Thanks for getting me into hard sudokus! I'm not British, but now when I'm solving a puzzle, I speak to myself in proper English, and murmur things to myself like "so, threes, look", "that places the two here", "and now these eights mean that this square cannot be an eight", "and now immediately I'm looking at this row", "this is very nice actually", "and now, look, this square sees a seven, so that fixes the five here", "look at this, this is a very nice pattern here." Cheers!

@mateuszzemojdzin7579

3 жыл бұрын

I thought I was the only one doing this lol

@raswartz

3 жыл бұрын

I caught myself thinking, "that's absolutely stunning" when I found chained x-rays

@francescoaldotucci5454

3 жыл бұрын

"and finally we're cooking with gas!", just love it

@antebellum1776

3 жыл бұрын

Haha I speak to myself too when solving them. Their methods must be contagious.

@matata66

3 жыл бұрын

Same here, funny!, am dutch

Just once I want to hear Simon end a video with “That puzzle was absolute shite” 😂

@eclectichoosier5474

4 жыл бұрын

He might say it if you submit a puzzle with 80 givens

@hariman7727

4 жыл бұрын

@@eclectichoosier5474 72 givens... all the same number open... but one of the spaces is off and it's unsolvable.

@eclectichoosier5474

4 жыл бұрын

@@hariman7727 20 givens, but the font is comic sans

@kimberlypreston6204

3 жыл бұрын

hahhaha, YES!

@decalice4272

3 жыл бұрын

@@eclectichoosier5474 79 givens and the two remaining are a deadly pattern

"Best ever" "Brilliant" "Gorgeous bit of logic" "Oh that's cunning" "Absolutely beautiful" "Oh ho would you just look at that"

@16m49x3

4 жыл бұрын

Where have I heard this before?

@kasraew

4 жыл бұрын

"Good grief"

@shane8037

4 жыл бұрын

@@kasraew 😂

@missioncardiac7599

4 жыл бұрын

you missed out the best one: "Oh this is SICK!"

@tiotito31

4 жыл бұрын

Don't forget: "This is SICK."

I don't believe I've ever heard Simon say "Oh this is sick!" That made me happy

@fizzy49cc

3 жыл бұрын

Yes. Shame he didn't do an accompanying hand gesture innit bruv

@kimberlychin1996

3 жыл бұрын

13:08 saving this timestamp so I can hear it over and over again

@lubaaudio

3 жыл бұрын

@@kimberlychin1996 thank you

@leonaustin123

2 жыл бұрын

As soon as I heard him say "this is sick" I HAD to go to the comments to see if anyone else noticed it too, lol.

@dilemma6571

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly this!! Leon, that is just what I did - was shocked lol!

I am a real amateur on sudoku, so I really enojoy when you explain in detail everything you do and why, and what all the patterns mean. Great video

@jacobmeyer7254

2 жыл бұрын

yeah i've been watching this channel for about a year and didn't know all of that stuff and why it was like that until now

@Unknown-bq7pd

2 жыл бұрын

@@jacobmeyer7254 can you tell me from where do you learn all the stuff you say like 'swordfish' ,'uniqueness' ,etc. I domt know what all this is as I just started to follow this game

@jacobmeyer7254

2 жыл бұрын

@@Unknown-bq7pd no clue i know less than you probably

@ShadNex

2 жыл бұрын

@@Unknown-bq7pd first 5mnt really helpful

I love how you pointed out the x wing. The amount of information that gave to the puzzle is fascinating. Thank you for the lessons.

The puzzles are "lovely" and "brilliant" and even "sick🤟" as you say, but your method of solving them is extremely smooth and awe inspiring! I'd love to see more classic sudoku 'teaching' type videos while I'm just starting out!

@ 18:15 ITS A SIX !!!!! Shouting at the screen for the last 2 mins ! Lol. Another great video thanks. Very entertaining

13:08 I think Simon's probably having a Sudokugasm there

28:33 I'm happy I spotted x-wing and was able to use it, that was first time I managed to do it so very happy about that

I love his excitement. I love his calming, but also energetic solves. I LOVE after you watch enough of these, you start finding small pieces that he has missed, and the absolute joy of him filling them in and getting that endorphin rush that you helped! You definitely helped! He heard your message and the two of you solved it! An absolute pleasure to watch. Bless you

Oh boy, even the classic ones are now beating me up badly. Oh boy. Oh boy... 45 minutes, a throbbing pain in my skull, and an eviscerating contradiction right at the end. I now have to eat lots of chocolate to cope.

