New York Times Sudoku Hard Solution for July 20, 2026: Walkthrough

[00:00:01]Okay, so this is New York Times Sudoku hard for July 20th, 2026.

[00:00:12]This is my walk through and you can play this Sudoku from the link in the description.

[00:00:17]Okay, let's get it going.

[00:00:20]First thing first, I can place five in box eight.

[00:00:26]And now this five blocks this, so five in box five will be here or here.

[00:00:34]So this in box four cannot use five.

[00:00:38]This five blocks this, this five blocks this.

[00:00:41]Gives me five here.

[00:00:45]I can place eight in box two.

[00:00:52]And that gives me eight in box one.

[00:00:59]I can place eight also in box nine here.

[00:01:07]And that gives me eight in box seven.

[00:01:14]And that gives me eight in box six.

[00:01:26]Um Could that be all for now?

[00:01:36]Uh oh, no. Uh okay.

[00:01:52]two, three, four, six Uh Right. Uh 3 3 3 block these cells gives me three here.

[00:02:05]3 3 3 and a 3 gives me 3 here.

[00:02:24]Okay.

[00:02:26]Now the next step is I guess the simplest way is to fill uh these cells with a uh by putting all the possible numbers.

[00:02:47]Um well, it These would be 2 4 6 triple.

[00:02:58]It's probably uh easier to uh do one by one, but uh uh Okay, so I will try uh unnecessarily complicated way.

[00:03:21]So, here's 3 5 9 and here's 3 5 9.

[00:03:28]That means these four cells cannot use 3 5 9.

[00:03:33]And that means um 3 5 9 will use three of these four cells.

[00:03:43]Now, looking at sideways, here's 1 and 7, here's 1 and 7, meaning these cells cannot use 1 and the civil.

[00:03:54]So, one in the civil will use two of these three cells.

[00:04:03]Now, I use the 1 3 5 7 9.

[00:04:09]Oh, okay. I see.

[00:04:12]So, these are five numbers for five cells.

[00:04:18]Okay, what it is is that um Let me erase this.

[00:04:25]1 3 5 7 9 block these cells.

[00:04:32]And the 1 3 5 7 9 block this cell.

[00:04:39]So, these three cells cannot use 1 3 5 7 9.

[00:04:44]So, that gives me 1 3 5 7 9.

[00:04:47]Um um I should have uh look it up, but uh that So, it's a five for five cells.

[00:05:02]Meaning, these these will be a triple.

[00:05:05]Um three numbers that's not used in these five cells will be 2 4 6.

[00:05:14]And here's four and here's four, which block these two cells.

[00:05:21]And uh that gives me 2 6 double, and four can only be here.

[00:05:35]Yeah.

[00:05:36]Um and I should clean this up. Yeah, 3 5 9 block this cell.

[00:05:44]Uh three blocks these.

[00:05:48]7 9 block these two.

[00:05:53]One and the seven block this cell.

[00:06:05]Okay, let's move on. This is quite annoying.

[00:06:12]What did I do?

[00:06:17]So, two six two six one three five seven nine uh thing.

[00:06:32]Oh, now this would be two six double and here's two, so this would be six.

[00:06:38]And this would be two, that gives me six here, which blocks this cell, gives me six here, and this would be one. That gives me seven here.

[00:06:49]And the last number of this column is two.

[00:06:53]And the two and the two gives me two here.

[00:07:18]Okay.

[00:07:24]Oh, wait, here's one.

[00:07:28]Okay.

[00:07:32]One five seven nine Right, seven and the seven gives me seven here.

[00:07:50]1 2 3 4 5 6 Here's two and six which block these.

[00:08:13]Here's two and six which block this cell.

[00:08:16]So, I get two six double here.

[00:08:20]Which means these will be three five nine.

[00:08:23]Five and the five block these.

[00:08:27]So, five can only go here.

[00:08:41]And the five and the five gives me five >> [snorts] >> here.

[00:08:50]two three six one four nine Okay, um here's two and the six. Here's two and the six.

[00:09:26]So, these cells cannot use two and the six. So, these would be two and the six.

[00:09:31]And this seven blocks these. This seven blocks these.

[00:09:35]So, that gives me seven here.

[00:09:38]And now these sevens block these cells gives me seven here. [snorts] Actually, these were 2 6 9 and this is blocked by 2 and the 6.

[00:09:51]So, this would be 9.

[00:09:55]And these are 1 and the 4.

[00:10:00]Here's 1, so this would be 4 and this would be 1.

[00:10:05]And 2 6 double means this cell is left with 4.

[00:10:12]And the 4 4 4 gives me 4 here.

[00:10:20]Actually, here's 3, so this is 9.

[00:10:22]The last number this row is 1.

[00:10:26]1 and the 1 gives me 1 here. [snorts] This is already already 3.

[00:10:35]And uh last number of this box is 9.

[00:10:42]2 3 6 uh 2 9 1 5 6 uh 1 4 6 4 7 9 Oh, here it is.

[00:11:10]So, row one is missing 4 7 9. This is blocked by 7 and the 9, so this will be 4.

[00:11:22]And the 4 4 and the 4 gives me 4 here.

[00:11:30]7 9 means these would one and the six.

[00:11:35]Six would be one of these, so this cannot be six. Gives me two in the six.

[00:11:41]Two blocks these, gives me two here and this would be nine.

[00:11:46]Uh here's seven, here's nine.

[00:11:48]Six, two, six, five, three.

[00:11:53]One, nine.

[00:11:55]This would be one. That gives me six and one. And the last number here is six and this would be five.

[00:12:04]And this would be three and here's two.

[00:12:08]Okay.

[00:12:10]Uh here it is.

[00:12:12]Well, I don't think it was very clear, but uh uh the key is to find this 246 triple here.

[00:12:23]Or actually 26 double here.

[00:12:28]And uh Yeah, I guess 246 triple here and uh these two cannot be four, so um yes, in some ways uh you just have to find four here.

[00:12:46]Uh I tried to uh do it somewhat logically, but uh well, it was a fun puzzle.

[00:12:58]Anyway, thank you very much for watching and uh if you liked that video, please like and uh subscribe and have a good one.