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

Ajouté : 2026-05-07

[00:00:03][music] [music] >> Hello fellow Sudokens, welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Thursday, the 30th of April, 2026. Hope you are keeping well, and hope you've done everything you need to do in April. If not, hurry up and do it now because the month turns tomorrow.

[00:00:24]Um, the USA was founded on slavery.

[00:00:30]The backs of slaves, really. Um, and uh, after the end of slavery, uh, deals were done with those uh, after the, you know, deals were done in the South to try to placate those people who really wanted to keep slaves, but were not allowed to anymore.

[00:00:47]And uh, what, the massive [clears throat] racism that exists, existed, uh, across uh, the South in particular, but of course, many parts of the USA.

[00:00:58]Um, unfortunately, the racism continues until now, but not according to the Supreme Court of the USA.

[00:01:06]Those political hacks that are masquerading as justices, the six Republican judges, and they are Republican judges, they are not independent in any way. They are there to do the bidding of Trump and the Republican Party, uh, have [clears throat] decided to basically um, get rid of the Voting Rights Act. Get rid of, you know, in a legalistic way.

[00:01:31]>> [cough and clears throat] >> Of course, the vote went 6-3 with the usual suspects, and in particular, particularly disgusting, of course, uh, Clarence Thomas, Uncle Thomas, Uncle Tom, the most disgusting of all of them, even worse than Alito.

[00:01:54]Uh, so I thought I'd read you the dissenting, uh, speech, or part of the, part of the dissension, rather, from Justice uh, Kagan. She said, "I dissent. The Voting Rights Act is, or now more accurately was, one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our nation's history.

[00:02:18]It was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers. Ushered in an awe-inspiring change, bringing this nation closer to fulfilling the ideals of democracy and racial equality." Yeah, seemed like America might be moving forward at one point.

[00:02:33]And it has been repeatedly and overwhelmingly reauthorized by the people's representatives in Congress.

[00:02:39]Only they have the right to say it's no longer needed, not the members of this court. But of course, we know that they have done everything to basically uh, remove laws, or or recategorize laws, or reinterpret laws in their own ideological bent.

[00:02:58]She says, "I dissent then from this latest chapter in the majority's now completed demolition of the Voting Rights Act."

[00:03:06]So, there you are.

[00:03:08]So, if you're a black person in America, uh, try take some action, try to get, or more, maybe more importantly, if you're a white person in America, uh, do something to try to stop this nonsense, this nonsensical back march back towards the Jim Crow era. It's really disgraceful, disgusting for a modern society.

[00:03:34]Oh [sighs] dear, oh dear, America.

[00:03:38]So depressing to talk about. But I still talk about it, because can't put our heads in the sand, can we?

[00:03:44]Hello fellow Sudokens, this is a future me. I'm back in uh, I didn't want to re-record the whole introduction, cuz it it was a it took too long for me to, uh, talk about. I don't want to do it all again.

[00:03:57]Uh, but unfortunately, I failed at my first attempt at the game. And this is two days in a row where I've failed the New York Times.

[00:04:03]Um, my own mistakes, uh, nothing, you know, not mistakes that I was forced into, just mistakes that I made myself, I guess. I've no idea what a mistake I made, but I made one. So, maybe I need to up my concentration level, um, whilst playing these games. But anyway, uh, let's get on with the game of Sudoku. I'm going to, uh, try and save a bit of time by going through as quickly as I can, because I'm now bored. I've played this game already, and I don't like to play these games, uh, more than once, to be honest with you.

[00:04:35]So, this, of course, is the New York Times hard level Sudoku puzzle.

[00:04:42]And we're doing digit one.

[00:04:44]And we've got one blocking like this.

[00:04:46]So, one in one of these two squares blocking across.

[00:04:50]One across there, one up there, one up there.

[00:04:53]Let's hope it's a bit more successful this time. Twos.

[00:05:01]I did almost finish the game, by the way, but I did use pencil marks.

[00:05:10]But I guess I know some stuff now that I didn't know before, right?

[00:05:53]Where are you? Where did I begin last time? I can't remember.

[00:05:59]I was playing the game for a long time, actually.

[00:06:08]Okay, what we've got, what I said before was we got three and nine blocking across here, and we've got three and nine blocking this square here. So, we've got three and nine in these two squares here. So, these squares must be four, five, and eight, and we've got four and eight together. So, that's going to be our five.

[00:06:32]And we'll be left with four and eight in those squares there.