Man that was educational. I don't even think I learned any new techniques but the notation changes everything. I could see the rhythm in another puzzle you were doing but now that I understand it it makes even more senses and it really changes thing and makes the techniques that much more effective.

@teambellavsteamalice

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah notation helps so much! Not only do you waste less time you also see more clearly. I'm getting back into sudokus and this cut my time in half! And more fun, I was often totally stuck for a lot of the time spend on solving which isn't fun.

I'm proud of myself today, I got to spot an X-Wing in the wild without prompting. Even put it to great effect. This on top of a wild Y-Wing I found in a puzzle a month or two ago. This channel has been teaching me so much, and it's great to feel like it's all slowly integrating into how I solve these. Thank you, Simon, for teaching me to crack what once was utterly cryptic.

29:24 - Quick start, a bit of a stall in the middle and nice finish!

Finally, one I might be able to solve... EDIT: I was badly wrong, took me over an hour even after coming back for help. -_-

@theflyingfool

4 жыл бұрын

Don't feel bad, it took me nearly 2 hours :\ I'm knackered now...

@coloripple

4 жыл бұрын

yeah at some point i was so lost i just started to pencilmark every square with what could go in. got a 01:09:14 in the end

@Nevir202

4 жыл бұрын

Kalkaanuslag Yea, I did the same lol. On the positive side, that meant that once I started getting digits, it made it relatively easy to see how they affected other cells. 🤣

@AnkitJakhar-wn4ik

4 жыл бұрын

I have a problem...i wanna share it and help plzz....if anyone may solve it plese contact me on whatsapp 8586831262

@Sakura53933

4 жыл бұрын

I started it a solid 4 times, but actually was able to solve it within 40 minutes in the end, which I find pretty good considering this was my first sudoku that went after rules that weren't the classic ones! :D

The cascade effect here was great. It was all pencil marks until one or two numbers clicked and then it was a tidal wave of obvious deductions, very cool!

I tried this and solved it quite easily, it's great that he can appreciate the structural beauty in a puzzle without it having to be insanely difficult

Once you got the 78 pair in box 9 at 11:00 there's a second x-wing on 8:s in row 2 and 4 column 1 and 7.

10:45 with no help! First time I've really whizzed through a puzzle from the link without needing clues. Must be learning something! thanks Simon

I've always been confused by written/picture descriptions of x-wings, but this explained it so well & clarified the logic and why it works!

23:36, great bit of logic here! I was so excited when I was actually able to recognize and utilize an x-wing with eights.

Just starting off with more advanced techniques, this video feels really great at articulating the logic behind the moves. Really appreciate it

The bad news is my X-wing spotting still needs a lot of work, didn't notice it even with the streak of 5 repeated digits in the exact same positions... The good news is I've not made mistakes filling in everything else, so I'm getting better at basic notation and technique, I usually mess something up somewhere along the way but this one was smooth sailing. Great puzzle and video as always :)

@JuanMataCFC

4 жыл бұрын

whenever i'm able to limit a digit in a row/column to exactly two squares, i have noticed that without even thinking i start to look for a second row/column where i can limit the same digit to the same two columns/rows. that's how i found the X-wing on 8's in this puzzle. now this new "involuntary habit" of mine may waste my time in the long run (looking for a row/column in puzzles where there are none), but it does mean that i almost never miss an X-wing!

@francescobertozzi8809

4 жыл бұрын

Imagine spotting two x-wings in 8's, proceeding smoothly with the puzzle and at some point you realise that the first digit you filled in was actually wrong

54 minutes. Someday I'll be able to do these without resorting to filling in all the candidates and highlighting, but for now I have to take it slow and steady. As it was, I had to work through several empty rectangles and two or three x-wings to clear out the board and break it open.

I love CTC's solving style so much I made a video on my channel where I analyze each step of this solve. In addition to explaining the strategies used, I add a couple of pause the video moments and some alternate solving paths, similar to how someone analyzes a chess game.

