaks, Simon! Still a very enjoyable watch.

Some artists make their masterpieces with color and line, others make theirs with logic and thermometers.

Wow. I have started to work the puzzles and watch, back and forth. I bolloxed this one several times, and almost gave up. But because I had resolved the 8 in the 7th column before you, I had different options. And that gave me the impetus to persevere. Which I finally did! And then enjoyed the rest of your solve. I think I have said before, sudoku is not a favorite of mine. But these variants are fascinating. Thanks for bringing them to us!

First attempt: I really thought I was making great progress … but after about 45 minutes, I came to a break. I spent another 20 minutes trying to back up to see my error, but eventually gave up and started over. Second attempt: finished in 38:28; for some reason, I erred on the placement of the 8s in boxes 2 and 5. Pity that I erred like that during the first pass-through. Absolutely LOVED this puzzle!

@BlueCyann

4 жыл бұрын

I had a similar issue. First saw the swordfish on 9s then misplaced a 9 somehow. Fixed that quickly enough and moved on to the swordfish on 8s, only to then misplace an 8. That one ran for far too long before it broke. I had to walk away for a couple hours before coming back to do it right. Super cool puzzle, though.

Dude spots 2 swordfishes immediately and forgets about them just as quickly. What a mad lad lol

My attempt at this was going for 1 hour and 40 minutes, everything seemingly going fine, then spotting one number going in the same row twice, everything beyond repair. Well, I tried.

Took a while, I'm pretty new to these after all, but I got there after 42 minutes and enjoyed it. Thanks for posting it.

Yet another awesome video from Cracking the Cryptic! I've played Sudoku casually for a few years now, but you guys have really helped me up my game in the weeks I've been watching your channel :)

I have high expectations for this puzzle considering Mitchell Lee's last puzzle featured on this wonderful channel, and from the grid I don't believe this will disappoint!

Thank you Simon! I learned about the swordfish today thanks to you. I messed up the first time I tried this and realized I messed up around the 70 minutes mark... so I didn't even know where I messed up. So I had to restart, but that gave me another chance to practice the new swordfish thing I learned! Absolutely fantastic video!

The best part of this channel is Simon's complete joy and astonishment at constructions like this.

It's my favourite time of day! I so look forward to these videos. I need to de-stress after a long day at work and this is the best, Simon has such a relaxing voice and I love watching him solve these super difficult puzzles

Beautiful puzzle! I really enjoy trying these difficult but elegant ones, un-pausing the video whenever I need hints - so much fun!

Amazing solve. I cannot express how much I appreciate you teaching these techniques day in and day out. I've found my ability to solve puzzles has dramatically increased over the past several weeks. Thank you for taking your time to provide these amazing videos to the public each day.

Simon, Big fan. I watch every evening. I know you love some of the recent 'miracle' puzzles. I'm paralysed by choice in your back catalogue, so please give us your top 10 pre-lockdown list of puzzles/videos so we can fill our days. Cheers, Peter

Loved this video because Simon follows a different path in solving it, starting the 2s and 7s earlier then I did. But it shows that if you approach it logically it doesn’t matter if you go a different direction then someone else.

The moment you realize the thermometers aren't actually symmetrical

@Borg1269

4 жыл бұрын

If they were, there would be more than one solution to the puzzle

@jeffreyblack666

4 жыл бұрын

If they were symmetric it would be impossible to have a single unique solution as that solution would need to be symmetrical as well, and Sudoku grids cannot be symmetric. The symmetric grid can be disproven by focusing on the centre 3 by 3. If a grid had rotational symmetry the top left would be the bottom right and thus would repeat in the box. If it had mirror symmetry, the top left square would be the top right or the bottom left, again repeating the digit. If you had a diagonal mirror plane then either the top left would be the bottom right, or the top right would be the bottom left and one of the digits would repeat. So you cannot have a symmetrical Sudoku grid. The closest you can get is anti-symmetric, or 10's complement symmetric, where a digit and its symmetric counterpart add to 10, and which would require the thermometers to be inverted.

@maryammehtab3135

4 жыл бұрын

I am sure Mitchel tried to make it symmetrical but because of the solution inconsistency, he couldn't; they make pieces of art nonetheless

@Lord_Volkner

4 жыл бұрын

@@jeffreyblack666 You are correct except in one point. I think a perfectly symmetrical thermo-sudoku wouldn't have multiple solutions, it would have NO solutions.

