I love it when he says "And now this puzzle is complete" but it's like 20% done

@musicislife4334

4 жыл бұрын

Agus Jauregui lmao

@baotrangia3981

3 жыл бұрын

Usually sudokus reach a "solved" point when you can fill in the rest of the numbers with classic sudoku rules, you'll notice this if you've solved a lot of sudokus

@leamabrenne9771

3 жыл бұрын

I tried it. And the naked singles sprang up like mushrooms.

@Krieghandt

3 жыл бұрын

I played bridge with someone, after the bidding, and one or two tricks played, would write down the score. And he was always right.

@SponkADonk

2 жыл бұрын

He's ultimate big brain

Most important thing I learned: put pencil marks where there are ONLY 2 possibilities.

@sltga1254

5 жыл бұрын

What about solving it from memory instead of putting in "pencil marks"??? More of a challenge. I know I feel better when I solve all my puzzles without pencil marks.

@VIKDR1

4 жыл бұрын

Sportsquirrel, generally yes, but not there are times 3 can help.

@VIKDR1

4 жыл бұрын

@@sltga1254 There is plenty of memory training out there, so entirely possible, and with a little work shouldn't seem any harder than marking them down.

@alextronic4667

4 жыл бұрын

@@sltga1254 Memorize this kzread.info/dash/bejne/l3anl7ByadCXkaQ.html :)

@thomasbakker11

4 жыл бұрын

@ronald seawell , I usually open my eyes for half a second to remember the puzzle, then close my eyes and solve it. When I'm done, I scream the solution and my mom comes running into my room in the basement and checks if I was right. She usually misses the first 4 or 5 digits, but that doesn't matter, because I have yet to make a mistake.

Been doing sudoku for a decade, and I had read explanations of y-wing an x-wing and seen them in-game, but it never ever clicked what to do with them. Today I learned X-wing and why it's important. Thanks for that. :)

@terrorist6928

5 жыл бұрын

Still could not learn

@krish6729

4 жыл бұрын

Same here too. I was doing very well till i started on the *very hard* ones. I would solve almost 80% and then was stumped. In frustration i would abandon them, hoping to start over again later. But every time i would reach the same dead end. I realised that all the plain tricks of logic i had developed myself had missed some vital aspect. One of them is the X-wing which i have never heard of before. Thanks to Mark & Simon i have now learned it now. I think it is one barrier broken . I will go back to the hard ones and try to crack them and then return for the W, Y, Zs etc 😀😀

@shanthasathyanarayana1113

3 жыл бұрын

@@krish6729 is it possible to explain x wing in simple way

@AlDunbar

3 жыл бұрын

@@shanthasathyanarayana1113 I think the video does that quite well. once you have found the rectangle such that a particular number must occupy any two of its four corners, you know that number cannot be located anywhere else along the lines of that rectangle, including an extension to the edge of the puzzle. What I would like to know is how he decided that eight was the likely number to form the x-wing. All he said in the video was that it would not be a one or a seven.

@demetrisbez2997

Жыл бұрын

@@AlDunbar What is important here is that he looks to see where does the 8 go in columns 2 and 7. These are the only places for the 8's. So then he gets the X-wing pattern. Beautiful!

For sudoku players wanting to learn about X-wing technique/strategy, I am providing time stamps. It basically begins at: 5:32 (column 2) 6:22 (column 7) 6:51 (X-wing explanation) This is good and very simple explanation of the X-wing technique/strategy for solving more difficult sudoku puzzles. It would be nice if these timestamps were provided in description or a marked comments etc. I'm going through all vids myself trying to learn and understand all advanced techniques/strategies without falling asleep anf being bored to death.

@gracemaina6593

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@woopnull9103

2 жыл бұрын

You are a blessing

@simplyfrancois

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you

@masagolob3215

Ай бұрын

Thank you so much!!😃

The X-wing is EXACTLY what I have been looking for for YEARS! I KNEW there was a way to improve! WOOOONNNNDERFUL and THANX! ;O)

@krish6729

4 жыл бұрын

On the same boat. Now that we know the X -trick we will tackle the very tough ones and, hopefully, catch up with Mark & Simon.😆

This was the first video I ever watched of yours. I was having trouble on a sudoku and literally searched "sudoku tricks" Then you changed my life. I've been rewatching from your start and I love how far you've come...granted the new videos are way more polished but I love the old ones too! Keep going guys! You are my daily unwind!

@MyReligionIs2DoGood

2 жыл бұрын

There is so much to learn from this channel, so many techniques to discover, and they made videos on all of them. X-Wing, Y-wing, Swordfish, Forcing Chains, Unique Rectangle, and many more. Have fun!