My first sudoku from this channel under 20 minutes!

“Give me just a second to look at the puzzle” 5 seconds later. “Oh yes!” Takes 5 minutes to explain what he saw.

@benjaminoechsli1941

3 жыл бұрын

A brilliant example of how much faster the brain is than the tongue (or is it the ears?).

Love this guy's enthusiasm.

Took me 26:15, the double X-wing on 8s was also a thing of beauty!

Wow what a great little puzzle. Clearly a lot of care went into the design of this one, and reminds me a lot of some of the Nikoli classics. Progress is easy right up until you need to spot a specific piece of logic, and then it chains beautifully into a whole host of pairs and unwinding pieces. Just great. Puzzles like these are why I watch this channel! 10:15 for my time, really enjoyed it.

I tried the puzzle before the vid and got in 35 minites the same way you had it with the x swing kinda thingy. It's the first time ever I used it but the setup was so elegant you couldn't miss it, made me very proud haha

Very interesting puzzle. One extra thing I spotted that I thought was cool was once you got the first X-Wing on 8s it allowed you to pencil mark 8s in all 4 boxes, creating another X-Wing on 8s in rows 2 and 4 of collumns 1 and 7. Then once you got the 39 pair in the bottom it forced the 7 into the 2nd X-Wing which ended up solving both X-Wings.

@JeremyButlerquarterthru

4 жыл бұрын

27:48 , I did the same, placed all the 8s at the same time with the double x-wing. Took me 4-5 minutes to realize the 7 in box 7, to unwind it all, then it was smooth sailing. Also spotted the 24 - 56 pairs in row 7 very early on.

28:32, spotted the x-wing pretty quickly! Unfortunately i then just missed that my notations had revealed a digit and stalled for a while, but still very pleased

11:58.... Oh god the 2 x-wings ... I spotted it early on. that was clever indeed. Never been so proud.

Just under 30 minutes. I'm new to the hard sudokus! So that is pretty good for me! Thanks Simon!

I could finally solve a sudoku without coming back for help! It took me 1 hour and many more pencil marks, but still proud of myself. I found the x wing for the 8s too! :) Thank you for helping me improve my sudoku skills, I love the puzzle

I am loving your Patreon and app banners. It saves you having to repeat yourselves, and gives the information at a glance.

8:22 I spotted the X-wing really early on in my solve. Proud of myself :) Great puzzle as always

I've just gotten real into sudoku, and I'm loving your channel so far! The one thing though, is that you knew about that last 8 from almost the very start, when you pencilled in the 8s in box 9. Keep up the great Sudoku!

As someone who isn't very smart, thank you for taking the time to explain each of your moves. Helps me keep up without feeling lost

Classics are some of my favourites to watch!

I've just been watching these videos and finally managed to solve a sudoku by myself! Thank you for making this channel :)

After watching this with the idea of only 2 digits for notes, it has been great. There's times I'll use 3 but only if it's a straight line or I've been left with no options. The reason is my eye hand coordination disability and ADHD make it that I can't see the hidden singles. On the harder puzzles I'll clear out notes and going through the numbers again has been very helpful. Thank you.

14:48 . Got the x-wing, got the several times that pairs of digits were restricted to two cells in a row/column. I'm going to gloss over the fact that Simon was explaining everything and had an intro and outro and claim that I was faster than the video so I'm clearly some sort of sudoku genius. I'll ignore all the times I couldn't even get started ;-)

@hariman7727

4 жыл бұрын

I missed the X-Wing, so I got stuck there. Looking for negative space/indicators is a necessity in Sudoku, and I don't have all the techniques down yet. I'm getting better though!

I love ur passion and how u enjoy cracking these puzzles. I bought ur sudokus on Steam and I love the chess sudokus. thank you for that greetings from Germany

Extremely nice to see a classic sudoku, and extremely nice to hear a clear explanation of every step of your process. I was able to follow you every step of the way.

one of the only times my finished time came even relatively close to simon's. i must be getting better!

@Risk87

3 жыл бұрын

If he didn’t have to explain every move, he would have solve it much faster. Less than 10 mins I think.

@KagetheNightAngel

3 жыл бұрын

you're improving!! Keep it up!!

