flip

done

and without any subscripts.....too easy for an 'expert' rating

done! either I'm getting real good or this one is too easy for an expert rating but I'll take the points.

Were you able to solve w/o guessing?

anyone solve this badboy?

Just did, but I made a guess.

hmph - congrats anywho

not sure if it deserves the expert rating - just got it myself

that went quicker than most of the easy ones

done. but I had to guess and it fell into place from there

done - made 1 guess also

morning all

Morning Siprte

hi sprite : )

or even Sprite..!

bad boy? With so many givens? Sounds interesting! Hi all *hug*

Well I did it, this what was a hidden triple and I think a hidden pair - but my brain was hurting too much, so it could have been a lucky guess

Off to drop in on Babble

morning everyone... or evening, what's this expert like?

It's interesting! :)

ooohhh thanks Sprite... how you doing with it?

Just restarted ;)

been at it long/

I thought I should learn to work systematically, in stead of playing around intuitively... and I made a mistake somewhere very soon. So not too long, it was better to restart than to find the mistake.

I do that if the mistake isn't obvious. I try to be systematic but almost always end up being intuative!

Usually I hop around the grid like a madwoman, having a blast ;) Let's see if I can be systematic for once. Without mistakes.

I feel a little green man party coming on!

I believe raggedy finished this one without the green army.

wow!! I don't think I can, you need a bit of a photographic memory1

I am putting my little green soldiers in by hand right now. I feel that script some brilliant someone wrote for that purpose, gives too many possibles for me.

I used a few in the centre square but found an opening in the top 3 boxes so am going with them for now.

are you Dutch Sprite? if you are your english is fantastic!!

Totally Dutch, so thanks for that big compliment :)

:-)

this one's unsolvable. seriously.

Some people managed to solve it, shiroro, so I think we need to look further :)

Done it's all logic based no brute force or guessing required

That is good to know. Thanks and congratz!

I have all 9's places....

I am doing great with the 6s.

hmmm I have 6/9 6's... will see if I can find other 3 :-)

6's &9's don't require too much effort...

hi Mike.... LOL let us be happy :-)

That is if you're brilliant, mike. We are proud of ourselves :)

got them Sprite :-)

Yes, I'm happy too. sleep would do wonders for my solving skills, but that has not been available lately :(

LOL Mike, I know that feeling!

To babblers and sudokuplayers sleep is an overestimated thing :)

Yeasterdays Easy was unsolvable for my sleepless mind :)

Lol, I believe I restarted twice yesterday. Perhaps... well... SOME sleep could work miracles, I guess ;)

and four nights in a row with little sleep, not good at all...

I had 2 restarts on it too but 2 days earlier I did the hard with no restart and in about an hour!!

I am pretty sure my brain is not compatible with the puzzle ratings here.

I have 2 rows! 2 and 3 :)

At least mine isn't. throw few hidden triples that solve everything, and I'm so stuck that there is no way for me to solve those

I find removing the green army every now and them helps clarify things

wtg Sprite

I am being systematic for once and I must admit it is paying off. Got a column too, the middle one.

done :)

wtg!

Two rows and three boxes...

...and that column in the middle. We are at the same spot, mike!

yep

I'm not!

But you will :)

getting close now, 16 cells to go!

getting close now, 16 cells to go!

Makes 32 ;)

oops double post!

noooooooooooo

i've gone wrong somewhere

son of a ......

Oh dear... pink alert?

8 squares to go, and it's not possible to complete

That is nasty.

I have row 3 and need to solve a double for 2 and middle box

now kids are demanding breakfast1

How totally inconsiderate of them!

omg, I can't see the fault, think it's time to start over :(

Always hate that when it happens.

i'll come back to it later :)

now they are happy with cereal I can look again!

got row 2

Yeah!

and centre box... assuming I made a right decision!

center box sounds right.

Down to 16 and stuck.

Stuck @ 24

I'm still a little behind you

As I said, some of these "advanced" techniques are still too much for me to spot:(

Same here. I am doing one guess now, and it looks like it is falling all in place.

hmmm... 3 boxes complete, 2 and 3 on top and centre

You are following the same route as I did, Ginger :)

There are so little open squares that guessing would solve this really easily

But I don't want to guess...

