FIghting with the Cages!

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:14]Hello. Welcome back to Cracking the Cryptic. I hope you were with us last night in the Blueprints house. We were streaming on Sunday instead of our nor our normal Monday and it there was quite a frustrating finish for us but we did get the main task done that we'd been trying to do for two or three um sessions and that was that was good fun.

[00:00:38]Do check catch up with the VOD if you weren't there. There were a lot of people in chat. They were exceptionally well behaved because we were missing our normal moderators. Um, and thanks again to Chain Bear, the great YouTuber Chain Bear for stepping in as a moderator. Um, incredibly kind. So, that that was last night and that was good fun. Um, now today we have released Alien Invasion, the new Sudoku Hunt. That is our our monthly Patreon reward. That is the June reward. Um, there are documents released to us that contain what seem to be sedokus and we've speculated. We're not sure that they might have come from an an alien invasion. But you can solve the puzzles and see what you think and uh send in the solutions by the 20th and you will have a chance of winning a collaboration with Simon in a solve. Um, and well done to those people who've won those before. Uh, what else have we got going on? We've got also on Patreon there's um crossword videos, connections, and gridoggram. Also, we have apps which feature Killer Sodoku and Domino Sodoku and Classic Stoker 2 and the worms. And they include Zeta's Worm. Now, six times 6x6 puzzles um interlin and rather beautiful. So, do check that out. Very reasonably priced for hours of entertainment.

[00:02:12]Um, and of course there's merch. The the month has just ended, but there's a it's rat run merch was going incredibly well during last month as the prior one. And uh, thanks so much to Marty S for designing that aspect of the merchandise. But you can also get other t-shirts, hoodies, etc. There is a link in my description field to take you there. Um, YouTube have annoyingly made it a bit harder to get in and get the merch, but there we go. Now, YouTube are also, by the way, for some reason removing the links that we put on in certain situations. I basically, I believe it's for some browsers on Android phones. I'm afraid you're going to we put the links in and YouTube take them out. So, don't complain to us.

[00:03:02]We're doing our best. Um, but you may need to change your browser if you're in that situation. You can't see a link to today's puzzle because that is the first thing in the description field. It is a link to today's puzzle and the rule set. And I'm going to go through the rule set. Now, this puzzle is by Blabar Skucker who who I have never heard of, but the puzzle is called coupled cages and normal Sedoka rules apply. So, one to nine will go in every row, column, and every 3x3 bot. I'm just realizing I don't have my lighting on.

[00:03:35]There we go. That's better. Um, any two cells separated by a knight's move in chess cannot contain the same digit. And that gives me a chance to get out my bag of chess pieces and locate Mr. Nighty Mcnite face to remind me of this rule as we go along. He's going to sit in front of me on the table so that when I forget that that's a rule. Hopefully, he will remind me. Um, in cages, digits sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. So, those three will add up to six. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

[00:04:12]I don't think they could by Sudoku rules. A black dot joins cells with a 1:3 ratio. So, those two cells, one of them is three times the other. Not all dots are given. Indeed, only one dot is given. It is a very sparsely populated grid. Look at those tiny number of cells covered by cages and the black dot.

[00:04:33]Absolutely bizarre. Nothing in the bottom three rows. And yet, apparently, there's a unique solution. Give it a try on that first link under the video. You can check the video length to see how hard I found it. But I'm going to start now. Let's get cracking. Well, there are some giveaway cages. This is lovely.

[00:04:50]We've got a six cage in three different digits. That must be 1 2 3.

[00:04:57]The 24 cage is kind of its opposite and is 987.

[00:05:01]The 7 cage has to be 124. You can only add one to those digits and you can't do it to one or two or you'd get a repeat.

[00:05:11]And the 23 cage has to be 986. It's kind of the opposite of seven.

[00:05:17]Um, I guess that leaves us with 456 in these non-caged cells in box two and 573 is it in those cells in box five.

[00:05:31]Now, a 22 cage in three different cells.

[00:05:33]It's not a complete giveaway. There are two ways of doing it, but they both involve nine. It's either 985 or 976.

[00:05:43]So, I'm going to pencil mark in the corner to say that in this box, nine is in one of those cells. And that's a sort of X-wing, a virtual X-wing with nines here. But basically, what it means is nine can't be in any of those cells and must be over here somewhere. Ah, and and we've got the knight's move. Knight Mcnite face makes himself known.