[00:06:37]>> [snorts] >> Uh, >> [sighs and gasps] >> Okay, we've got rid of digit five.

[00:08:21]Okay, in this column, we need two, three, and six, right? In this column. Now, I said to you a moment ago, we've got three and three blocking here, right? So, that's a pair of threes, so this can't be a three, and can't be six. So, this can't be three or six.

[00:08:39]And it's two, three, six that's missing in this column, I think.

[00:08:44]Uh, I think I'm right there.

[00:08:46]And we'll be left with a pair of three and six in those squares there.

[00:11:49]>> Okay. So, Right. This is a 4 8 pair.

[00:11:57]Okay, because we have three and six in those squares. So, four, three and six block this square.

[00:12:03]And four, three, and six block this square. So, it means that these digits here must be four, three, and six.

[00:12:11]And we know this is a 3 6, so we've got four either here or here.

[00:12:16]Um can we say which is which? [sighs] Not really.

[00:12:21]But anyway, these are not four, three, or six. So, what's the alternative going to be? Seven and nine. That's a pair of seven and nine in those squares.

[00:12:32]Um but is that going to do anything?

[00:12:42]Knowing that seven and nine, is that useful or not?

[00:12:50]Uh 7 9 3 7 9 2 No, I don't see that it is.

[00:13:15]>> [sighs] >> Don't know how that helps me, but So, uh is there anything else? So, that's 7 9.

[00:13:37]Um so, it does mean nines can't go here. So, it does mean nines are in those squares there, which will mean that's a pair of nine. So, that's a pair of two and nine. Okay, we've got two there and so that's a pair of two and nine down there.

[00:13:51]So, these squares are not two or nine.

[00:13:54]They are 3 6. Of course, there and there. So, that's got to be an eight. 3 6 blocking across here, right? So, that's an eight there.

[00:14:06]Now what?

[00:14:08]Uh God.

[00:14:12]All right. So, 2 9 here and 3 6 in those squares. How about this row then? So, that's not 3 6.

[00:14:20]Uh we're looking for 2 8 9 Oh, we've got 8 9 together over here, so that's a two.

[00:14:27]I didn't do any of this the first time around, but um hopefully things are picking up.

[00:14:36]Two's going up here, up here, up here, across there.

[00:14:40]There's our two.

[00:14:43]And now uh two still possible there. Can't say that's yet.

[00:14:51]Uh >> [sighs] >> All right. Once again, this was three and six, so this has to be uh 8 9. Any help on 8 or 9 in those squares? And I think probably not.

[00:15:29]>> [snorts] >> Uh >> [sighs] >> like I said, I didn't do it this way around first time, so I've no idea if I'm making the same mistakes or new mistakes.

[00:15:43]Either is possible.

[00:17:03]It's a very distinctive bird song.

[00:17:06]I don't know if you can hear it, but it's it's very musical.

[00:18:12]Um so, I think I'm stuck again.

[00:18:53]Um Yeah, I just don't know what to do here.

[00:19:13]So, I think I'm going to fill in the candidates to finish the game off.

[00:19:54]Oh, wait. I've got something. This was two and nine, right? So, I realized now I've got two blocking like this and like this. So, two is in one of these squares here. So, that can't be a two.

[00:20:03]That must be a two. That must be a nine.

[00:20:11]Nine blocks across here, down here. So, nine is in one of these squares blocking up. Nine blocking up there means that's the nine. And of course, we've got our matching seven we had a pair of seven and nine in those squares, didn't we?

[00:20:21]So, that's the seven over there now.

[00:20:35]Can't work out what goes here or here.

[00:20:37]It's eight and something.

[00:20:39]Seven eight. Okay, seven or eight.

[00:20:44]Um >> [sighs] >> Okay, so uh back here again, we had four eight in these squares. Remember if you remember this was three nine, so this was the four eight. So, it means that these squares must only be two or nine.

[00:21:19]Now, we've got the nine blocking there, so that would be the nine.

[00:21:23]And this will be the two. I think feel like suddenly we might have made a slight move forward.

[00:22:50]Oh, this is a pair of one and seven over there. So, that's a pair of one and seven in those squares.

[00:23:00]So, we've got our pair of three and six there.

[00:23:07]Again.

[00:23:12]Uh if that's one and seven, what's this?

[00:23:15]Three.

[00:23:18]Oh, no. That's can't be right. Can it?