For anyone else who is new here--isn't it amazing how far the channel has come in such a short time? Like going back and binging all these videos... you really see how much they glew up. Not just in quality of video but behind the scenes as well. So cool to see!

I need to remember it's about focusing on the columns separately to the rest of the puzzle. And that you won't really stumble upon an X-Wing, you have to be looking out for it. Thank you for this!

Thanks so much. I had a puzzle I could not resolve without brute force (guessing...). Even with the answer I could not figure out how to get there without 'guessing' and I hate guessing. I have been looking at it on and off for literally a few years. I watched your magic rectangle and applied it to the puzzle to eliminate one number possibility. Still could not resolve. Then I watched this video and because of the magic rectangle elimination I had a beautiful X wing. (I still didn't believe it so I tried the number in the bad spots in the rows and it became obvious why the X wing works). I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to have a puzzle poke fun at you for years and finally come up with a logical resolve.

Now Im going to be looking for the X-Wing every time I play. Thank you for this!

Was reading a book two days ago while KZread was on, one of your videos popped up and I've been going non-stop since! Thanks for making me give it a try and finding a new great hobby!

Spotting the X-wing means solving several other bits before using the X-wing numbers. I finally understand that.

Thank you very much for this. I was already doing the pencil mark pairs, but what I learned was to spot the X wing BEFORE the puzzle got congested. Thank you for sharing your outstanding techniques. Your voice and style are very suited for a teacher, a damn good one.

This just showed up in my recommendations today. Amazing how far the channel has come in a year!

!! THANK you for explaining how X-wing works. I have been struggling to grasp it, so many people just say use it but never explained it. I love how you explain each thing with examples.!!

This was a sick puzzle! There is actually a second X-wing of eights one square down and to the right from the first one. I've never seen adjacent X-wings like that before, super cool!

This was really helpful content. I downloaded your app after never doing sudoku because you made it seem fun. The first several puzzles I felt like a dunce because I'd seen your more monstrous solves but it was taking hours for me to do the simple puzzles. I'm hoping content like this, which is more applicable to me, will help me get faster.

15:15 shows another X-wing pattern on the 2's in R4&R5, deciding the 2 in C1. Just a little Easter egg

@bogbel1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Just learning about x wings and a 2nd example helped.

@AnimeNovice2010

5 жыл бұрын

yes, but the 8s came out earlier than the 2s

@WJAMSoares

4 жыл бұрын

Good eye mate.

@JerrySmiler1968

4 жыл бұрын

That took me a couple of minutes to identify even with your explanation. I will really struggle on a normal game.

@daniyalhashmi6433

3 жыл бұрын

So, even though there are 3 possibilities of placing a 2 in row 5, the x wing is still applicable?

This is the most console demonstration I’ve seen yet. Thank you! I’ve become quite addicted to sudoku in the last few months and have definitely been struggling with the harder puzzles. 🙏

Thank you I could never get how it worked just reading the description online. This clicked so easily!

A good one to spot an x-wing without having too many pencil marks.

Thanks. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I've wanted to understand the X-Wing, and now I finally do.

This is a great example of an x-wing, I might finally understand

This is the best explanation of how to find and use the x-wing. It has always seemed complicated when others have tried to explain it. Thank you!!!

I love how British this is.

5:05 These aren't the droids you're looking for 😂

The 1-6s is a mini X-wing att he lower right corner at 14 mins in. Thanks for this technique. I've smelled it, but never formalized it. Very helpful!

@rohadtanyad8908

5 жыл бұрын

the 2 digit x wings are all over the place. he was looking for a single digit x wing.

Finally I feel like I get what the X-wing is about, thanks!

I think this is the technique I've needed for all the puzzles I've been getting stuck on. Thanks!

I never understood what to look for with others explaining, but starting with a blank puzzle and finding it naturally while being walked through what you’re thinking was very helpful

i’ve been using this trick for ages, good to know it has a name!!

Very well explained, thank you!

I've totally done the X-Wing before without really knowing what I was doing. Basically instead of putting pencil marks box-by-box, you get stuck and start pencil marking by columns and rows. You're bound to find an X-Wing by doing that, but it of course should be the first choice.

Thank you! That opens new horizons. Happy New Year!

This is absolutely fantastic, keep up the amazing work with this channel

Absolutely awesome explanation thankyou. My solving skills have improved so much since I found your channel! Great work thankyou! 😁

I sometimes use an advanced option of this: if an action would lead to two overlapping x-wings, it would cause the puzzle to be unsolvable so the original action is impossible

@Zombie-lx3sh

3 жыл бұрын

If by two overlapping x-wings you mean with two different numbers but in the same 4 squares, then it's solvable if there are more than just basic sudoku rules, otherwise you are correct. It doesn't absolutely prove without a doubt that your action is impossible however, it proves that either the action is wrong or the puzzle has multiple solutions. You're putting a lot of faith in the fact that it has only one solution, without logically proving that it does.

