Sudoku solution – New York Times 30 May 2026 Hard level sudoku

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:03][music] [music] >> Hello fellow Sudoku ins. Welcome to Zen in the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Saturday the 30th of May 2026.

[00:00:17]Hope you're having a good weekend wherever in the world you are.

[00:00:22]Uh if you're in the US, uh you might like to know that um a judge has temporarily blocked the Trump slush fund for criminals uh who want to get money back from the government because they think that they have been because they have believed that the government has weaponized against was weaponized against them. This of course is a nonsense thing, a slush fund created by Trump to try to reward the January 6 rioters.

[00:00:52]Um so it so and incentivize them to do it again when he needs them.

[00:00:58]Got that cult just keeps going.

[00:01:00]Also, uh I but it's a temporary it's a temporary block.

[00:01:05]Um Um we'll see how it continues on.

[00:01:10]Um he might get his way, you know, like obviously so much of this uh administration is under his control that he might get his way anyway.

[00:01:21]There's that. What else is happening for Trump? Oh, he's had his same name kicked off of the Trump the Kennedy Center. He was remember he tried to call it Trump Kennedy Center.

[00:01:30]A judge has said uh needs Congress's approval to do that.

[00:01:34]Maybe they'll just give approval in Congress anyway.

[00:01:38]These people are so sycophantic anyway.

[00:01:41]Maybe they'll do that. But anyway, that's the current couple of orders against Trump from court from judges.

[00:01:49]Uh but the judges are not enough to sustain a proper fight back against Trump's fascism.

[00:01:57]That's going to require much more.

[00:01:59]Anyway, let's turn to the New York Times hard level Sudoku puzzle, shall we?

[00:02:06]And let's start with digit eight blocking across here and across here and giving us an eight for sure in that square there.

[00:02:20]Sixes block across the bottom and there's a six blocking down here.

[00:02:24]So, that's a six.

[00:02:40]>> [snorts] >> Uh this block has 1579 this column, sorry, has 1579 missing.

[00:02:50]15 and 9 attack that square there, so that's got to be a seven and this will be 15 and 9.

[00:03:00]I think we've got a pair of 1 and 5 blocking up here, so that's 1 and 5.

[00:03:04]Uh this will be 7 and 9. Seven across there, there's a seven, there's a nine.

[00:03:12]>> [snorts] [sighs] [snorts] >> Okay, two's blocking across the top.

[00:05:48]>> [snorts] >> Four blocking this square, this square, and this square.

[00:06:56]So, there's a four for that column.

[00:07:13]>> [snorts] [sighs] [snorts] [snorts] >> Uh I think we're missing 1 5 7 8 in this column, right? 1 5 7 8.

[00:08:55]>> [sighs] >> I think that's right.

[00:08:59]And we've got 7 and 8 blocking this square, so that should be a 1 5. Now, I just said that was a pair of 1 5 there, right?

[00:09:06]So, that's a pair of 1 and 5 for this row.

[00:09:09]So, these squares here can't be 1 or 5.

[00:09:12]They must be 6 or 9. Does that help?

[00:09:19]Uh not much.

[00:09:24]Mm.

[00:09:25]6 9 in those squares.

[00:10:47]>> Oh, so we've got nine blocking up here.

[00:10:56]And nine blocking across there, so 6 9 8 No, it's limited to three. No, I thought I'd found something there, but no, not true.

[00:11:10]Seven.

[00:11:13]No, no, no, no, no, I'm going nowhere with that.

[00:12:44]>> Oh, let's come back and look at this.

[00:12:45]One and five in those squares. Is this 2 3 7 9?

[00:12:51]2 3 7 9 Let's write down our digits. 1 5 2 3 7 I think Yeah, it is. Okay, so 2 3 and 9 are here, so that's got to be a 7.

[00:13:28]>> [sighs] >> I'm very slow here today.

[00:13:45]It is morning and I'm not feeling that great, so those are my excuses for this morning as to why I'm very slow.

[00:13:54]Uh but we've got four across here, four across there, and four down there. There we go.

[00:14:02]>> [sighs] >> Six blocking this square, six blocking this square, so there's a six.

[00:14:20]Two blocking this square, so in that column there's a two, and three should finish that column if I got it right.

[00:14:25]Okay.

[00:15:56]>> [snorts] [snorts] >> I'm about to give up on notation free Sudoku here because I'm going to put in the pencil marks. Now, I've waited I've spent a long time doing that, so let's do what I already know. Now, I did say that this is a pair of 1 and 5 as well, so that these squares have to be 6 and 9.