[00:06:07]Okay, there's all sorts of things. So, I've got a one, two, three, four quad.

[00:06:12]I've got a 6, seven, eight, nine quad.

[00:06:13]I've got the knight's move. I'm going to go through it gradually because there's some interesting stuff there. So, this is a group of 1 2 3 4 in this column. That means nothing else in the column can be 1 2 3 or four, including that cell and that cell. It also means that the three has to be in one of those two and is not therefore in box two there. And the four has to be in one of those two and is not therefore in box five here. And then we can do exactly the same sorts of things for 6 7 8 9 in this in column four. The seven must be in one of those cells and it's not there. The six must be in one of those cells and is not Oh, I mis hit there. Six is in one of those cells and not there.

[00:07:03]And that's a 6 7 8 9 quad in the column.

[00:07:05]So that's not seven and that's not six.

[00:07:09]Now the next thing I was going to do is say if nine is in one of these cells, nine can never be here. Why do I say that? Because if nine is in one of these two, those clearly rule a nine out from this cell by horizontal sedoku rules.

[00:07:27]But if nine is there, the knight's move stops nine being here. So this can't be nine. And by the same token, all of these 6, eight, nine, cannot go in this cell. They all see it. All three of those. So this is not nine. It is indeed therefore five or seven.

[00:07:49]And to complete the 22 cage, this must be a pair of either 98 or 96. And that gives us a triple in the row. Oh, also there's a 57 pair in row six.

[00:08:03]Now, how do we use that stuff?

[00:08:11]I don't know. But that this is a surprising amount of interaction and probably explains to some extent how this puzzle is going to get solved.

[00:08:23]Um, I haven't begun to approach the black dot.

[00:08:28]Just looking at this, if that was a three, it couldn't go in any of those cells.

[00:08:38]I thought the next move would be obvious. That was very foolish of me.

[00:08:42]Right, these digits can't use up the five and seven in this row.

[00:08:50]That's not actually all that helpful.

[00:08:53]It looks like it ought to be. What about the 6 7 8 9 qu chad here? That means one and two are in these cells and the 1 2 3 4 8 and nine are in these cells.

[00:09:09]H okay let's look at the black dot three.

[00:09:14]So possible digits that can go on this black dot they are a little limited.

[00:09:22]It's either a 13, a 39 or a 26 pair to maintain that difference. And therefore by sedo no by killer totaling this one is 9874 or one.

[00:09:40]It's not nine because nine is in one of those two cells and by the knight's move techniques they both see that effectively. Nine can't be there because it would stop nine being there vertically and nine being there on the ninth move. So that's not nine.

[00:09:56]Therefore, this isn't one. That doesn't mean this isn't three, unfortunately.

[00:10:01]Because if that's a nine, this is three.

[00:10:06]Can we reduce this any further or can I use the 689 triple that I did see and I haven't been able to think of how to use it particularly.

[00:10:23]I've got nothing there. That's annoying.

[00:10:25]Right. Um ah this triple that's vital. They all see this cell. Gosh, that's some of that's one of these nights move techniques that I'd forgotten.

[00:10:37]Basically, this cell sees that one vertically and those two on the night's move. So, none of those digits four, five or six can be here. And that must be three. And the same is true for I saw it. Yes, for this cell looking at those three. It can't be three, five or seven. So, that must be six. Now, what does this do?

[00:11:03]It doesn't do much.

[00:11:06]I'm going to remove the coloring to an extent. I'm going to leave that colored because that is the opposite 57 version to this. And so it must be there as well in the row. And then that pink cell is in one of those two.

[00:11:25]Now, is there anything more like that going on? these triples, they all see that cell, but I can't rule out whatever this digit is from being there.

[00:11:43]I can rule out nine, but it's not that powerful.

[00:11:49]Oh, this cell now that's quite interesting. It sees the whole of the 124 cage and it sees six and three. So this is five, seven, eight or nine definitely.

[00:12:05]Now what does this three? There's a three there and there's a three in one of those cells. So the three in column five is down here.

[00:12:14]There's a six here and a six in one of those cells. So there's also a six.

[00:12:18]We're getting a weird amount of symmetry going on down here between the the pencil marking of the small digits.

[00:12:27]Sorry, not of one, two, three, six, eight, and nine. What about four, five, and seven?

[00:12:34]See, there is a pink somewhere and it's not in those cells.