@avicennitegh1377

3 жыл бұрын

@@Zombie-lx3sh Interesting - I'd always assumed there was only one correct solution in the puzzle.

@KaneYork

2 жыл бұрын

@@avicennitegh1377 Traditionally, "valid" sudokus only have one possible solutions. Otherwise it's just a broken puzzle.

@GtotheK

Жыл бұрын

@@avicennitegh1377 as far as I know, and it's not alot, if you have 16 or more numbers in the beginning the puzzle has a solution, any puzzle who gives out less than 16 numbers has multiple

@avicennitegh1377

Жыл бұрын

@@GtotheK Thanks so much

Thanks for explaining that. I have been trying to figure out how it works and this was really clear. Looking forward to better results.

I was great that you took your time for us new subs and ran through some methods. I mostly feel other videoes just skips the understanding of more advanced methods :)

Thank you so much!Very helpful...finally got the concept!

Very helpful - thanks!

Good job. This was a new solving technique for me at least. Gonna give it a try in the future Sudoku puzzles I face.

Was in the middle of a solve as i was watching this, immediately noticed not one but 2 x wings in my puzzle. Wonderful tip thanks for the excellent explanation

Very helpful and makes my journey to solving puzzles faster

Thank you, really enjoying this explanations.

I am happy to inform you that I tried this out the moment I saw it, and I actually found an X-wing in the puzzle I tried solving, and it helped me get through it!

good stuff. definitely a new solving technique for me. i never heard of such a thing and u probably muddle thru the puzzles i do solve. thanks for this great video.

Thank you! I’m not great at these, but I’m obsessed.

I have a book of "diabolical" sudoku puzzles from the mid 2000s by Wayne Gould. I hear the x-wing was the hardest thing out there back then, so if I learn how to spot and make use of it, this is going to be really useful.

brilliant, can't wait to practise

what applications do you use for doing custom sudoku's on your computer?

This is very helpful! Thank you.

Thank You. I have read several descriptions in books about x-wing but could not figure out what the point was until you so very clearly made it as plain as the nose on … my face. And I used today for first time to solve the NYT hard puzzle.

Excellent explanation of X-wing, thanks.

Thank you for opening my eyes. I wonder how many puzzles I was stumped with could have been solved with x-wing.

Thank you for an excellent explanation of the X-Wing. Best I have come across!

@Brooke-rw8rc

4 жыл бұрын

I tried to learn X-wings from written instructions, and it was always too confusing. Now that I see it so simply put I realise it's something I was already using!

Please tell me there is a keyboard short command for big and little...

@DeanMurphyCDM

5 жыл бұрын

bagdiil it wasn’t just me then 😵

I been doing expert level sudoku for years and have heard of this trick. But nothing ever explained it well enough for me to understand. Just that 3min section was HUGE. This will easily take 10% off my solve times...

A better microphone would be a huge quality boost for the videos or less echo somehow

@Gennys

5 жыл бұрын

I don't think it's echo that's the problem, there seems to be some compression artifact happening.

@PaulJohnsonM

5 жыл бұрын

@@Gennys He's in a small, sparse room. I bet a few sound foam blocks on that sloped ceiling would help.

@toferg.8264

5 жыл бұрын

I think it sounds unique and cool. It's partially robotic, and helps the nerdy intellectual appeal.

@mstrainjr

5 жыл бұрын

Given what this video is, it's not a big deal. I can hear and understand him just fine.

@squodge

5 жыл бұрын

I heard absolutely fine, not sure what the issue is?

To ask a very stupid question, what software are you using to work these puzzles?

How did you determine (at 4:12), in the upper left 9x9 square, that the 5 went where it did. You put it in the far left column...how did you eliminate the possibility that it could have been placed in the far right column of that square?

@cool_scatter

4 жыл бұрын

The middle left 3x3 had to have the 5 on the right because of the 2-4 pair on the left.

Love these videos. Thank you, guys!

Cool! I hadn't thought of this technique.

It has shades of The Hunt, Sudoku. First there is stalking the prey, and then the chase to fill in the numbers once its tricks have been grasped!

lovely technique. Thank you

X-wing is a perfect example of quantum wave function collapse; when one of two entangled superposition particles (or sudoku numbers) is observed (or confirmed) the position of the other is automatically known.