@gatorz8610

3 жыл бұрын

@@Risk87 still getting better though

I love classic sudoku, and I learn something from every one of these videos. A happy Patreon supporter.

I just enjoy watching this guy get blown away by sudokus. He's just so happy

5:10, which I'm quite pleased with. Very nice puzzle! Especially the double X-wing.

Had a hard time understanding X-Wings but this was an excellent introduction to them. Thank you, Simon!

What a pleasure to see how Simon's personality has changed for the last 4 years. He's became musch more relaxed and joyful. Glad that everything is OK with you Simon❤

I am so proud of myself, I made one mistake, started over and did it. As usual, I put you on hold as I would go ahead, and only once did I let you go ahead and point out, mmmm I forget where, but I know I could have figured it out before to much time would have passed. It reminds me of when I learned to snow ski. At one point I hit a wall, well I mean I was not getting any better. Then I went skiing with an expert, and I followed him for two runs, and walla, I was an expert. Thank you for letting me follow you. I may not be an expert, but, I'm a lot better than I was yesterday. Probably still an intermediate. I'm one of those guys that "can't see the forest, for the trees". Thanks again.

Looking forward to March 2nd! Have the other 2 apps you made, and have loved every hour I've used them :D

Really happy to have solved this, watched you do it, then realise we did it in the same way. Getting better! The power of the notation :)

I had a great time. Once I sorted out the first set of 8 x-wings, there were 3 groups by the way. Then I found a couple of 9 x-wings. In the end, I was moving so fast to solve the rest of the puzzle, I figured I had goofed. I didn't it all came together, beautifully. I found the naked "1" earlier in the solve. I had just finished putting several numbers and pencil marks. I was at a roadblock. I remembered that Mark said that he would do a quick scan for naked singles. So I did and it worked. What a great puzzle and a terrific tutorial. Gene

it took me 36 minutes to finish the puzzle but i've finally (and successfully) used and understood the X-wing approach and it's a great feeling!

This is the first one I've paused, solved, and then come back to. ^^

Hi, sorry if this may sound like a dumb question, but around the 16:10 minute mark, you filled in that 8 on R1C3, how did you immediately conclude that it was a 9 beside it? Within that row the 6-9 pair could still be in the 2 open positions being R1c2 and R1c9 or did I miss something. I only recently got into Sudoku and am slowly learning and this part really confused me as I attempted the puzzle and got stuck around this part.

@kylebretherton1929

3 ай бұрын

It's because of the pencil markings. When he filled in the 8, he eliminated one of the two squares pencil marked with 9, so the 9 had to be in the other square.

This puzzle was absolutely stunning!

Great puzzle, and great explanation. I really learned something with this one

thank you. Finally, I was able to crack one. Took me two tries though. But I did get through it without having to get the answers from the video. One thing I do is put the video as detached and it is as a video in video on the work page. Works nice. Good job. thanks.

Very nice puzzle! First time I noticed X-wing on my own and managed to use it to my advantage.

Thanks for explanation at the start. Very interesting to hear how you see it.

25:24 for me. I saw the two x-wings, and mostly went the same path as Simon, though not quite. Each bit just spilled into the next. Repeatedly "oh, I have another digit or two, let's see how-- Oh, look, another double!" I never really got stuck, though I did get a touch of slowdown after getting much of those middle blocks, sitting down and systematically going through digits when nothing immediately popped out at me. Not as fluid as this video, but it worked well enough.

I like how, looking back at some of these older videos, simon became more cheerful, like he lost all of this math teacher energy, It's quite nice, like a character development in a good story

Took me 35 minutes, but almost the same order. Pencilmarking has a huge impact on speed. I used to put 1-9 in their relative position in each square, which doesn't give room to the center marks. That and restraining myself not to put everything in helps so much with getting a clear picture and not cluttering too much.

20:36, I really liked this one. Quite smooth solve for me

30:20 for me. Damn, what a devilish puzzle! A great puzzle to show off the power of x wings. I had a good pace going until the x wing was needed to move on. I had an inkling that something was there in those rows but I didn't pursue it until much later. Luckily the next x wing was much more visible and easy to use.