Every guess I made broke the puzzle, so I don't know what to do

Feels like giving up, doesn't it? I went back to before the guess too.

Yeah! A hidden triplet solved it for me.

wtg Sprite :)

May I ask which row?

So that I know what I'm looking for... Too blind to find them by my self

arghhhh pink attack!

why was that an expert?? *blinks* or more importantly, why did I find that easier than some easies?

I think people solve things differently with different bits of their brain so I guess we all view the ease differently!! Did that make sense??

I thought it started easily but am now totally stuck with 24 to go, can't see any hidden pairs or triples at all

solved it with a good guess :<

wd

hi all

damn, expert!?

done!!!

grats!

done :)

Hmm, in desperation I tried two online solvers that gave explanations, and the both said it wasn't possible without guessing, once you get down to the last 24 boxes

some of the online guessers are wrong :)

wOOt! I did it :)

"It wasn't possible without guessing, once you get down to the last 24 boxes."

Incorrect.

Well if there's a way to do the end without guessing, I'd love to know! Any hints??

expert... is it bad?

That one didn't seem too bad to me. I've only been playing a few months, and I just did it in less than 25 mins. I've struggled more with some of the Medium & Hard ones :)

Maybe it's just me, but recognizing 'deadly patterns' helps.

not that bad

hi all, expert hey? What's a "Deadly pattern"?

all done. not too hard actually...

I have 21 to go, all interlinked hopelessly...

I'm at 24 . . .

24 here

deceiving at first.

indeed

I got stuck at 24 too and had to guess :-(

now I am going to do the NRC sudoku of today

NRC of sudoku?

it's a dutch newspaper that has a special kind of sudoku

with four more "boxes" and very few clues to start with

ouch

finally

hello everybody

hey yul

i am flying to Barcelona in several hours, hope to do this expert one

today

It's been going pretty quickly for me--hopefully it won't give you fits

i have to stop chatting or i will make a mistake, asusual :)

alright good luck--and have a safe flight

thanks

Done! Goodday all!

buy kneestabber

Expert? ...quicker than some of the Easy ones...

i was sooo close to making a mistake but everything happened to my delight ;)

had to find a contradicting numbers, it did not flow naturally at the very end

adios

done... but I can't say it was easy...

This puzzle was said to be invalid by my puzzle verifier. hehe I guess it was wrong.

does anyone have the link for the explanation of all the strategies? i too am stuck at 24.

heh, I'm at 24 too, though only just got here

i was stuck at 24 at 1 a.m., then decided to call it a night :)

stupid 7s and 8s

LeslieAnn, click on the Help at upper right, go to Object of the Game, and it has the Wikipedia link in the explanation. I think that's what you want.

thanks sunflower, i think this is what i was looking for: http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/hints.php

All done :)

douglas, a hint on how to beat the gridlock??

This site is good too - http://scanraid.com/BasicStrategies.htm#NP and http://scanraid.com/AdvanStrategies.htm

gotta run - good luck!

twice I have done this one and get down to the last two square and find that I have gone wrong and it feels so easy, goodness knows where I keep going wrong

third time lucky :o) See you all tomorrow

man i'm stuck

i've got it all broke down....but can't eliminate anything

horray I guessed right and got it

horray I guessed right and got it

horray I guessed right and got it

Hello Everybody

Bye Everyone

bye grace!

hi everybody!

"expert" means "impossible"

hi scribble :)

done.... got stuck on one box, made an elimination, then it all fell into place. good luck everybody

oh....hi douglas! sry i got a little sidetracked.

hi everyone!

Hey, Miller da killer

so an expert,eh? i've been having a hard time with the hards these days, so this one may prove to elude me!

it's a beautiful, sunny saturday morning over here!!! are you all blessed with wonderful weather where you are?

so-so

it is cold and rainy here

No, cold, windy, wet. Good day to do Sudoku

and babble!

Listening to Paul Colman Trio

creedance clearwater revival here.

oooh i love them

sarah brightman

me too!!!

