Sudoku solution – Los Angeles Times 18 July 2026 Expert level sudoku

[00:00:03][music] [music] Hello fellow Sudokans. Welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Saturday the 18th of July 2026 and I hope you are keeping well uh enjoying your weekend. It's evening time here. This is my sedok at bedtime. In fact, I did just go to bed and I thought to myself, "No, I better play a game of Sedoka before I before I hit the sack uh properly." And uh because also I shall be out tomorrow morning. I've got a hospital appointment in the morning, so I probably won't be playing a game before I leave. Um and uh so I should just play a game now to give some to do tomorrow for people. Uh now, we can't criticize Andy Burnham too much yet because we don't know what exactly he's going to do. We don't we're not sure who he's going to appoint or anything like that. So, it's all speculation at the moment, but it's being speculated on.

[00:01:00]And I don't like the fact that The Guardian says Andy Burnham is expected to relax. That means they have some inside information. The government's restrictions on new oil and gas drilling. Uh this would be a complete mistake, an absolutely crazy idea. Um apparently the unions that want him to uh are pushing for this, but this is a really bad idea. Apart from the fact it sends the wrong signal, uh it's a stupid thing to do anyway because there isn't there I mean there aren't the reserves of North the oil and gas that are necessary to do anything. It's absolutely impractical. It's really a it will be a daft decision and just also send the wrong signal to everybody. Um and in fact uh you know the tries did uh give lots of uh north licenses for North Sea oil dr uh drilling. In fact, hundreds of them. And in 14 years, they produced just 36 days of gas. 36 days in 14 years. That shows you that the supplies are simply not there. It's absolutely an insane idea. It's rubbish.

[00:02:04]It's a it's it's just it's just a dumb thing to be doing. So, I hope that's not um the the case. I mean, it just is ridiculous. We need to be thinking about renewable energy. just invest the money in, you know, uh in in in in renewable energy much better and and various other aspects that need to be improved. For example, charging for EV cars, etc., etc. All right, let's get on with the game of Sudoku then, shall we? Uh Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle. We've got twos blocking across here and there. That'll give me a two in that square there.

[00:02:45]Twos block across here, across here, up here. And we're going to get another one because I can see so many twos blocking up here like this. There we go.

[00:02:54]Everywhere except that one there.

[00:03:01]Seven blocking down here and across there. Seven blocking across and across there.

[00:03:45]I believe I've found a four as well, but I'm just got to have to check it out with you first. We've got fours blocking like this, right? So, we got four in one of these two squares blocking up here.

[00:03:55]Four blocking up here. Four blocking up here. And four blocking up here. That means that must be a four.

[00:04:10]I actually can place a four here.

[00:04:12][laughter] Didn't even see that four there. There you go. An an extra bonus.

[00:04:57]I think we're looking for 1689 in this row. And we've got 189 here. So that should be six.

[00:05:12]And our sevens block down here and down there, giving me seven in that square.

[00:05:54]eight blocks across here. Down here, down there.

[00:06:11]Uh, seven and five block those squares there. That means that's seven and five over there. And this is not seven or five. It's going to be uh six and nine, I think. 69.

[00:06:27]Yeah, 69. And so this down here is one and eight.

[00:06:36]Any help on one or eight? No. So this is three and six. Any help on three or six?

[00:06:44]No.

[00:06:55][snorts] Okay, let's click on the digits. See if we end up with something new.

[00:08:09]>> [snorts] >> No, I thought I discovered something, but it was not true.

[00:11:31]Uh I think I'm going to put in the pencil marks.

[00:11:34]Uh so because there's I've got quite a lot of uh things that I can see already.

[00:11:39]So we've got five and seven in this block. So that puts five and seven into those squares there. And back on this side, it gives me six and nine, I think I said. Is that right?

[00:11:52]And so this is one and eight, wasn't it?

[00:11:58]And we got threes blocking down here. So that's a pair of threes there. We also got threes in those squares there.

[00:12:07]And we have threes up there. And three and five in those squares.

[00:12:13]Uh, we've got one and three blocking this square. We need one and three in this row. So, we got the threes there and we've got the ones across there.

[00:12:25]So, got a pair of ones over there. One somewhere there.

[00:12:30]One somewhere up there.

[00:12:37]Two's a pair there and there.

[00:12:56]four and two there. Did I get that before? I don't think I said that. Did I? So, we got four and two. Okay. So, this is 189 in these squares then. So, we've got eights there and we've got nines anywhere.

[00:13:21]Fours are there. I should look at this column, shouldn't I? So, we've got 2, 4, 1, 3, 7, 9. So, we're looking for five, six, eight in these squares, I think.

[00:13:31]And we've got eight blocking there and eight blocking there. So, that must be the eight.

[00:13:36]And then we're left with a pair of five and six in those squares there. No help on that just yet.

[00:13:45]About eight blocks across here. Across here. That gives me eight in that square there. Eight blocking down. That's an eight. That's a one.

[00:13:52]No digit one necessary there.

[00:14:02]Five blocks across here. That gives me a pair of fives in those squares.

[00:14:14]Five, six there.

[00:14:40]Eight blocking up here, up there, across there. That gives me eight in that square and eight in that square. And we can remove the eight there. And we end up with a pair of one and nine.

[00:14:51]Five, six. Uh, so no, that's not different.

[00:15:01]Nines are somewhere across there and somewhere up there.

[00:15:09]Somewhere across there.

[00:15:22]We have a pair of one and nine in those squares there. I don't think we have any help on that just yet, though.

[00:15:40]That's the only place for a four.

[00:15:44]Four is up there.

[00:15:57]I think we're just missing digit six here, aren't we? One, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine. Yeah, we're missing digit six in this block. So, we can put that in now. So, we know it's a five. And that's a six there. That's a six down there. That must be the five.

[00:16:11]And that's a three.

[00:16:13]That's a three there. And this is um what are you?

[00:16:21]Six.

[00:16:25]Six. blocking up here across there.

[00:16:27]There's a six. There's a one.

[00:16:34]Uh, that's the only spot for a five in that row.

[00:16:38]That must be a nine.

[00:16:43]Go get rid of that five.

[00:17:19]six six blocking up here, up there, and across there.

[00:17:23]That's our six. So, it gives us a pair of sixes up there.

[00:17:31]Huh.

[00:17:33]Sorry, wrong mode selected. I should have had six there. There we go.

[00:17:40]Pair of sevens in those squares. So that must be the seven. That must be the five. This can't be a five.

[00:17:51]Five blocking up and across there. So five in one of those squares, meaning that's our five and not there.

[00:18:22]Nine in this square. Six in this square here.

[00:18:28]Six up there.

[00:18:30]Seven.

[00:18:32]Seven. Delete.

[00:18:45]So, one blocking up here. So, that's a pair of ones in those squares there.

[00:18:52]Three blocking up there and across there means that's our three. So, we know that's our one there and that's our one there. That's our three there.

[00:19:02]Missing digit here, I think, is nine, isn't it?

[00:19:08]That's a nine there.

[00:19:18]44 2 9 9 one five.

[00:19:31]So, not a particularly tough game there.

[00:19:33]Uh just needed to spot a couple of pairs which I didn't quite spot. But anyway, that's about it for the uh Los Angeles Times and I'm definitely off to bed now.

[00:19:41]Take care. Bye-bye.