Sudoku solution – Der Spiegel 31 May 2026 Difficult level sudoku

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-02

[00:00:08]Hello fellow Sudokans. Welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian Sudoku puzzle. It's Sunday the 31st of May 2026. I hope you are keeping well, enjoying your weekend. It's a long weekend here in Thailand because Monday, tomorrow is a holiday and also Wednesday is a holiday. So, a lot of people will be skipping Tuesday as well and finding themselves uh having a vacation.

[00:00:35]Um I am still stuck here doing this playing Sudoku with you. Uh trying to sleep at nights um when I'm not sleeping very well. Never mind. Shall we get on with a game of Sudoku? What am I going to play today? Desh beagle hard level game. I'm going to play that after a item of good news which I hope will cheer you. they have found or rest managed to rescue the other four people that they they knew about uh from the cave in Lao that's of five whose location they knew about unfortunately there are still two people who are missing and they don't know where they are uh I think they must be kind of deeper in the cave or something like but the people who at least the people who were uh um considered savable um uh because they were uh you know within fairly easy reach. Not I don't say easy reach but within reach. Anyway, uh they have managed to now save. So that's good news for those people there and their families.

[00:01:42]All right, let's uh try to play the game of Sudoku. It's still early and I've just got out of bed as you can probably hear from my voice.

[00:01:50]And uh where are we going to start? I can't see anywhere being nice and accommodating yet. Perhaps I should have suggest um selected a medium level as opposed to a hard level game.

[00:02:07]This is the difficult level I call it translates to really nothing.

[00:02:27]All right, I'm going to have to go very slowly through and see.

[00:03:57]Ah, a pair of seven and eight. We've got seven and eight blocking across there.

[00:04:02]Seven and eight in these rows. So, we do have a pair of seven and eight there.

[00:04:06]That's the only thing. And I still haven't found a digit, but at least I've got seven and eight there, which will give me six blocking across here. Six blocking across there. Six down. There's a six.

[00:04:17]Thank goodness for something. Seven and eight here. Now any more things we can get.

[00:04:52]don't know.

[00:08:11]Well, this is a nightmare beginning for me.

[00:08:18]I suppose having nightmares in the night. I'm having nightmares during Sedoku games. Oh dear.

[00:09:10]Okay, I'm going to have to put in pairs because I'm just uh there are definitely pairs to be had. And maybe that will lead me to something more that I'm just not seeing.

[00:09:22]Uh so let's let's do that. I mean, because there are definitely things that we can get here.

[00:09:38]We've certainly got ones in those squares and there Let me put that seven and eight in there before I forget.

[00:12:22]Well, looks like my wish didn't come true. I was hoping to find matching pairs there that I would be able to uh look for other stuff in, but uh it didn't really work.

[00:12:47]Uh still got a completely blank area here.

[00:12:51]That's not very helpful. We've got a four. This is the only four on the board as well. No other indications about where four might be. Wherefore out that wherefore art thou four? Uh so I'm going to do this block here and then maybe come along here and see if we can get anything else and then maybe go up that way when we get no success. So I've got four blocking across here. So four can go in those squares there.

[00:13:19]We got five blocking down here. So, five can go in those squares.

[00:13:29]Three. One, three, four, five. Done.

[00:13:40]Oh, one, two, three, four, sorry, five.

[00:13:45]Box that square.

[00:13:52]Is that it? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. It is.

[00:14:01]And then over here Seven and eight.

[00:14:34]Of course, it's going to look like um Clappam Junction. That's a well-known train station with has a lot of trains uh used uh as a metaphor when things are getting hectic. Uh having too many of a thing there. So it looks like Clappam Junction Station. Uh it looks like Clappam. Yeah, Clappam Junction. I'm beginning to forget. It's been a long time since I lived in the UK.

[00:15:11]And I'm not seeing any patterns along there. Let's come up here.

[00:15:17]Uh cross four is a real problem for us.

[00:15:25]Uh one two three four five six seven eight nine. Done.

[00:15:36]And then up here.

[00:16:03]Okay, that's all done. There we go. No, no, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. Thought I'd seen something there, but nope.

[00:16:11]Not true.

[00:16:15]What we have got, I see now, is a pair of three and four. So, this can't be a four. It's got to be a one. That'll be a one there. Let's get rid of these candidate one. Oh, sorry. Candidate ones.

[00:16:33]And again, let's get rid of that candidate four there. And we're going to get rid of the three and the four there, which will give us a six.

[00:16:44]And that will give us a pair of sixes over there. And we'll get rid of that candidate six. And we get get rid of this candidate four.

[00:16:55]And so now we're left with 29 there, 78 there, and 34 there.

[00:17:31]I'm going to go through the digits in case there's more to be added.

[00:17:57]Okay, so we've got threes in these squares here, threes in these squares here blocking across, and three blocking up there. So we can get ourselves an actual placement of a digit three there.

[00:18:07]And an actual placement of a digit three there. And another one there. And a five in that square there.

[00:18:13]And a nine in this square.

[00:18:19]And a nine there.

[00:18:27]Okay. So this now is either seven or eight. So, we've got to get rid of the three, the nine, the five.

[00:18:37]That leaves us with seven, eight, there, and there.

[00:18:42]Start again. Where are we now? Got to get rid of a lot of stuff here. That's the only place for a two.

[00:18:50]That's a two up there. Get rid of candidate two there. Get rid of that nine as well.

[00:19:00]Okay, that gives us a pair of twos in those squares.

[00:19:19]Three blocks up here. So, that must be the three.

[00:19:24]And here's a four. And that's a one.

[00:19:28]That's a one. That's not.

[00:19:33]Neither is this.

[00:19:40]Get rid of those fours.

[00:20:03]four blocking like this. So we now have a pair of fours there which will block across here, across there and give us a four in that square and that four in that square and this has to be a seven.

[00:20:16]Now this must be the three. This must be the eight. Three in that square. Delete that one.

[00:20:25]Three is finished.

[00:20:29]We also have eights blocking down and up here and across there. So, we're going to get a pair of eights there as well.

[00:20:38]All right.

[00:20:50]four blocks across here. That means four is in one of these squares here. So that can't be a four.

[00:20:57]This must be the four.

[00:21:13]Five. Two. Nine. Two.

[00:21:19]Two.

[00:21:29]Okay. Digit 2, three, and nine are finished digits.

[00:21:35]And the missing digit here is uh four I think Okay, one is also finished now. 1 2 3 4 9 finished.

[00:22:11]Uh, this is the only place for a five.

[00:22:13]We'll put that in.

[00:22:16]Then we got five blocking up here. So once you get started on this puzzle, it all works out nicely. Just a matter of finding your way in. It's very difficult to start.

[00:22:38]uh what are we missing there? Eight.

[00:22:42]We're missing eight here as well, I think. So, seven eight seven eight in that square and seven in this square and seven to finish. Well, a good puzzle that really difficult to find your find your way in for me without putting in pencil marks. I know some of you will manage to do that, but I find that very difficult without some help of notation. Thanks for joining me.

[00:23:17]Uh maybe I'll see you later with some more Sudoku. Take care. Bye-bye.