Daily Sudoku - 27 May 2026

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]Hello and welcome to Daily Gas 4 May 27th, 2026 called Standard and Practical by Philip Newman.

[00:00:12]Normal Sudoku rules apply.

[00:00:14]Diagonal, digits along the indicated diagonals cannot repeat.

[00:00:19]Killer, digits in cages cannot repeat and must sum to the total given.

[00:00:26]So, what does that mean?

[00:00:29]Well, if we take a look here, we have these diagonals, either the negative or positive diagonals as indicated by the blue lines.

[00:00:42]These diagonals are made up of nine cells. And if these nine cells must have non-repeating digits, it they must just be another set of the digits 1 to 9 once each. So, like every row, column, and 3 by 3 box in the Sudoku, these diagonals will also contain a set of the digits 1 to 9 once each.

[00:01:03]Then, we have our cages, which are these dashed regions here in the grid. So, these three cells, which are contained within this dashed region, must sum to six because six is the sum indicated in the top left corner of the cage. The same is true here. This 15 has to have these three cells summing to 15. This has to have two cells summing to 15. This has to have two cells summing to nine.

[00:01:27]So on and so forth throughout the grid.

[00:01:30]And that's it. Those are the rules.

[00:01:33]Let's just jump right into it.

[00:01:38]>> [sighs] >> All right. So, immediately, what are we seeing? We are seeing minimums and pseudo minimums and maximums and pseudo maximums and maybe some some some other secret things as well.

[00:01:56]Six has to be 1 2 3.

[00:01:58]Seven has to be 1 2 4. 24 has to be 7 8 9. 23 has to be 6 8 9.

[00:02:06]I guess one of the things that does is we see the relationship across the cages.

[00:02:12]Um kind of like if you had like quadruples for example. Um in the same way they share two digits.

[00:02:20]This is 1 2 1 2 ignoring the three and four and that tells us that one and two must appear in these three cells obviously ignoring the 15. So this is actually just a 1 2 pair here. Is it that helpful?

[00:02:33]I don't really think so. Um another easy way to think about it is if you're instead of trying to think of it as like some sort of pointing set um which maybe sometimes over complicates it. Uh you can also consider it as like in row three where do one and two go? Well, we know that one and two are already accounted for in this cage so they can't go here. One and two are accounted for in this cage and of course one and two can't go into 15. Same can be said here with the 8 9 and 5. There is some It's not perfectly X windmill cuz then this would be 6 and 24 but there is like some level of X windmill in this enough to where I expect to see some of that symmetrical relationship pop up.

[00:03:18]I guess here I This one I'm just analyzing the puzzle. I haven't even actually tried really placing digits so maybe we should do that because here 1 2 3 like because of the six really limits the options for a 15. I think the only option then is the next minimum up which is 4 5 6. So it's This is get I guess really a you know, minimum pseudo minimum. I don't know if really anyone else calls them pseudo minimums. Maybe I heard it somewhere else but um 15 is like a relative pseudo minimum because we've removed one, two, and three as possible options.

[00:03:55]Um the next minimum that can occur is four, five, and six, and that happens to sum exactly to 15. So, like here we have seven, eight, nine. With one, two, three, we have it's like a a pseudo relative pseudo min I don't even know how to because here we've used one, two, four. So, then the next best option is if you don't use three in the 15 would be five, six, seven which of course is 18. So, it would have to be three. And if you don't use three, five, then it would be three, six, seven which is 16. So, it has to be three, five, seven, right? That's the only option.

[00:04:34]That's kind of like a a restricted value. And what that means for us then is this is six, eight, nine and this is seven, eight, nine which I guess kind of mirrors this being seven, eight, nine here.

[00:04:50]With six and then sixes in the 14.

[00:04:55]And the 14 six, eight. Eight and two digits can't be one, seven and it can't be six, two. So, it have to be three, five. So, it's like here we are dealing with what? We are dealing with one, two, four.

[00:05:13]And I guess yeah, sorry that Again, how do we think about this? I mentioned a secret but I didn't really talk about it much more, of course.

[00:05:22]If you are someone who's been around this Sudoku community on YouTube for probably any really amount of time, you would have heard of the secret coming from Cracking the Cryptic. And of course, that's just the fact that you know, any complete row, column, box contains the digits one to nine once each. So, what that means is is that every row, column, box has a sum of 45 because 1 + 2 + 3 all the way up to 9 is 45. So, here 6 and 15 is 21, which also happens to be a minimum six six cells that six distinct digits that sum to 21 is going to be 1 to 6.

[00:06:02]And if you subtract 45, 21 leaves us with 40 here, sorry, 24. 45 21 24 is 7 8 9. Here, 14 24 is 38. 38 45 is 7 1 2 4.

[00:06:18]23 16 does the same exact thing. Here, it's even easier.

[00:06:22]Uh it's going to be 39 with six remaining. So, this is 1 2 3. So, it's like we have 1 2 4 1 2 3, which again plays into this 1 2 4 1 2 4.

[00:06:35]And then here then, if this can't be 7 8 9 6 8 9, can't be 1 2 3 1 2 4, the center cell actually just has to be five.

[00:06:47]Um Oh, and wow. Okay, this is so easy.

[00:06:53]1 2 3 all pointing at five.

[00:06:57]What is that going to be? That's going to be four.

[00:07:01]And now realizing the symmetry of that, 7 8 9 pointing at 15 has to be six.

[00:07:08]Literally only option there because 15 is going to be 6 9 very nicely, which it is, or 7 8, and five is either going to be 1 4 2 3.

[00:07:25]Then 1 2 4 6 8 9 is the 3 5 7, right? 3 5 7 cuz it's 1 2 4 1 2 4 here, so 3 5 7 3 5 7.