[00:12:44]And there is a green somewhere that is not in those cells.

[00:12:51]That's not quite getting anything done.

[00:12:57]I'm probably being a bit dense about this. Okay. 357 or see that which no it's that's as that's as non-useful as whatever I was looking at on the other side. Actually 6 8 9 all see this cell as does three and wherever seven is. So this is one two four or five.

[00:13:28]I suppose all of these are from one two four or five.

[00:13:33]They are actually I'm going to mark it. All of these are from 8 N and pink five or seven.

[00:13:48]This one sees both five and seven. So it can't be those and it can't be 1 2 or 8 9 but that still leaves 3 4 and six doesn't it?

[00:14:03]Okay, let's have a look at this four five pair. They both see that cell and they both see that cell and that cell.

[00:14:19]These are such strange digits to have actually achieved. Oh, three. We said earlier three was now going to be in one of those two places.

[00:14:29]Um, oh, both of these are the only two possibilities for six and they both see that cell.

[00:14:40]So, this cage is either 958.

[00:14:46]For this to be an eight, they couldn't be eight and that would be eight.

[00:14:56]Then we'd end up with nines in all of these positions. Oh, it'd be lovely if one of these just went wrong and just couldn't work.

[00:15:06]I think I'm miles away from really breaking in still. I really do. Um, just kind of throwing out speculative ideas at the moment.

[00:15:21]I It's all I can do. So, so let's let's keep speculating away. See if we can find anything. Pink was going to be in one of those two. What about green?

[00:15:32]I don't know. Between those four.

[00:15:39]Green's ruled out of those. No, it's just that's not interesting.

[00:15:45]Okay. Pink is ruled out of those two by its presence in one of those two.

[00:15:52]and it's ruled out of there. Pink is five or seven. So, it can't be in this three cell and it's not there.

[00:16:02]So, and pink is not there by Sudoku.

[00:16:06]So, we've sort of got one of three places in row two.

[00:16:11]That's a weird old dichotomy as well.

[00:16:18]Wow. Now, I don't know what's going Okay, green in this box can't be in any of those cells.

[00:16:32]I have no idea if that means anything for my for my purposes.

[00:16:43]Four, five both see this cell. So does seven.

[00:16:53]I'm I'm not getting anywhere at the moment, am I? I just don't quite know what to do. We've I haven't touched this 10 cage at all.

[00:17:03]Oh, pink can't be in those now because of this position.

[00:17:11]And it also can't be there. That That doesn't go very far, does it?

[00:17:18]Goodness me. Okay. I don't know. Three can't be in those cells. That's totally uninteresting.

[00:17:26]If this was a 64 cage, four would then have to be in one of these three.

[00:17:39]That's not interesting.

[00:17:42]digits cannot I mean am I missing a a major part of the rule set? I just don't know how we progress.

[00:17:51]It's not true that one of these have to be eight because this could be a 697 cage.

[00:18:00]In fact, if that was six, this couldn't be a 62 black dot. It would have to use one three and one or nine.

[00:18:12]Ah, is there something going on with something like three in this row?

[00:18:23]That three can't seize that cell.

[00:18:32]Oh, or pink in this column or this column.

[00:18:40]or the fist fell ring. I hadn't thought about that for a moment. And it's not impossible. It's interesting.

[00:18:49]Or the potato head theorem. No, I'm I'm not going to get involved in those until we have to.

[00:18:58]And and I think there's got to be more that we can do with the puzzle.

[00:19:06]when I finally see something right this cell can't be 7 8 or nine from that cage or six or three this is one two four or five now those those are quite interesting if it's four or five it's the same as one of those if it's one or two it's the same as one of these two what's going on with that I mean next to nothing is going on with that. That's my general view.

[00:19:41]I don't think there's any point pencil marking this cell. It doesn't seem to Well, let's just think about it a bit longer. If that was a four, this couldn't be 4 six.

[00:19:59]No, I don't know what that does. Okay.

[00:20:02]Okay. I need to have a much better thought. It's about this cage. It's I think we have to think about this cage.

[00:20:16]If this was a 93 black dot, that couldn't be three. That would be three.

[00:20:22]This would be nine.

[00:20:28]That would lead to there being Oh. Oh, this digit it does appear in this cage and it can't be in those cells. This digit must appear there.

[00:20:46]Um, this digit is 68 or 9 and that must appear in this cage as well and it's not red. So, it must appear there.

