SudoCue Users

Here is how I ended up solving the puzzle from your starting candidates grid. For a good tutorial on Nice Loops for those unfamiliar with the notation, please refer to Paul's Nice Loop Guide . [r7c6]=2=[r5c6]-2-[r5c4]-4-[r3c4]=4=[r3c5]=5=[r2c6](-5-[r7c6])-5-[r8c6]-9-[r7c6] => r7c6<>59 [r2c1]=3=[r6c1...

+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+ | 235 257 25 | 4 357 8 | 6 9 1 | | 58 159 1358 | 159 6 135 | 2 7 4 | | 4 179 6 | 179 179 2 | 8 5 3 | +---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+ | 7 256 235 | 568 4 356 | 1 268 9 | | 2356 8 125 | 15679 12357...

Myth Jellies,

Thanks for providing the historical perspective and outlining the key differences between AICs and Nice Loops. This answers a lot of questions.

I've just posted my solution to the April 22 Nightmare as a followup to your posting. I would be interested to hear your comments on Nice Loops and AICs (my questions at the end of the post) if you have time as I'm considering learning about AIC's. I haven't bothered yet since I've been getting good...

This was a fun puzzle but took a while as there were a lot of patterns to spot. I ended up solving it with several multicolorings, patterns, and some Nice Loops (some simple and some with grouped nodes). Here is my solution: Unique Rectangle (34): r23c19 => r2c1<>34 X-wing in 3's: r24c36 => r1c3/r5c...

Look for a couple of Nice Loops in Boxes 1-3.

Into Sudoku (from which these screenshots came) is a good program, but obviously the diagrams aren't as clear as they could be. I think the two Nice Loops that the program is trying to point out are the following: [r2c5]=7=[r1c5]-7-[r1c7]-1-[r1c1]=1=[r2c1]=7=[r2c5] => r2c5=7 [r3c2]-6-[r1c2]=6=[r1c5]...

Neat solution! I don't find such large deadly patterns that easily on my own, so I appreciate good examples of them. By the way, there were several other eliminations in your XY-ring in addition to r2c27<>4: r2c4<>4,r9c2<>3, and r9c8<>2.

I seldom use formal notation for loops, and I suppose it's time I began. Looking at your nice loop (shown below), shouldn't the link between r1c2 and r3c1 (via candidate 3) be a strong link? Otherwise I don't see the alternation of strong and weak links and I don't see how any inference could be dr...

I think this is actually the November 8 Nightmare: 1 . . | . . . | . . 9 . . 4 | . . 3 | . 6 . . 7 . | 1 5 . | . . . -------+-------+------ . . 9 | . . 4 | 3 8 . . . 7 | . . . | 4 . 5 . 4 . | 2 . . | . . 6 -------+-------+------ . . . | 3 9 . | . . . . 5 . | 6 . . | . . . 2 . . | . 8 1 | . . . I fou...

The October 22 Daily Sudoku Nightmare appears to be a duplicate of
the February 3 Nightmare.

From your starting grid, the following basic steps can be applied: Removing 24 from r4c7 Naked Triple (178) in Box 6 => r4c8<>17, r6c9<>18 Locked Candidate '3' in Box 1 => r1c479<>3 Locked Candidate '1' in Box 6 => r127c7<>1 Hidden Single '6' in Box 1 => r3c3=6 Hidden Single '6' in Row 7 => r7c6=6 +...

I'm looking forward to this week's puzzles as I could use more practice at spotting uniqueness patterns. I've only recently started working through the Daily Nightmare, and it is quickly becoming my favorite daily sudoku. Did anybody else find the June 6 Nightmare to be particularly challenging? It'...

+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 2345 245 1 | 9 23 7 | 56 456 8 | | 6 249 29 | 1 8 5 | 7 3 249 | | 23589 2589 7 | 4 6 23 | 1 59 259 | +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1258 3 4 | 267 9 268 | 568 1567 156 | | 1289 26789 2...