Lots of good tunes out there.

didn't sarah brightman play christine in the phantom of the opera movie that came out in the 1980's?

did they do a phantom of the opera movie in the 80's? she was in the play, at least

she was in the original london cast of the play

i'm listening to her 'classics' cd, i quite like it

my sister is a phantom geek, and she has informed me that, yes, there was a movie in the 80's with her in it/

Just say the Play Phantom up at Grand Rapids.

ahh ok :) i haven't seen that one. i saw the recent one, and i liked it very much

the music of the night was actually written for her when she was married to andrew lloyd weber.

i liked the recent one too.

right - andrew pretty much tailored the songs to her capabilities

that's probably why no one else can really sing them as well.

Ha.

Nailed that puppy!

Rank me, baby!

i try so hard to master those high notes, but lets face it, i'm no opera singer.

:(

actually i'm no singer at all, but that won't ever stop me.

Need tighter underwear

and limer you make me jealous!

lol

I can't sing opera

tighter underwear help you sing better?

yeah, i sing the high notes so i like to listen to this kind of thing

No reason to be jealous

I'M SO CONFUSED!!! do the tight underwear help with sudoku or with opera singing?

Tight undies help with singing. That and a sharp fork

ahh. i see. i'm singing right now as we speak.

Sounds good.

Sounds good.

:) but not in tight underwear lol

LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGg

tmi

but i'm not in underwear!

Niether am I

my computer is not letting me post all these things, they just keep disappearing.

That one came through

grrr... i don't have a very good internet connection here obviously.

Mines slow also

Ha

Nailed the May 2nd puzz;e

oops

grr.... have to start over. bye everyone!!!

awww that sux

ok, now that these are posting, maybe i'll stick around.

sorry i was posting all that stuff over and over, it's just that i think my internet went into hibernation while you guys got to see all the frustration i was feeling

s'ok

i'm done, yay! :D

good job!!!

thx :) i'm bad, i guessed. i was down to only 5 numbers left over ... 1,3,5,7,8 ... and i could not figure out anyway to solve it

ya - that's where I'm stuck

i couldn't even figure out a way to use x-wing ... and that's my only advanced technique ;)

if it makes you feel better, i don't think i have ANY advanced techniques.

I normally never figure one out that harder than medium, this one I have finished!!!

awesome job, jamaca!

thank you, lunch is over- now back to work

yeah, good job.

k c-ya :)

wow this is easy!

have you finished, scribble?

for me, it seemed super easy until almost at the end, i got totally stuck

no but its going along quite nicely.

oh....well i guess ill be there before too long...

yes i think i'm at that point now.

well the 6s were super simple.

the 9s are very easy, to

*too

im headin there next.

wow the nine were really easy.

gonna do the ones

well that wasnt very straightforward.

woohoo!!! done and gotta dash. bye all!

hmm?

good job miller! :) c-ya

good job miller! bye!

maybe i should do the 3s...

nope

that wasn't as hard as some

not feeling that way at the moment...

Scribble, I foun the 2's to be pretty simple...

Scribble, I found the 2's to be pretty simple...

idk if these are posting or not....but im afraid to refresh.

today might be a good day to do this on paper :)

thanks krys.

sry i had to open another window to see the chat, on the one im workin on it wont work.

bah, have to go to the post office. back later!

c-ya! :)

go

done finally

done

13 minutes - huh - this is one of those "easy" ones deceiving itself into thinking it's hard, lol

back to try again. i messed up earlier. thought it was really easy, but how wrong one can be!

Yeah, it was deceivingly easy at the beginning.

I'm finding that out now, was able to place a lot before having to go green

hey people...

that was really easy.

weird

Well, that was no 3/18

I don't think that deserves an "Expert"

March 28 is fun too

I took several tries to get through 3/18

I zipped through today's

I'm doing a medium now. It is taking me longer just to fill in the greens. :-P

i cant finish it!!

still got 24 blanks

I filled in quite a bit before I started to put the green numbers. Then once I got to a point that I didn't see another move, it took a guess.

me 2... a wrong guess...

it just happened to be the right one

lucky u!

im not that lucky

Well, what I'd do is remove that choice as invalid and take another one. THat was what I was expecting to have to do

i cant remember what i did...:)

What I do is copy the screen as a picture,open it in AppleWorks, make two copies and follow two "guesses" simultaneously

didnt think of that...