[00:20:58]That's quite interesting. These now include blue, red, and pink.

[00:21:05]That's rather unexpected. I don't know what they are, but I know they're from 5 6 7 8 9. The pink is five or seven.

[00:21:14]The red and light blue are from 689 and they add up to 22 because they're the same as these three cells. This is getting a little bit more. Yeah. Okay.

[00:21:31]So, where's green in this row? It's in one of these cells now because there's no room for it anywhere else. Therefore, green is then in one of these two cells in row five because it can't be there by night's move.

[00:21:48]Oh goodness, this has taken a long time to see anything with. Right. Where's red in this row?

[00:21:58]Yeah, that's interesting.

[00:22:00]This is not red.

[00:22:04]But it is in this cage.

[00:22:09]Yes. Bingo. It must be in this cage which contains 6 8 9 because it's eight or nine. It's not red and it can't be there. So, it must be that cell. It's light blue. And light blue now cannot be six. And now I've made a breakthrough.

[00:22:24]That can't be six in this box. And that is six.

[00:22:29]And it doesn't have a color, but it that's not the point. This can't be six.

[00:22:33]Now, by knight's move, red and light blue are 8 n.

[00:22:40]So, six is not in these cells. Pink is five or seven.

[00:22:45]Green is five or seven.

[00:22:49]Oh, look. That 124 triple is all looking at that cell. It's really easy when you bloom. Look at these things. If I just looked at those three. Looking at that.

[00:22:58]I'm sorry. I've held you up. If you've been shouting all that stuff at the screen, you're right. And I'm I'm dense.

[00:23:04]Never mind. Right. This is not a three.

[00:23:09]And therefore, this one is not one or nine because they would need a three there. Now, if that's not a three, this is not seven. Eight and nine are both looking at this cell. It really is getting a bit easier now. So, this isn't two and this one isn't six. And we're down to two possibilities in each cell, right? That red. Well, the Oh, no. I was going to One of these is light blue, but one of them is red. Eight and nine are both in these cells. Oh, I see. One of these two is red.

[00:23:50]And is the other one pink? Do I know?

[00:23:57]Yes, I do. In this No, I Yeah, the other one is not pink, I think.

[00:24:05]Now, if this if one of these two cells was pink, this cage would contain blue, red, and pink, and then it would apparently have to add up to 22.

[00:24:16]So, neither of these are pink. That's not pink by Sudoku. And it seems that that must be pink. Um, and therefore must be five because sorry, I should I should have put pink in first because that's four or five and this is five or seven and both are pink. Pink is now a five. And I could have just added up this cage and worked that out. I really am being very slow today.

[00:24:38]Apologies are needed. Um, and you do get them, but my goodness, I'm trying to get better. I'm trying to get better right now.

[00:24:49]This has all got easier and I'm just being slow, but I'm going to speed up in a moment. This cell sees both five and seven. I could have had that available for ages. And it can't be that color because of the knight's move. So, it's red.

[00:25:06]Light blue is down here along with pink.

[00:25:10]Don't know the order, but they're both there and they're five. Of course, green has become seven. So, one of these two is a seven. I'm going to try and speed up a bit now cuz I can't go as slow as I've been for what was really a very straightforward puzzle. One, two are looking at the corner. So that's three in the corner.

[00:25:29]That's three in the spotlight.

[00:25:32]Proving its position. Then we get nine and one in the box. And now this is seeing that nine and light blue is eight and red is therefore nine.

[00:25:45]And now there's no nine or hang on there is a nine in these cells. They are a 9 seven pair. We know exactly where the nine goes. So we get a red again.

[00:25:59]This is 98 and five. Eight on the night.

[00:26:02]So actually five and eight both see that. So that must be nine.

[00:26:07]These ones are not nine. They're a 58 pair that I can't disambiguate.

[00:26:13]Right. 8 95 7 and six are in those cells. Threes in one of those.

[00:26:22]Okay. I don't know what to do with that.

[00:26:24]I've got 58 pair down here.

[00:26:27]Oh, these don't have five in. They're now a 124 triple. These are 958. These are 367. The top one by knight's move can't be six. The next one can't be seven.

[00:26:42]This has not been as hard as I've made it out. I will stop apologizing in a moment. Three has been decided in box four.

[00:26:50]Nine is in there already. Oh, I could cut color that one. One sees that cell. So, one is in one of those two.

[00:27:04]This is two or four. That's all that's left.