@Borg1269

4 жыл бұрын

@@Lord_Volkner Oh it definitely would have solutions. The question is weather you can make it so the puzzle is logically solvable. If we look at the finished puzzle right here, you could move the horizontal 2-cell thermometer in line 7 up one line, remove the 1s from both crooked 3-cell thermometers, therefore reducing them to 2 cells and there you have a perfectly symmetric blank thermometer sudoku with 2 solutions.

I got on with this one by immediately recognizing it was above my ken and letting you do it for me. I need to do more thermo sudoku. I've only done two, and they were hard ones, and they took me forever. I'm not making good thermo sudoku decisions.

Cracking puzzle, that. Took me 43 minutes. Found the swordfishes on the 8 and 9, and got so caught up looking for more swordfishes that I missed a box restriction. Sometimes, when I ground to a halt, I put your solve on play for the bits I've already done. It's like listening to your logical thought process forces my own thoughts to operate more logically.

At 29:40, as soon as you identify that 45 pair in box 7, you can fill in column 2 rows 8 and 9, since these have to be number above 5 and can't include 8 and 9 which are already in the box. So those have to be 6 and 7 regardless of how the 45 pair gets resolved. Then column 3 row 9 has to be a 3, which also gives you a 3 in column 4 row 8. Then you get the 45 pair at the bottom of box 8 and the 6 in column 8 row 9 as the only remaining digit missing from row 9.

Simon finds the swordfish of 8s and then simply doesn't use them to fill in the 8s, in fact he could have filled all the 8s at the start :D What a wonderful puzzle this was! Absolutely loved it, although it took me crazy amount of time to get to the solution. Great work, Miracle Mitchell :D

Solved it with help from the video, because I didn't know about swordfishes. After placing two 8s, you can deal with the 8s more easily, if you divide them into two placed, three in the swordfish and the remaining four 8s in the middle, and color the posibble positions for the four central 8s.

Thrilled that I immediately picked out the first two swordfish to end up at the point Simon was got to at ~17:30. Kinda got stuck there and couldn't see the restriction on row 7, watched the video to wean that info and after that the puzzle was a much more "standard" thermo sudoku. Still took me roughly 45 minutes to solve it, but it was a great experience.

You are so engaging with how you explain your logic. I was actually able to solve a few of the numbers independently from you with different logic and I felt so proud for a moment. I love having stumbled across your channel.

Best joke of 2020 at 17:23

Took me three hours on and off, but I finished it without needing any pointers. Love it.

I think the taxi constraint works as follows: (1) All numbers in the red boxes must be paired with at least one other number in a red box where the pair is the orthogonal number of moves equal to the given digit. (2) All numbers in the white boxes cannot have any other numbers of the same digit which is the orthogonal number of spaces from that digit equal to the digit in the white box. Simon says Happy Birthday.

25:18 - after doing lots of logic Simon finally fills in the 8 into the box he coloured about 10 minutes earlier for the swordfish :-D

I love how you apologize for being slow as if we could keep up with you without your explanations.

26:28 this really helped me understand the swordfish pattern

@zanzaboonda

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for timestamping that! I really, really struggle with spotting Swordfish patterns, so I'm going to come back to this.

I started with the faulty logic that the two thermometers in column 1&9 has to be considered as one large 8-digit thermometer. It went downhill fast from there.

Thanks for continuing to brighten my days with each posted video, Simon. I love opening the puzzle to solve along with you ^^ Usually the thermo sudokus don't speak to me as much as say a chess constraint, but this one was indeed a treat!

That is one of the best puzzles I’ve ever seen. Just amazing how the logic progressed through that.

I've never seen a Swordfish defined that cleanly or have that much of a major impact on a puzzle before now. Absolutely wonderful!

This was my first thermal sudoku, as i only discovered this channel a few days ago. Definitely an impressive puzzle

That R1 8 is the bane of me. ITS RIGHT THERE!!! Love your solves

I find it so cool that u can crack these puzzles even without any digits!! U deserve more views and subs!!

This puzzle took me legit 5 hours. The hardest one I've tried ever. Well done Mr. Lee

This puzzle was totally out of my league. Guess I need some practice. So I just bought the Thermo Sudoku app. Everything is self-explanatory and it looks good. I already feel like it's worth the cost. Keep up the good work!

