[Deepsycher]

Recently I have been playing some puzzle games from newspapers. There is an interesting game which involves eliminations from numbers conflicting in the same row or column. I usually complete one a day in a couple of hours but just now and for the first time I have been going around in circles for a long time.

I think it is because of the way I filled in the numbers. By filling in the left corner, completing some strings there and leaving no room for elimination on the bottom right resulting in circles. Instead of starting again the only way I was able to get it right from there was to use trial and error and estimated guesses on a table. So if a single number was wrong somewhere down the line it will conflict with another. Just in minutes I completed it with very few mistakes.

I know of one technique I found out for myself. If a number can only possibly exist in either two or three spaces in the same column OR row from a box, then it can't exist anywhere else across the same line.

[Spoon Poetic]

I don't have the patience for a game like Sudoku...

[Chyld]

I just never got into it. It confuses me, which is quite worrying due to my general like of crosswords and numbers. Ah well.

[Vesuvius]

I've played it a few times. I dunno if I was playing the proper way but I was getting some of it. I just want to know why did this become so popular all of the sudden?

[Gobbler]

Too many numbers

[Deepsycher]

I don't know how it became popular as I found it in the newspaper. Maybe the papers did.
For numbers I look for where they can't go. It is about filling in the missing spaces to get 1 to 9 on each row and column.
____________
|195|782|463|
|472|653|981|
|683|491|572|
----------------
|518|234|697|
|764|519|328|
|239|867|154|
----------------
|857|146|239|
|346|928|715|
|921|375|846|
----------------

Black numbers are the clues already given.
Orange is the numbers I was able to fill in on the paper.
Red is the estimated guesses after I copied it on a table.
Brown is the second set of guesses. Which could be wrong if a red number conflicts with the same number on the same row or column.
Pink is the final set that can only go in the last spaces.

I spent most of the night trying to do that.
And unfortunately today I was too busy to go out for newspapers.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 13 December 2006 - 01:02 PM

[Vesuvius]

From what I've played on the computer and it won't let me put any wrong answers... I'd say your number placement is about right. I'd rather get the wooden baord with number tiles though. The computer doesn't let me loose and learn from my mistakes.

[Deepsycher]

I only put the estimated guesses on a spreadsheet table as it was convenient at the time than going downstairs to get more paper. Not so interested in computer games of sudoku.

Anyway someone brought the newspapers later today and I just finished it. The 5 star difficulty rating one like always but I think I made it simpler this time because I eliminated the numbers in a balanced order rather than filling in one end at a time. No estimated guesses this time.

Black is the provided numbers.
Red is the the spaces I filled in on paper.

____________
|791|538|624|
|265|417|983|
|384|629|157|
-----------------
|679|243|815|
|418|956|732|
|532|871|469|
-----------------
|123|764|598|
|957|182|346|
|846|395|271|
-----------------


I think next time I'll scan and post the game. Copying it down like this is too time consuming.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 13 December 2006 - 11:23 PM

[Vesuvius]

How long did it take you to solve that? It looks perfect.

[Deepsycher]

Under two hours starting from 2 to 4 am.


I finished this one an hour ago. Eliminating in a balanced order has proven to work so smoothly compared to two times ago.

[Deepsycher]

Well I completed this one in under two hours. As I was not distracted time seemed like it didn't exist.



I made a mistake with the last three numbers at the bottom which I covered over with sticky paper. I misread and didn't see the 9 on the second row at the bottom causing me to put it on the same row (where the 4 is now on the sticky paper.) I thought I made a mistake from the beginning and panicked for a while until checking at the end. So pleased I didn't waste my time.


Can someone post their completed sudoku game so that I can see?

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 15 December 2006 - 11:37 AM

[Spoon Poetic]

I would... But I've never completed one! I just don't have the patience... I'm sure I could do it eventually, but I have no desire.

[TruJade]

Deepsycher, what do you do with the rest of your day?
Or do you just play sudoku 24/7.
I actually tried to play and win
but it was much to time consuming
and i wasn't even doing anything

i just couldn't get it.
Plus it made my head hurt like crazy.
But a ton of my friends like them and finish

The time measurements on the side that are like:
2min - genius
5min - brainiac
20min - pretty good

do nothing but undermine their confidence
you see them an hour later and the
look like a crack addict in detox
hair all askew, bags under their eyes
and the neverending shakes.

That only end when they've solved the puzzle.

[Deepsycher]

What do I do with the rest of my day?

I have studying to do. A tutor hasn't turned up today again. I cannot move on any further until my questions are answered.

Those time measurements are possible to reach once I generate a mechanism for number logic placements without me using too much of my concentration. I am most interested in the workings than making a race out of it. Like loan endowment policies the speed could be the interest I am getting at the end. The further I find new ways to eliminate the numbers the wider I'll be able to see the game.
But remember I only started playing formally.


I have been taught to over rush things and that can be damaging. The effects you wrote at the bottom prevails similar symptoms.

I don't mind helping.


Rules I found so far:

(1) Never make guesses. Refrain from making guesses at all if possible.
Only at the end IF the numbers are in an unbalanced order with elimination no longer possible that you have to make guesses which you could try on another piece of paper.

(2) Always remember and check that the number you are thinking about putting where is NOT conflicting in the same box, row and column.

(3) Try and keep the numbers spread out in a balanced order so that it would make elimination simpler in less populated or unfilled spaces. For example it might be simpler to do one side but that can soon be difficult when there is little or no support to work out numbers on the other side.

(4) Mistakes by guessing induced by frustration is a killer of the game. Won't get you far. Because control can be lost to those mistakes made. Take a break and try again later by interest of getting IT right. And not by speed. Influenced by people who play faster successfully just happen to have found a technique from somewhere you haven't yet which works well for them. Like trying to race a slower car engine with a faster car engine is just going to make those unstable if their sole purpose of the game is about competition of who finishes first. (Just my opinion. I hate competition. I know that capitalist love it where everybody is in for themselves.)

(5) By checking persistingly that rows and columns don't contain the same number is an assurance that everything you are doing IS correct as from number (2).

(6) Don't think it IS difficult. Methods exists for what appears to be the difficult. Which I have proven as above.

What might BE difficult is not trying to think of ways to make up the methods that do work accurately for the game.

Let me know if this helps.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 15 December 2006 - 04:48 PM