[00:27:07]Uh, there's a nine in one of these two cells. There's no red in those. A nine in one of those two. Is there a reason that can't be one in the 10 cage? No.

[00:27:22]Um, five and eight are looking at that along with 973. So, this is 1 2 4 or six.

[00:27:34]That makes this 468 or 9. That's actually not doing anything. Okay, let's look at this row. 8 93 65. These are from 1247.

[00:27:47]Now all of these from 1247 see this cell which also can't be 9, five or 8 and must be three or six.

[00:27:59]Oh, this has become a four. This is just sudoku. Easy Sudoku. Now, that can't be a four by knight's move. And that's a four. And that takes four out of these cells and puts four into one of these along with the other ones. Three, four, or six. This has become a two. This is a one. I am going a little faster now, but I know it won't suit those of you who are actually good at sudoku. This can't be six. This is a 467 triple. they all see that cell which can't be 9 1 3 or five and is therefore two or eight um in this row we've now got four. So that's not four.

[00:28:49]There's a one in one of these two cells and therefore this is not one. I could have done that by an ordinary knight's move before.

[00:28:59]There's a nine in one of those two.

[00:29:01]That's quite interesting. What about other nines? We've said there's a nine up here. And there's a nine in one of those three. It can't be here by knight's move.

[00:29:19]H 3 9182.

[00:29:23]I'm going to write four, five, six, seven as candidates. That one can't be five in this row. 9743.

[00:29:36]It's an interesting one, two deadly pattern here that's going to get resolved by knight's move somehow.

[00:29:45]Yeah, I don't actually know how yet.

[00:29:51]986. This cell can't be three or five or four.

[00:29:56]This is two or seven. And is one of those ruled out?

[00:30:01]I mean, these are getting very constrained. Where's six going to go? In one of the three cells here.

[00:30:12]There's this other knight's move point.

[00:30:17]Uh, it's it's no, it's not available yet. I'll tell you about it if it becomes useful. Oh, three and three. One of these two is a three.

[00:30:33]Four, five, six, seven.

[00:30:35]Five is looking directly at that cell.

[00:30:37]That is two or four. If that was a four, one of these would be a four. If it was two, these would get fixed as 78. In fact, four sees all of those cells. So, four is definitely in one of those two. And now this becomes a seven.

[00:30:57]That gives us a 64 pair flanking it.

[00:31:01]That isn't doing anything. That seven though is going to force one of these two to be a seven and clearly one of these three. Five. I can place five in this box. That one is seeing that cell by night's move. So five in box one is done.

[00:31:21]Now I can use my little trick here. So one of those is five but one of these is five. That is going to mean that one of these two has to be five because either that is five or a five here prevents those being five and puts five there. So one of these two is a definite five. I mean it may not helpful in the puzzle at all. Actually, let's just put in these are from 1268. This one sees an eight by night's move. This one sees a six. This one also sees an eight because of this pair. So eight can't be in those cells and must be here on the left.

[00:32:00]That's now one two six triple. What's that doing? Okay, I'm coloring ones and twos now. a whole new digit to have some fun with yellow and gray. And that's because this is a night's move away from the yellow.

[00:32:19]So, one of these is gray, but also one of them is yellow. The yellow one is in one of these cells. The gray could be any.

[00:32:30]I've got a one, two down here. Ah, I don't know. It's whatever the opposite of that is.

[00:32:39]that gray.

[00:32:41]Oh, it's looking at that cell, but so is this gray. Ah, no. This yellow sees that. So, one of these two is yellow.

[00:32:50]That means neither of these cells is yellow.

[00:32:54]With whichever of these is yellow is going to prevent yellow being here.

[00:32:58]We've also got a yellow in one of those.

[00:32:59]So, actually, yellow's ruled out of all of these. This yellow rules yellow out of all of those. So, we've got yellow definitely in one of these two.

[00:33:09]There might have been other ways of seeing that information.

[00:33:17]I'm making heavy weather again. There's a six in one of these two cells. That's just Sudoku. And it's probably not even useful Sudoku.

[00:33:26]Where's two in this box?

[00:33:30]Two's definitely in one of those.

[00:33:35]If yellow is a two, then we know it's there.

[00:33:42]Oh goodness, I'm still struggling around. Right, this digit sees 8 7 95 also one and two on the night's move.

[00:33:51]So, it's three, four or six. We're almost beginning to form a quadruple in this row.

