The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[ab]

what's the key for these two puzzles, the first from The Observer some time in April and the second from last Saturday's Guardian:

Code: Select all

*--------------------------*
|16   |9    |23      |9    |
|-----+--   |   -----------|
|14|3 |26|  |  |17      |21|
|  |  |  |--------------   |
|  |  |  |23      |28|     |
|  |--|   -----   |   --   |
|  |24|        |  |     |  |
|--   |--------|  |   -----|
|     |11|22   |  |  |13   |
|   --|  |     |--+--    --|
|  |20|  |     |11|     |13|
|--    --+-----   |-----|  |
|        |        |26|11|  |
|--------+--------   |  |--|
|6 |19   |9    |     |  |15|
|  |   --------|   -----   |
|  |  |16      |  |        |
*--------------------------*

*--------------------------*
|36      |31|23         |21|
|        |   -----------   |
|        |           |     |
|-----------------   |   --|
|13|8 |17         |  |  |28|
|  |   --------------|  |  |
|  |     |19|17      |  |  |
|--+-----   |   -----+--|  |
|10|26|     |  |13   |21|  |
|  |   -----+--+--   |  |  |
|  |        |21|6 |  |  |  |
|  |--------   |  |--|  |--|
|  |17|23|     |  |11|  |10|
|--   |  |--------|  |  |  |
|     |  |14      |  |  |  |
|   --   |   -----+--------|
|  |     |  |13   |7       |
*--------------------------*


Thanks for any help

[udosuk]

First of all, this is not the correct place to discuss this type of puzzles. In this very forum, the appropriate section would be Sudoku variants. But perhaps a better idea is to register in one of those Killer Sudoku based forums and ask the experts there if you have the commitment to become a "Killer Sudoku player". Here are 2 such forums I know:

http://www.djape.net/sudoku/forum

http://www.rcbroughton.co.uk/sudoku/forum

Regarding your puzzles, they are not exactly pieces of cakes but are also not too difficult to solve, if you have acquired the essential Killer Sudoku techniques. Here are a couple of good sources of these techniques:

http://jcbonsai.free.fr/sudoku/?cat=6

http://www.sudocue.net/killerguide.php

Also you might like to pick up the "Killer Lingo" if you plan to discuss how to solve these puzzles with others:

http://jcbonsai.free.fr/sudoku/?page_id=3

And also there are special solver programs for Killer Sudoku puzzles (as well as other variants), such as:

• JSudoku
• Sudoku Solver
• Sumocue
• Perfect Sudoku

With these normally each Killer Sudoku puzzle can be represented as a special code to work with. For example, your 2 puzzles have these codes:

3x3::k:4097:4097:2306:2306:5891:5891:5891:2308:2308:3589:774:6663:2306:5891:4360:4360:4360:5385:3589:774:6663:5898:5898:5898:7179:5385:5385:3589:6156:6663:6663:6663:5898:7179:7179:5385:6156:6156:2829:5646:5646:5898:7179:3343:3343:6156:5136:2829:5646:5646:2833:3343:3343:3346:5136:5136:5136:2833:2833:2833:6675:2836:3346:1557:4886:4886:2327:2327:6675:6675:2836:3864:1557:4886:4121:4121:4121:6675:3864:3864:3864:

3x3::k:9217:9217:9217:7938:5891:5891:5891:5891:5380:9217:9217:9217:7938:7938:7938:7938:5380:5380:3333:2054:4359:4359:4359:4359:7938:5380:7176:3333:2054:2054:4873:4362:4362:4362:5380:7176:2571:6668:4873:4873:4362:3341:3341:5390:7176:2571:6668:6668:6668:5391:1552:3341:5390:7176:2571:4369:5906:5391:5391:1552:2835:5390:2580:4369:4369:5906:3605:3605:3605:2835:5390:2580:4369:5906:5906:3605:3350:3350:1815:1815:1815:

So, I suggest you to explore on these puzzles yourself a bit and post the pencilmark grids of your "stuck states" if necessary.