The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[asajar]

I know that this puzzle has triples, pointing pairs, etc. and I got most of them but I got to a point where I missed a triple and tried the swordfish technique.
58XX9X3XX
2X3X14XXX
94XXXXXXX
X5493X8X1
832146XX7
1XXX8543X
XXXXXXXX3
XXX45X7X9
XX5X2XX8X

I thought I saw a swordfish for 7's based on rows B2,B8,C3,C8,F2,F3
There are 3 rows, 3 columns and no more than 3 7's in the rows. I thought I could eliminate the 7's therefore in columns G2,J2,G3,A3,A8
What did I miss? J2 is a 7. Is my nomenclature ok with letters for rows and numbers for the columns? Thanks for any help.

[hobiwan]

Hi asajar and welcome to the forum!

It would help if you could post a grid with candidates for your stuck state. In the puzzle you posted are additional 7s on the lines 3 and 6, which make the swordfish impossible.

As for letters versus digits, most people on this forum use digits for rows, but we will understand you.

[asajar]

Thanks very much for your quick reply. I thought the swordfish rule was you could use a row as long as it had 3 or less candidates.
In row 3 and 6 I had 3 7's and row 2 I had 2 7's.
Also, is there a way to upload a stuck puzzle .jpg or convert a scanned puzzle to text format so I can upload the grid?

Thanks again in helping a newbie--some of the rules make more sense when you can discuss a specific puzzle that gave you trouble.

[udosuk]

Also, is there a way to upload a stuck puzzle .jpg or convert a scanned puzzle to text format so I can upload the grid?

Have a look at this thread:

http://forum.enjoysudoku.com/viewtopic.php?t=2664

Simple Sudoku is a nice tool to give text format output. You can find it here:

http://www.angusj.com/sudoku

I think from scanned puzzles you need to input the clues into the program manually by hand, but there might be some other programs which can do OCR from pics.

I thought the swordfish rule was you could use a row as long as it had 3 or less candidates.
In row 3 and 6 I had 3 7's and row 2 I had 2 7's.

This is plain wrong. Have a read from this page:

http://www.sudopedia.org/wiki/Swordfish

Your grid might be in the following state:

Code: Select all

+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 5      8      167    | 267    9      27     | 3      1467   46     |
| 2     *67     3      | 58     1      4      | 69    *679    568    |
| 9      4     *167    | 358   *67     38     | 126   *1267   2568   |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 67     5      4      | 9      3      27     | 8      26     1      |
| 8      3      2      | 1      4      6      | 59     59     7      |
| 1     *679   *679    |*27     8      5      | 4      3      26     |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 467    12679  6789   | 678    67     189    | 1256   12456  3      |
| 36     126    68     | 4      5      138    | 7      126    9      |
| 3467   1679   5      | 367    2      139    | 16     8      46     |
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

The 7's definite do not form a swordfish. They are 3 rows of candidates spanning across 5 columns, not 3.

The naked pair {46} on column 9 cracks it.

[asajar]

Also, is there a way to upload a stuck ]
The 7's definite do not form a swordfish. They are 3 rows of candidates spanning across 5 columns, not 3.
The naked pair {46} on column 9 cracks it.

Thank you so much for your help with this--I obviously misunderstood the concept. It is clear to me now that every element in the rows (not just the possible candidates) must all be in 3 columns.

It is great that there is a website such as this where we newbies to the more advanced concepts can ask questions