The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[TheDonald]

This is only my second time in, so I am still a rookie. But in trying to solve the below puzzle, I visited SIMPLE SUDOKU trying to see what my next move should be. In SIMPLE SUDOKU I came across the term "group". As in "If two cells in a group ...". I cannot find that term. What is a group?
Is it a row? column? box? band? stack? other? And below is where I am stuck and may need a clue. From THE BUFFALO NEWS, Saturday 10/29/05

* * * | 9 * 5 | * * *
* 4 * | 6 8 2 | * 9 *
8 * * | 1 * 4 | * * 6

* * 5 | * 4 * | 1 * *
2 * * | * * * | 9 * 7
* * 8 | * 6 * | 3 * *

1 8 * | 3 * 6 | * * 9
* 6 * | * 9 * | * 2 *
* * * | 4 * 8 | 6 7 *

Unless I made a mistake (very possible for a rookie) this is where I left off and I don't have the original grid ... Any clue? THANKS!

[Shazbot]

A "group" is any row, column, or 3x3 box. There are 27 groups on a standard 9x9 sudoku grid - 9 rows, 9 columns, 9 3x3 boxes - each group must contain the numbers 1-9 once and only once.

You have a few moves available.

A "hidden single" in column 8 - there's only one place for the 1 to go, so it must go there.

"naked pairs" - if two cells within a single group contain ONLY the same two candidates, regardless of whether those candidates appear within other cells in that group, then they MUST go in those two cells. So you can eliminate them from the other cells in that group. In column 5, you have 2 cells with 3 and 7 and nothing else. So 3 and 7 can be eliminated from the rest of the cells in column 5. If you have all your candidates filled in (which you will have if you're using Simple Sudoku), you'll see this leads to another naked pair of 1 and 3 in row 5, so you can remove 1 and 3 from all the other cells in row 5, leaving you with a 5 in r5c5.

There are a few more hidden singles and naked pairs that should allow you to progress.