He reminds me of sean locke if he was into puzzles

this was like watching a football match when your team does everything right except the last kick until finally, in the last minute (33:36) they get a corner and one of the defenders tries his luck with a header and makes the whole stadium explode celebrating a last minute goal maybe this wasn't the goal (8) we anticipated but, nonetheless, wonderful game i never thought a sudoku puzzle would be this entertaining, so thank you simon

Just over an hour, only the 3rd puzzle on this channel I've actually attempted. I'll take it!

Oh man, what a puzzle, holy moly, good grief, incredible... but i got it right in the 1st try. This puzzle brought me to my limit, but finally a success again. At your other puzzles I usually don't even find an approach... As always good stuff!!! (But it took me almost 3 hours) Now the relaxing part: looking at your solve...

"Ah, this thermometer! We can fill it in, because we... well we just can"

Really struggled with this one, took me well over an hour & wanting to pull my hair out at several points where I felt stuck. Glad it's over, satisfying to finish, very frustrating when I couldn't see the 8x Swordfish until too late in, found the 9 one easy enough.

Almost two hours to solve, including a semi-false start and several breaks in between. But considering I didn't even know what a swordfish was, and I went through a much more convoluted way of arriving at the 9s (noticing where the 9s could go in rows 2, 3, 7 and 8, and placing the 9 on the center box after some logic), I'm pretty proud of even having finished it. Great puzzle!

Another amazing Mitchell Lee sudoku. No stupid symmetry to help you out. Love it.

A thermo sudoku with the first step being a swordfish is... Not what I was expecting, but I definitely appreciated it. (Even if I wasn't able to make much more progress from that)

The layout looks interesting. Just looking at the thermometers on the far right and left, those look like there’s some clever stuff to be done with those.

Awesome video! Don't let comments pointing out errors put you down, overlooking something is really not the end of the world. I do think the vast mayority of them are not mean-spirited though so I hope you can get trough the initial shock that comes with getting so much attention for doing something you love. Keep your chin up! I love your work and look forward to your videos every night you really make my day better

I bought Thermo Sudoku on Steam today. I am a novice to sudoku and shockingly poor at it; it took me 24 minutes to complete level 1. I'll be sticking around for more tips and tricks. Great job!

On the website, changing the square colors can re-color the thermometer bulbs in a less-than-ideal way--changing the background to white erases them.

I've started to get into thermo sudoku, so this came at a perfect time!

Simon, I love watching you solve. You are brilliant and entertaining. Thank you again for a wonderful video.

When you think you’re watching Simon think for 20 seconds and then realize your video is paused

Another beautiful puzzle and a stunning solve

1st "Good grief" timestamp - 12:18

@oNtuobAwoH

4 жыл бұрын

Honorable mention - 19:55

i really wish i had the money to buy all of the sudoku apps you’ve released. they look amazing

What an awesome puzzle! And it only took me two and a half hours!

My favourite variant is still anti knight, but I gotta say I'm really "warming up" to thermo as well.

Great solve, Simon - I’m yelling “finish the Eights” at the screen!

55:49, tough for a thermo! It got a lot easier with every digit you put in though :)

Poor Simon, so easily distracted by a new shiny toy. Fills in a couple of 9s in the swordfish before being distracted by 8s and ignoring some 9s. Then puts in a couple of 8s and is immediately distracted by 1s without filling out the 8s. SQUIRREL! ETA: just finished the video. Great puzzle and great solve, just very funny that you went to a great deal of trouble explaining swordfishes and then didn't even finish using them when the logic played out. Definitely needed your help spotting them in the first place, though. Cheers!

Missed title opportunity: "Miracle Mitchell"

Swordfish (Xiphias gladius), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory, predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill.

I loved learning about the Swordfish logic as that was what seemed to be needed to solve the first 2 digits and after that the puzzle just seemed to fall into place, but man was it stressful to be shown this new logic only for Simon to not finish using it to solve the 8's.

took me an hour and a half but I'm happy to have solved it at all. side note, why do I always see logic so much more easily when watching Simon solve it lol

I must say that this is the first sudoku ever where I could start of with an immediate jellyfish (and didn't spend ages looking for it). Edit: it's in rows 2,3,7 & 8.