This has been giving me brain ache for a while. Thanks to your lesson I now understand X Wing

Just cracked my "first" puzzle addopting your technique. I think it took a bit longer first, while trying to identify the pencil-downs and x-wings, but once I got that part figured out, it was quite a straight forward Nd smoot run. Thank you so much for the vid and explanation. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻☺️☺️☺️

Very well explained. Thank you! Subbed

Great explanation.

Thanks for the video!

Never have used X-wing. Thank you much. I understand it and will use it to make the most difficult puzzles easier.

Finally. Now I get it. Thank you.

I am finally able to solve expert level puzzles many times in a row after watching your videos.

Brilliant mate, thanks.

Great explanation on X-wing. Thank you!!!

5:57 earlier you said that you use Snyder (edge) markings when you know that the unknown number is within a 3x3 cell. So why do you use that notation here too? (In regards to what you describe at 1:42).

Well explained. Thank you. PS What software do you recommend?

Thank you. I understand it now. Bought a book but it's going in the bin after watching this.

Very knowledgeable & interesting

I never heard of x-wing before, thanks for the video

I'd heard you mentioning x-wings a number of times, but I never really understood what they were -- until a few days ago. I took a very long time to solve that puzzle, but I did notice fairly early on a couple of 23 pairs, accompanied by a pair of threes on the right and a pair of twos on the left. They were all at the top and bottom of the board. I figured that twos and threes were barred from the respective pair of columns. Then when you did the puzzle, you spotted the same 2s and 3s, and called them x-wings. So I finally got the tactic.

what program are you using to solve the sudoku? I would like to download it if possible. thanks.

@duncannightingale3790

3 жыл бұрын

The app used in this video is Duncan's SuDoku Solver

why can we not have 8s in column 3 or column 8 in the top and bottom boxes when making the x wing for 8?

@potest_nucis8012

3 жыл бұрын

We could, but here specifically pencil marks were not bound to squares but to columns instead, that’s why Simon coloured them green. Could we place 8 in column 3 or 8? Probably yes. But it doesn’t have anything to do with X-wing.

I am working on your Classic Sudoku bundle #32 - spotting the X Wing - which I worked out after the HINT and doing the puzzle several more times. The HINT helps with spotting the X wing and is great. The second part states that after completing the X wing r2c6 resolves IMMEDIATELY to 1. I have stared at this for sometime and cannot resolve the 1 - this early in the puzzle that is! What I am missing? A side note I am struggling with your puzzles, but learning a lot. I went to another puzzle locale and I am completing their EXPERT puzzles. I do not mind learning at all.

Immediately after getting the first 8 X-wing, there's an opportunity to identify a second 8 X-wing offset one square right and one square down. The instant any one of these squares is filled in, you can deduce all four of the 8s in one go.

@BIZITZRC

3 жыл бұрын

Right - I saw that one too, but the first one is key. :).

@thePusch

7 ай бұрын

i only spoted the one in rows 2 and 9

There is a simple trick for solving x-wing that also works for swordfish and jellyfish. If you list row-by-row all the columns occupied by a number, you then look for "self-contained" groups of two, three or (rarely)4. These can then be eliminated a candidates from all the other rows.

I notice that stuff all the time. I just bypass and continue solving the puzzle. My personal faves are the puzzles with 2 or more solutions. I’ve only ever found 1 but it’s intriguing none the less.

@1crazybitch

5 жыл бұрын

By definition, if there is more than 1 solution, it is not a Sudoku.

Thank you

Been stalling and kind of stopped doing sudoku because I promised I would learn x wing first, and I could only find reading material about it, come to find out the guy I regularly watched and motived me to keep going had a video on it, who knew! Also pretty simple to follow along,been procrastinating to keep playing for something simple lol.

thank you so much, im getting into sodoku for the first time since high school and it just much fun competing with myself hehe

Thanks for the video, I'm new to Sudoku, and fine your videos helpful

What a throwback 😊

Great X-wing technique explaination!

Merci, très utile

Really nice! Previous explanations I've seen implied that spotting an x-wing somehow told me how to fill in those squares, but now it's clear that it's about those other squares in those rows and columns.

Oh hello! Useful video. Anyway, I have a question. If we had other options regarding the possibilities of the centered eight, between the x-wing, can we apply the x-wing? Without using this sudoku example.

I'm supposed to be studying for finals, yet here I am learning how to master sudoku because that's more important

I am new to this, so forgive me if this is a dumb question. Is there a version of this software that we can download to create our own puzzles? I really like the "big" and "little" numbering buttons. It seems like it would be really easy to use.

Awesome video. Made total sense. Not sure why all the focus and complaints about the sound.