[00:33:58]In fact, that digit can't be 3, four or six. And what did we learn? It couldn't be five. Also, not okay. 958 3 4 6 all see this cell.

[00:34:10]So, it is 1, two, or seven. And now there's a weird triple appearing.

[00:34:18]And this, which sees all of that weird triple and 986 in the row and three is going to be four or five.

[00:34:28]Okay. What about this? This sees the whole of the 127 as well. That 127 triple in which one of these two is yellow one or two, isn't it? How do I use that?

[00:34:46]I don't think I can.

[00:34:50]Just need to get this cage resolved and we'll be absolutely laughing.

[00:34:56]One of those two digits is a four.

[00:35:00]So four can't be here or here.

[00:35:06]Is that good for four in the row? Not really.

[00:35:11]There's probably some very straightforward knights move. Now four can't be in any of those cells or there.

[00:35:21]So four is in one of these three in column seven.

[00:35:27]Don't know what that means.

[00:35:30]Why can't I sort these out a bit?

[00:35:37]This whole 2 4 67 quad seems very accessible and yet I can't actually resolve it. I should just put in the corner marks actually. Uh sorry, I've moved the corner marks into the center of those.

[00:35:52]And one and three have to be down. Oh, there's a one X-wing there.

[00:35:57]One is confined to those two cells in column 2 and to these two in column four. So in row eight, it can't appear here and must be in one of these three.

[00:36:11]That is not powerful.

[00:36:21]Okay, that didn't do anything.

[00:36:27]Seven. Four and six. If that was four or six, it would be the same as this.

[00:36:35]Oh, that's slightly interesting.

[00:36:39]So, it would have to be there.

[00:36:42]Now, why did I say it would be the same as this? Because of the column, right?

[00:36:46]I'm going to say that this digit can't be four. And it's blindingly obvious that it can't be four because of that triple. I was going to work it through a very odd mechanism, but that's fine.

[00:36:56]It's three or six.

[00:36:58]And that's a 3 six pair in the row. The these are not relations I'm expecting to find at all.

[00:37:08]Uh so we've got this one X-wing that didn't do anything in the end. That is three or six and that's a 36 pair.

[00:37:20]The five in the row can't be in those cells. Could be here.

[00:37:27]Otherwise, these are the candidates and they uh they all see these cells, but that's irrelevant because we know five's in one of those two. I expounded on that earlier.

[00:37:42]Eight has to be somewhere up here.

[00:37:45]That's really uninteresting, but it is true.

[00:37:50]Three. Three is in one of these two.

[00:37:54]That may be less un less uninteresting.

[00:37:57]That may be more interesting.

[00:38:02]Maybe more usable, but I can't quite see how yet. Okay, let's try this. If this was a six, we'd have six there, six there, six here, which is what I think is interesting. Obviously, we've got these positions, then one of those two, one of those three, one of these three.

[00:38:29]Is that doing anything?

[00:38:32]It's so frustrating not to be able to actually make headway.

[00:38:40]Oh, Blabber Blabaska has set me quite the puzzle here, right? Four, five, six, seven. One of these two is a five. That's not going to help. They don't reach anywhere by knight's move that I need.

[00:38:58]Three and five are here. Eight and nine are here. So, either four or seven.

[00:39:03]Well, if seven was in one of these cells, then it couldn't be here. So then we'd get this X-wing on sevens.

[00:39:18]And then seven would have to be in one of these two cells.

[00:39:30]Alternatively, if seven is is over here, this is a 72 pair and this is a 345 triple.

[00:39:39]And what does that do for the price of eggs?

[00:39:44]It doesn't fix it.

[00:39:48]Oh goodness, I'm probably missing something else blindingly simple now, but I don't know what it is. This 127 triple. Why is that so appealing? And so okay, firstly, right, either this is yellow or this is yellow. In neither case can any of these be yellow.

[00:40:12]So yellow in row seven is going to have to be in one of these cells. It's one or two.

[00:40:24]Where's Where's yellow in this box?

[00:40:26]These two are yellow and gray in some order. I mean, I know that, but I don't know which is which. So, this is a yellow gray pair in column one.

[00:40:40]And there's a one in one of these cells, but I don't know about two.

[00:40:52]Yeah, that one X-wing was generally quite promising, but all it did was put one into one of these three cells. And I don't know which one.

[00:41:08]If it was here, it would be yellow.