[00:19:11]That's what I worked out earlier on.

[00:19:13]So, I'll put that in and hopefully I won't overwrite it as I as I forget.

[00:19:18]Which is quite Oops.

[00:19:20]Quite likely. 9 7's here cuz we've got 7's blocking these squares. So, we've got a pair of 7's down there.

[00:19:41]Which doesn't help much, I think.

[00:19:44]7's up there.

[00:19:46]Let's look at this block, in fact.

[00:19:48]So, we've got one blocking up here. So, one can appear in those squares there. 2 3 4 Uh 5 can't appear in this row, but 5 can go in those squares there.

[00:20:04]6 is limited to those squares there.

[00:20:09]And then 9 Looks like this. So, 9 is still possible like that.

[00:20:16]Just check there wasn't anything here. 1 5 6 Hmm. No.

[00:20:32]Okay, let's go back to uh looking for pairs.

[00:22:06]>> Okay, that's about it, I think.

[00:22:12]Let's finish off this top section.

[00:22:14]One I just can't go in that square there, but other squares are okay.

[00:22:24]Uh 3 4 5 again blocked from this square, but can go in other squares.

[00:22:35]Six, still okay in those squares there.

[00:22:40]Uh and nine still okay in those squares at the top.

[00:23:55]>> Huh, have we finished everything here?

[00:23:57]Is that right?

[00:23:59]One.

[00:24:00]Okay.

[00:24:02]Twos look okay. Threes.

[00:24:06]There. Four.

[00:24:10]Five in those squares. Six is there.

[00:24:13]Seven is in those squares there.

[00:24:16]Eight blocks across there and nine is at the end. So, that is a two. Oh, good grief. Okay, just hidden it's hi- was hiding in plain sight there.

[00:24:24]Okay, so we get five in that square.

[00:24:27]And so, we can take out the fives up there.

[00:24:37]And this must be a two down here now.

[00:24:41]And that's not a two. Two is actually our finished digit now.

[00:24:50]>> [sighs] >> Okay, so five [snorts] blocking across here and there means that five is somewhere there.

[00:25:47]Okay.

[00:26:35]Okay, there's one block to be filled in.

[00:27:16]>> So, it looks like we found ourselves a seven down here now.

[00:27:22]Oh.

[00:27:24]Sorry.

[00:27:26]Seven blocks down. No sevens allowed there. What happened? Did I must have clicked the wrong digit. I got to check everything again. Sorry, in this block. I don't know what I've done.

[00:27:34]Ones, that looks okay. Two is in three.

[00:27:37]Must have hit the wrong key on the keyboard or something.

[00:27:40]Three blocking down there. Okay.

[00:27:43]Four blocking down across. Okay, that's in five.

[00:27:49]Okay, six is in seven blocks. Seven is in already. Eight Eight blocks across here and down here.

[00:27:58]Eight is in.

[00:27:59]I think I hit must have hit a seven there by mistake. Eight is in those squares.

[00:28:04]And nine is in. So, it's an eight actually. Sorry about that.

[00:28:12]Okay, so that gives us a seven in this square and a one here.

[00:28:17]And a five up there and a one and a five.

[00:28:25]And lots of fives to remove.

[00:28:36]We have pointing ones here or what or we've got a one in this block already, so three eight there.

[00:28:49]Also, I've got eight there to remove.

[00:28:53]And there.

[00:29:04]Okay, digits two and eight are finished.

[00:29:11]I'll get rid of the seven there.

[00:29:14]And there.

[00:29:16]Wait.

[00:29:18]I've put in Oh.

[00:29:19]I've done something very weird there.

[00:29:20]I've clicked on the wrong entirely the wrong thing on Okay, never mind.

[00:29:30]Uh we've got a unique rectangle down here as well. We've got three and nine, three and nine, three and nine. So, I can remove the three and the nine from that square as well.

[00:29:42]All right, where are we?

[00:29:49]Ones to remove there.

[00:30:06]Three to remove there.

[00:30:09]Three to place there.

[00:30:12]And another three to get rid of down there.

[00:30:17]And that's got to be a nine now.

[00:30:20]Three there, nine there.

[00:31:19]>> Let's put the six in here.

[00:31:43]Right, not much to go. Seven blocking down here, so there's our seven.

[00:31:50]There's our four. There's a four up there, and there is one, and that is our New York Times game over and done with for uh Saturday. Yes, there were some singles there that you could have got.

[00:32:02]Um but, you had to look hard for them.

[00:32:05]I thought they were I think they were quite well hidden. Thanks for joining me today. Take care. Bye-bye.