I love your channel! I started watching the other day and today I ordered a bunch of chess sudoku books 😂

14:18; was a pretty fun puzzle. The title of the video, however, made me think there would be much more to the puzzle than one x-wing and a few doubles.

After spotting the x-wing with 8s, I noticed four cells with two digits each ... a cyclic pattern of four digits that restricted 6s and 5s from rows 1 and 6 and 9s and 8s from columns 2 and 9 respectively. The May 12 2021 episode also featured this "junior exocet" pattern. Happy to find it myself.

Just over 34 minutes. Got the middle rows quickly, then stalled out for a bit until I figured out the x-wing implications.I was happy to spot the 39 pair in the bottom left, then stumbled home from there.

this was really cunning puzzle, learnt a lot. thank you for great video mister

Been watching your videos now for a while now from a purely observatory standpoint but it seems I've incidentally picked up a few things along the way because I did this puzzle myself before I watched the video- maybe cryptics one day! Keep up the great vids :)

I am happy that my X-Wing skills have improved. Took me just under an hour to finally spot that 7 in row 2, but I got there eventually.

You make it look so easy. I struggle through them..Hope I learned a little more.

i always did sudokus but never the actual pattern recognition .. so this is very enlightening

"This puzzle is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING." Simon's joy is infectious, lol 😅☕😎🎶

One of those occasions when Sudoku can prove quite exciting.

After the 8 X-wing restricts the 8s in the bottom right to the 7-8 pair, I noticed the other 8s now forms another 8 X-wing in r2,4 and c1,7. This second X-wing is "entangled" with the first because they are in the same 3x3 boxes. I call these "entangled X-wings" (from quantum mechanics' "entanglement"). This occurs in the video about 11:00

Great puzzle, and nice solving Simon. Took me way longer than you to spot all this.

This channel is the cause of many non-british people now murmuring british to themselves as they solve sudokus, and this fact makes me happy. Also, I reckon quite a lot of us aren’t actually good at solving them, so that makes the whole thing even funnier xD

I think this is the first puzzle in which I've spotted X-wings without being prompted. Felt good. (For each number, I highlight all the cells that cannot be that number. Hold down Ctrl to select multiple cells.)

The 8 and 9 X-wings overlap at R1C3 and R6C3. As in the video on "overlapping X wings" they actually form an 89 pair! That actually helps the solve, and makes it more beautiful.

I took two goes at this puzzle. The first time with well over 30 minutes and I couldn't find anything. Watched the video and as soon as he mentioned the similarity in the two rows I immediately knew he meant an x-wing. I paused the video at that point and restarted the puzzle. I finished in just under 15 minutes with that one hint.

I adore your apps. Ty so much!

EPL had kicked-off whilst I was watching this video but I could not leave until you completed! Great videos!

Got to the X-Wing on my own, but had to check the video a little after that. Once the 9's had been pencil marked in the bottom-right box, I could solve it myself after that though. Took me 37.04, pretty happy with that.

11:48, without noticing the X-wings, which is probably why it took me a bit longer than it should have. :) Nice puzzle!

Thanks for teaching me the x wing. Very powerful.

Started this puzzle and only solved this thanks to the 8 "X" pattern rule, 15min :) I'm very happy having learnt a new strategy

This was very unusual. Right at the start there were 5 matching pairs and a triple, all in the center vertical boxes (2,5, and 8). After eliminating a few numbers by following Ariadne's thread, I found 2 sets of bare quadruples, both of them leading to hidden triples. After that the thing just unraveled itself. WOW!

Back to the classics - good - I can do these (eventually - 2nd attempt - took ages) if I can find x-wings or empty rectangles. More killers?

A nice example for understanding the x-wing technique.

So pleased to have found and successfully used my first x-wing. I even coloured it correctly too :p. Missed the logic with 9s. I used a bug on 7s in box 7 to place the 7 in box 1. Still took me 34 minutes.

29:18 and yes, the 8s and 9s were beautiful, as well as the leftmost column.

@mattferrigno9750

4 жыл бұрын

The puzzle isnt even that long, lol

35:56 great puzzle. i really liked this one. hope to see more like this. thanks

12:59 A very nice puzzle indeed! (and for once I spotted an x-wing as it formed...)