[00:41:12]Okay, let's have a look at two in this box. Those three say not here. Actually, that says not here and not here. So, two's in one of these cells.

[00:41:28]That's not helping.

[00:41:31]What? Have I looked at this before?

[00:41:33]Eight in this row is in one of those three. I haven't looked at eight. I looked at five and said virtually the same thing.

[00:41:43]Eight is in one of these three cells.

[00:41:45]And they all see these two. So eight can't be in those. So the eight in this column is either here in light blue or here.

[00:41:56]I could have colored that light blue.

[00:41:59]Actually that finally tells me that eight is in one of those two which I had not noticed before or pencil marked.

[00:42:10]Then I was saying eight's in one of these three.

[00:42:16]But the trouble is, if it's here, it gets licensed to appear in any of the corners of box nine.

[00:42:22]And that is not the powerful weapon or mechanism I thought it might be.

[00:42:30]Oh, this is just ordinary knights move.

[00:42:33]Sedoken, I can't do it. How have I forgotten all my knights move skills so badly?

[00:42:42]Okay, let's say yellow was two.

[00:42:50]Then obviously one of these two, one of those two.

[00:43:00]It doesn't do anything.

[00:43:03]Five. One, two, three.

[00:43:09]I'm looking at column 8 again now with my one, two, seven, triple. Seven is green. Oh, look. Seven is that green is looking at that cell. That's why I've put green into these two. So, this is the other one of one or two. It really is painful when it takes me this long to do utter simple stuff. That is yellow.

[00:43:31]And this must be a seven because this sees the one two pair 346 and 958. It's a naked single seven. Now that had better start solving the puzzle. That makes this digit a four. That makes this digit a two. Now at least my pencil marking is paying a tiny bit of dividend. Now I've got a one four pair here.

[00:43:58]I don't know how to use that. Two four there makes this six. That makes this four.

[00:44:06]Does that sort out this set? Not really.

[00:44:10]But it takes six out of these cells.

[00:44:12]These are a five seven pair. 5 47 are done here. That two can't be in any of those cells. So it's in one of these two along with eight. It's a 28 pair.

[00:44:23]Um there is a color involved. And that's nine. Therefore, because nine has to go somewhere. And these are 136. Now this one can't be three. Don't know about the bottom one. 136. Now in this row we've had 4 92 7 and a 3 six pair.

[00:44:43]Everything else is 1 5 or 8. This is not nine. Now nine's definitely in one of those two and one of those two. X-wing that doesn't do anything.

[00:44:55]Two is looking at that cell. So that's an eight. That's a two. That eight is not quite as useful as it wants to be.

[00:45:10]two though is going to be in one of these cells. And now that yellow has to be a one because they all see that. So yellow has become a one and that has taken me much too long to figure out.

[00:45:26]Goodness. I mean I've really struggled with this for no reason other than blindness to ordinary sedoku techniques I think. Anyway, I've been enjoying myself and that is the most important part.

[00:45:40]Now, the 217 thing is all done. Seven was green. I'd forgotten to keep sevens going.

[00:45:51]That's not yellow. Definitely.

[00:45:55]Um, we've got the 136 492736.

[00:45:59]We've got that 158 triple. And they all see these cells which therefore can't be from 158. They're also not 27.

[00:46:07]And this one's not nine. Oh, this is not two. That's a good point. There's a two X-wing there. Can't use it.

[00:46:20]Still still struggling away. Wrapped in the toils of this spider's web.

[00:46:29]I don't know how to use this 158 triple.

[00:46:31]I feel like I'm messing it up.

[00:46:37]Right. Still need to find one or two.

[00:46:40]Oh, we've got this cage. And I've taken something out of here. So, this can only be nine or four. It can't be eight anymore.

[00:46:48]So, eight's definitely in one of those two. One of these two.

[00:46:53]One of these three.

[00:46:56]Come on. Eight. do something. Just earn your keep.

[00:47:03]No, I don't know how to resolve that.

[00:47:08]Do I know how this cage works?

[00:47:12]A four there would require this to be six and seven. And that would be an 8 n pair. Four there would push nine here and eight here. We'd have a 357 triple.

[00:47:25]I can't see the problem.

[00:47:29]Nine. Oh, nine I could make red there.

[00:47:31]We know one of these is nine and one of these is nine. I could color that for what little it would do. We know one of these is gray and one is green.