Usually one of the guesses leads to a contradiction fairly quickly

I find as a last resort for hard/experts, it works quite well

i want to do it withoutguessing..

Although I'm doing March 28's now, and that's providng challenging...

Hello Everyone

hello

<y way, I don't consider it guessing if you've proved one possibility leads to a contradiction

i guess...

My definition is "You guessed the solution if, when finished, you do not *know* that there is *only one* solution"

Not all puzzles can be done without guessing. I had to guess several times on 3/18. I became quite effecient at it. :-)

:)

peternl, I don't think that follows. I see guessing--the way I do it--as testing a hypothesis

Bye Guys have fun

Bye Grace

zem: That's fine, as long as you test all hypothesis', then it's no longer a guess, it's a proof

Besides, if you solve it by brute force, you could find one solution while another may exist.

That's what I mean, that would be guessing. Unless you solved it by brute force and tried each variant, not just stopped when one worked

Well, I guess my objective has been to find a solution, not all. I've just assumed the puzzle maker would choose single solution puzzles.

I think the definition of sudoku requires a single solution for a puzzle to be strictly valid. I just use my definition to distinguish between a complex contradiction elimination proof and a guess and hope for the best.

:-)

finished!

ith guessing...

with*

cool!

grrrrrrrr.....i had to start over.

I made a mistake somewhere in the medium and I'll be starting that over.

Hi scribble

hey zemox :)

I finished today's "Expert" in record time. Now, I've just been beay by a medium. :-P

i had all of this done except 2 numbers....and found out that i messed up. :(

Oooh, "expert"!

oh joy

:P

Sorry, scribble

I don't know if I'll be able to solve it

but I like a challenge

its fairly easy....til you get down to the last box and mess up.

Heh

It was over too soon for me

do you folks who are done have any hints for the last hurdle? i have 24 boxes left and *seem* hopelessly stuck

I did guess, but I guessed right and it solved itself after that

I did a checkpoint and took a guess.

Not yet, Leslie Ann

well that is a good hint! :) i think i will have to resort to that.

It's hard to believe it'll get hard when it's going so easily so far

it's not too bad david... just's needs a "forcing chain" at the end

Eeep

ack i'm scared i dont know forcing chains

it's just a fancy name for a guess :)

that must be why I had to guess. I've read about those, but I'm still not clear about them

is that it hursh? i've been staring at it all day SURE that i could get it :)

oh

since we have two colors though, if you're all marked up in green, i just change a set to red as i work the guess through, so that i don't lose any info.

smart.. though my linux box doesnt like the alt+click

I'm lazy, I just checkpoint right before I guess

i do both :)

when it comes to experts, from now on, i don't mess around. measure twice, cut once, as the carpenters say.

LOL

Comes down to 22, eh?

Pretty cruel. :)

Okay, I think I see it.

Weehaw!

Don't bother to save a checkpoint or mark in red: go for it!

;)

Well, I finally got that "Medium" puzzle taken care of.

See you folks l8r!

Any hints how to finish this off?

i had to guess :[

OMG!!!!! I FINISHED AN EXPERT!!!!!!!

your welcome!!!

TY MOM!!!!!

its raining...

OK have a good night xoxoxo

congrats scribble!

night mom luv ya!

thanks leslieann!

Goodnight all, I got all but 3 squares, I messed up somewhere. :(

well im gonna try to conquer babble tonight....probly wont succeed though.

bye zakiwi!! i did the same thing the first time...

it was the bottom middle box that messed me up.

I only try once then I give up, I suck.

same one here

no you dont! this one is really hard, and i woulod have given up too if my mom hadnt of helped me.

yay! I just caught up on the archives - five puzzles in one day - very productive :)

ooh, nice job krys!

Thanks :) Now I can stop carrying around printouts of undone puzzles in my pocket. 'night!

i'm not even going to try.........

whew, finished

It's pretty easy up until the last 22 cells

Then you need to "color" or "force a chain": trace out the implications of placing one number

man, the experts would be so much more enjoyable if they didnt require a guess