The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[leejihee]

Hi everyone,

(Disclosure: I'm not a sudoku player but my dad loves sudoku) I try to get the hardest books I can for him (he prefers the workbooks vs online- yes, I know it would be free and easier to find, but what can I say, he just likes book format).

Problem is, he *burns* through them so FAST! In order of ease to difficulty, he says sudoku published in newspapers are too easy, and he enjoyed Tetsuya Nishio but it wasn't very challenging for him.

Here is a list of what he tried by Tetsuya Nishio:
- O'Ekaki Heaven
- Number Place: Yellow: Homegrown Deadly Sudoku
- Number Place: Red: Hot & Spicy Sudoku
- Number Place: Blue

- iGridd - Number Logic Puzzles: Sudoku, Jigsaw, Greater/Less Than, Kakuro, Kenken, Futoshiki, Straights, Skyscraper, Binary
which I got as an experiment to see if he wanted to try other puzzles, but he likes to stick to Sudoku.

I've bought Frank Longo sudoku (he wants something harder than "Absolutely Nasty Sudoku Level 4 (Mensa)" and "Beyond Black Belt Sudoku: If you have to ask, it's too hard for you" <-- this last one is supposedly Longo's hardest according to Amazon and I don't see anything harder in that series by Longo.

We've tried "AI Escargot - The Most Difficult Sudoku Puzzle" which he said it was challenging (he did not solve Al Escargot, if that gives you an idea of his level)
I've printed out Inkala's new "hardest puzzle" and he is trying to figure it out right now : )

I know I've bought him other things but can't recall what else. Does anyone have any suggestions? Book titles or authors are appreciated, or some websites where I can download some of them for my dad. I'm a little desperate because it seems like I'm hitting an invisible wall on what to get my dad, and this is his favorite hobby.

Thank you!!!!!

Much obliged,
Leejihee

[m_b_metcalf]

Well, you could go to the immensely long thread of the Patterns Game and print out a selection of puzzles with ratings from 1.2 up to 11.8 and find out where your father gets stuck.

BTW, Inkala is an imposter, see here and here.

Regards,

Mike Metcalf

[enxio27]

The difficulty is that NONE of the published books are very difficult. IME, none of the "hardest" puzzles in published form (books, newspaper, handheld/smartphone game, etc.) require any techniques more difficult than X-wing. In addition, I've found that many publishers do not check for multiple solutions (which IMO makes a puzzle invalid).

As Mike Metcalf said, your best bet is to find a good source of puzzles online and print them out for your dad. You could even collect a dozen or a hundred and use a program such as Sadman Sudoku to print them in booklet format for him.

[JC Van Hay]

Sudoku Makiavélic : too easy

[999_Springs]

BTW, Inkala is an imposter, see here and here.

Regards,

Mike Metcalf

mike i believe you didn't intend to link to the same post twice but if you did, yay for me

leejihee: i was the one who wrote that post mike linked to, if you ever feel the need to browse that site, i must warn you to never play flash flash revolution unless you have loads of time to spare, it's such a time-waster

in a serious answer to the question, if you have cheap access to printer ink you could print out the puzzles in the "puzzles" section of this forum or the "impossible" puzzles on menneske which have easily printing capability. both of these are in the se high-6 to low-8. we can't compare that to the puzzle books you mentioned unless you can provide sample puzzles from them

also what enxio27 said. hard sudoku books never get published because they're a turn-off to the general public who have barely progressed beyond all-singles puzzles

[m_b_metcalf]

mike i believe you didn't intend to link to the same post twice but if you did, yay for me

Whoops, what I meant.