[00:47:50]You're probably looking at some other utterly simple knights move. Sudoku.

[00:47:55]Now, might even be simpler than that.

[00:47:57]Um, that's not three. So, three is in one of these cells.

[00:48:09]Don't know what to do with that information.

[00:48:13]I thought it was all about this cell, but there's more going on.

[00:48:20]This can't be 15 or8, nor can that.

[00:48:23]15827. So they're from 3 4 69 which I think are all available at the bottom here only 3 4 or 6.

[00:48:34]And that's three of the digits from 3 4 69.

[00:48:40]The fourth one is either there or at the top here.

[00:48:45]That does bear an uncanny resemblance to the digits in this 10 cage.

[00:48:53]One in yellow can't be in those cells.

[00:48:58]One in yellow is in a little X-wing there and an X-wing here and here. Oh, sorry. I was trying to variegate those.

[00:49:10]These can't have a one in. That's very obvious. there are two seven pair.

[00:49:15]Um, four is in one of those cells and therefore can't be in these two.

[00:49:25]So, four in the row is in one of those and four in the bottom row is in one of those. So, uh, no, that might not be right. That might not be right. If I I thought I was proving that four was in one of these two cells, which would resolve this and I think would finish the puzzle. But I don't think I was proving it.

[00:49:52]I do know that four is not in these cells.

[00:49:56]But that doesn't show me where four is in this row.

[00:50:11]Wow, I'm still really struggling along here.

[00:50:15]Do sink or swim with me. I mean, 45 minutes into trying to solve this.

[00:50:20]That's a 136 triple. They're all looking at that cell. I mean, that's how easy it is when you finally blim in spot what you're doing.

[00:50:31]I'm so embarrassed by some of this solving. Really am. That's now a 3, four, five, triple. That's one, two, six. This digit is nine. And that's eight and seven. And they're just done.

[00:50:44]Now, and it was easy. It was absolutely easy to do them. That's one in the cage.

[00:50:50]That's six. Don't need the colors. I'm just doing that for sort of completeness. Now, that's now one.

[00:50:59]And this one most definitely isn't.

[00:51:03]Uh the three four five triple don't know that four is looking at that cell.

[00:51:11]This two seven pair we've got a seven at the top and seven is a green color and two is gray and that's two gray in row seven.

[00:51:28]And these two are both grayable.

[00:51:32]Right. 9172. And look at this 58 pair.

[00:51:36]That makes everything else in the column 3 4 or six including this cell at the bottom which is not nine. And that means this one is nine.

[00:51:46]All the nines are done.

[00:51:54]Dreadful dreadful dreadful solve of a very nice puzzle. I mean my apologies to blabber skeker. It's a much nicer puzzle than I've managed to make it look due to just general ineptness. Five and eight there. I mean, the colors really ought to help me understand that. That five is going to fix 4. Three, five.

[00:52:19]This is not four. This is not three.

[00:52:23]This is not six.

[00:52:28]Um, this is now five. Does that have a color? Yes, it does. Apparently, pink is its color.

[00:52:38]So, that five and eight are now done in box eight.

[00:52:45]Um, there's that 36 pair. I don't know what to do with that one. 7529. One of these is an eight.

[00:52:52]Yes, it's there very clearly.

[00:52:56]This is three or four. That three four pair is both looking at this cell. So that m oops so that one must be six and this stuff is getting finished off now.

[00:53:16]He says not finishing it. Uh that's become a seven. That's not Look at this 3 six deadly pattern. 57. Right, before I tidy up that 36 deadly pattern, let's get any colors that I've got done.

[00:53:30]125879 in each box. They're all done in the top six boxes. That's very pretty.

[00:53:39]Um, but in the bottom six, not so much.

[00:53:42]9852 7 one is white. That's got no color. That five needs a pink. And now they're all done in the bottom. Now three there is sorting out the remaining bits by night's move. And there we go. And I'm sorry black blabber skeker I can't pronounce your name. I can't solve your puzzle skillfully. Uh but I can solve your puzzle and I've coupled my cages that I there'll be some very good times recorded in the comments today. And uh well done to those of you who do that. I think I need to go back to our chess Sudoku app and practice a bit because that wasn't great. But thank you for sticking with me and uh I'll be back hopefully. I mean, this is payment for yesterday's self being quite smooth.

[00:54:33]This one wasn't. I'll see you again tomorrow and we'll try again. Bye for now.