[00:23:20]What? This is Sorry, this is one and seven down here. This is uh three and six.

[00:23:30]Right?

[00:23:31]So, this is four and nine.

[00:23:39]And it certainly can be Oh, hang on.

[00:23:41]We've got nines like this now. Okay, great stuff. We've got nine there.

[00:23:44]Okay, that's our four then.

[00:23:55]Four and seven blocking down here. That means that's a pair of four and seven in those squares there.

[00:24:01]This is going to be three six eight and Damn, no good at all.

[00:24:13]Never mind. I feel like we're on our way at the moment.

[00:24:23]Three sixes in different places.

[00:24:28]Plenty of threes and sixes.

[00:24:31]>> [clears throat] >> Oh, hang on.

[00:24:44]Oh, I've got something. Okay, so I just said a moment ago this was uh seven and seven and four in those squares there, right? So, we've got three across here, up here. So, three in one of those squares blocking back. That's a three there.

[00:25:23]This game is making me struggle to the end.

[00:25:26]Maybe you finished a long time ago, but I'm still battling away here.

[00:25:32]As I say, because this is my second attempt at it, I don't want to mess it up either.

[00:25:38]Prefer [clears throat] not to mess it up anyway.

[00:25:50]>> [clears throat] >> And I'm still not there. I've got to shift around on the chair. This is a very annoying game. This game's annoyed me a lot today.

[00:26:47]Would it help to know where the three six pairs are? I don't know, but let's highlight them because we've got a lot of them.

[00:26:55]Those are all three six pairs.

[00:26:59]Are there any more, I wonder?

[00:27:05]Yes, of course.

[00:27:08]There as well.

[00:27:10]>> [clears throat] >> But, that's it, I think.

[00:28:08]I haven't gone to sleep. I am doing my best here.

[00:28:21]I I think I've found something else.

[00:28:23]I've found a pair of one and seven.

[00:28:25]Think. Okay, so we had one and seven blocking across here. So, that's a pair of one and seven there. And now in this column here or in this row here, we're looking for one seven nine, right? Now, we've got the nine blocking there. So, that should be a one seven. So, we've got one seven, one seven. It also means that this square here can't be a one seven because of our unique rectangle. So, this you never know your luck here, but I can't be one or a seven. So, it's not one two three four five six seven eight.

[00:28:56]It's Did I say it could be a one?

[00:29:02]Is it one or nine?

[00:29:05]Can be a one, can't it?

[00:29:07]Can't be what? Oh, no. Can't be one seven. Yeah, right. So, it must be a nine. Okay, it's a nine.

[00:29:13]Phew.

[00:29:15]Okay, nine across here, nine across there. I think that could be the game the catcher of the game here. Nine up here. Nine in that square, three in this square.

[00:29:25]Yeah, that's going to give us our threes and sixes now. Okay.

[00:29:36]Some of them.

[00:29:40]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Wow.

[00:29:43]What a game this one's been for me. A real struggle.

[00:29:54]That's a three.

[00:29:59]Hmm.

[00:30:02]Is it more satisfying when you finish a tough game?

[00:30:05]Maybe. I haven't finished it yet though, have I?

[00:30:07]>> [laughter] >> I still still haven't quite um completed it yet.

[00:30:11]There's still little bits to go. You never know what's going on with this I don't know what's going on with this game. Uh we got one blocking across there.

[00:30:20]Seven to go there, of course.

[00:30:23]And our one up here. So there's the one and there's the seven.

[00:30:33]Six.

[00:30:39]Hmm.

[00:30:41]Right, 1 2 5 9 I've done. Let's click on the numbers and see if we can get there.

[00:30:45]Like that. What is this? Three, four.

[00:30:48]Okay, three and four blocking down.

[00:30:50]That's three and four.

[00:30:51]That has to be a seven.

[00:30:56]And you are an eight.

[00:31:08]Epic struggle for today's New York Times for me.

[00:31:12]A failure the first time around. Second time without pencil marks.

[00:31:18]But it was really tough.

[00:31:43]Few.

[00:31:45]Few. Few. Few.

[00:31:49]Wow. Sorry about keeping you for such a long time, but just imagine it's kept me even longer. Lucky I don't have any work to do. I say luckily, I wish that weren't the case, but Uh yeah.

[00:32:00]So it's all over.

[00:32:01]Thanks for joining me on this uh struggle to play the New York Times.

[00:32:05]Thanks and bye-bye.