[00:07:39]4 5 6 4 5 6.

[00:07:42]1 2 3, or sorry, 1 2 3 So, we can kind of see how that plays out, right? Cuz these six digits need to be these digits.

[00:07:52]So, 37 then, it cannot be 36.

[00:07:58]I guess also it can't be 74. It's the Again, this is at least this part is X-Wing will symmetric. Like it's you have the rotational sums.

[00:08:07]So, this has to be 72. Whoops. 72 and 83. And then actually you just very simply one and nine are resolved here.

[00:08:29]Then like here these are symmetrical sets.

[00:08:35]124689 This can't be one and it can't be four because then it would be 43. So, it has to be 25. And the same logic applies here. It cannot be 67.

[00:08:46]Um and it can't be nine. So, it has to be eight and five.

[00:09:02]Then of course, sorry, I was talking about this before, wasn't I? 123124 12 689. Oh, and wow. Did I really miss that? I did really miss that. Okay, well, we'll do that real quick. 789689 is going to be 89 here. But also two stairs up gets us to This is 13.

[00:09:30]Trying to make sure that I didn't miss a different relationship there.

[00:09:33]Eight has to be eight. This is 69.

[00:09:38]Again, quite nicely.

[00:09:43]Then well, eight and two. Yeah, so two 14, that gets us 31 cuz of the 14. Eight gets us eight here and then yeah, 79 gets us 96.

[00:10:08]Then ah 89 gets us seven, 12 gets us three.

[00:10:21]14 and seven.

[00:10:28]And this is Oh, wait.

[00:10:36]No, 669 and four, it's the same thing.

[00:10:39]Same thing.

[00:10:41]Right? No, because we can actually get six here.

[00:10:47]And then this obviously can't be four, so this is 94. I guess I Yeah, this is again this is we have the symmetry break seven and instead of six, it's or sorry, 24 and seven instead of like seven and 23 or 24 and six.

[00:11:02]So, we actually can resolve that here with the seven.

[00:11:13]But then seven, seven gets us seven here.

[00:11:20]Three gets us three here.

[00:11:24]Cuz this is 56 and actually we just get What does that just five begets five and five and five cuz all of these had five in them.

[00:11:37]And then this is six which gets us six four.

[00:11:43]Across three.

[00:11:46]Seven gets us seven four.

[00:11:56]Oh, wait.

[00:12:04]Gosh, darn it. Okay, wait.

[00:12:07]Six nine.

[00:12:09]Again, very nicely. Eight nine.

[00:12:13]Nine one two.

[00:12:19]You have seven.

[00:12:21]This is the one four seven. We know it's one here, but is it one here or is it one here? It depends on this if this is one or four. Cuz that will always be that shared bit because six and nine already counted for here. So, we know six appears somewhere here and then I guess nine appears somewhere here.

[00:12:50]>> [sighs and gasps] >> One four.

[00:12:57]Six.

[00:13:01]I don't know. One.

[00:13:08]I felt like I was flowing so well. One.

[00:13:11]Two.

[00:13:18]Three.

[00:13:21]Four.

[00:13:41]>> What am I not seeing? 8 9 Am I just rushing through it?

[00:13:56]Maybe these cells?

[00:14:00]Like here.

[00:14:07]Okay, 2 4 5 7 2 5 7 4. That's something.

[00:14:17]Do we symmetrically get six? What are we missing? Three Wait.

[00:14:27]Yes, 3 5 6 8 3 8 5 is 6.

[00:14:31]So, we get six here.

[00:14:39]3 7 4 6 Four here, six here.

[00:14:47]3 7 7 3 3 7. They're just split across different boxes as opposed to here they're in the same box.

[00:15:07]This is 8 9 and 6 9.

[00:15:12]Oh my gosh.

[00:15:18]How did I miss that? I didn't even place anything new there. I just my brain folks. Yeah.

[00:15:25]It's okay. One gets us one two.

[00:15:28]One gets us one four.

[00:15:36]Oh, you can't tell me that now I'm No, here. There we go.

[00:15:40]Four hello. This was the 147. Of course, this was the 147 chocolate teapot. Seven across gets a seven.

[00:15:48]And then of the eight and nine, we also need two and that gets us two here with eight and nine. Two across gets us two here. Here we're missing three and eight. This is eight. This is three.

[00:16:03]Eight.

[00:16:09]All right. Sorry, one second. One 169.

[00:16:14]This can't be six. This can't be one.

[00:16:15]No, there's got to be better.

[00:16:18]Cuz this is 8989.

[00:16:23]189.

[00:16:28]18903.

[00:16:30]Hello, of course. We get three here.

[00:16:33]Three.

[00:16:35]One.

[00:16:37]69.

[00:16:44]Gets us with the 69 here and then 169. Wait.

[00:16:56]Ain't ain't no way. Here we go. Sorry.

[00:16:59]I forgot. I've actually placed these digits now, so these can be of use to me. Four gets us four.

[00:17:04]Two gets us two.

[00:17:06]Across we're missing seven.

[00:17:09]Seven gets us seven. From the column missing five. From the box missing three. And it all comes together when I actually use my noggin. This is 99889 81 one and then we resolve the 69 nicely here and then the 8 five here and we are done in 15 minutes and 50 seven seconds with standard and practical by Philip Newman.

[00:17:47]So, with that, hopefully you enjoyed it.

[00:17:52]Hopefully you fared a little better than I did there and you know, if you got to the a similar sort of step, you did not miss the four staring down there cuz that just completely opened up the puzzle.

[00:18:06]And as always, folks, thank you so much for watching.