The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[carenza]

Any time I actually notice these patterns it is at a stage when enough cells are filled in (answers or candidates) that the info you get from these patterns is already known.

Am I doing the 'wrong' sort of puzzles or is this quite normal?

[angusj]

Am I doing the 'wrong' sort of puzzles or is this quite normal?

You evidently haven't yet encountered any puzzles which require swordfish. Here's a little collection for you to get your teeth into .

[carenza]

I think in some situations I have been solving the x-wing and swordfish paterns another way.


I sometime take a chain of pairs / triples, work out the two or three paths through them and see if any of the cells always work out to the same number or group of candidates no matter what the starting position.

Now since a X-wing and swordfish pattern are made up of pairs / triples and these follow a chain with overlapping rows / columns then I think I have been doing them that way.

[simes]

I sometime take a chain of pairs / triples, work out the two or three paths through them and see if any of the cells always work out to the same number or group of candidates no matter what the starting position.

Yes, I've found that "forcing chains" often solve puzzles that otherwise require XWings or swordfish (or colouring).