The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Katprof]

Hi -- I've been doing Sudoku on my own all summer and can solve up to the "Fiendish" level in the books by Wayne Gould. I only just now got on line to check out others' techniques, before I had just worked different logic strategies out on my own.

What I find is that in the last week my game has gotten much slower as I try and look for all these complex patterns, and I was doing better off just using my intuition and seeing different solutions as they came to me. I know there are some problems you can't solve without advanced strategies, but frankly so far I haven't found many puzzles I can't muddle through with simpler methods.

So although some of the strategies posted here are for the maximum logic difficulty, what about strategies for maximum speed on puzzles that are difficult-but-not-impossible? Different ways of marking up the grid, or different ways of recognizing patterns more quickly? Is there any thread already that discusses this?

(Obviously I am competing with friends for speed -- otherwise I might not care so much!)

Thanks in advance --

KP

[Karyobin]

Nice one, I appreciate the really hard stuff too but like you, I prefer to solve average difficulty stuff with ever-increasing speed. In my opinion it just comes with practice but I think that among the canon of mental techniques, candidates 'locked in a row' are underused. At least, they were by me until I purposefully began to look for them. I found this cut solution times down considerably for the Hard/Fiendish level.

[lunababy_moonchild]

As far as puzzles by Wayne Gould go, you don't need advanced solving techniques until you get to very hard level and that's only available in his software (on this site). Even then you would only require x-wings *I know this because I asked him myself*.

I agree with Karyobin ( ), I reckon speed comes with practice.

Well done on getting up to Fiendish with your own techniques.

Luna

[9X9]

KP - you're playing at the same difficulty level as me currently and, like you, I'm essentially self-taught. If you havn't already read my thread "Marking up the intelligent way" in this Forum, it might possibly cut down your solving times enough to give you the edge over your competitors.

Ultimately, when you are fully competent technically, your IQ (a combination of the speed and depth of your logical thought) will become the principal deciding factor.

Speed of thought deteriorates with advancing years so a few games against your Grandad might improve your averages (only joking!).

[Nick67]

Interesting thread ... I like to play for speed, too!

There are some more comments in
this thread.

[Katprof]

Thanks everyone for your excellent replies.

Karyobin, thanks for the tip about looking for "locked in a row." I suspect that strategy is also underused by me and looking for it more aggressively might be just the trick I need. I also suspect my eyes are a little lazy looking for possibilities in rows and columns in general -- issues in blocks are so much easier to spot because your eyeballs can take it all in one glance. So I have to train myself to keep scanning.

9x9, I read your "marking up" post, and basically I agree with you -- at least for speed, marking up every candidate for every cell is NOT the way to go! It really impedes your ability to see patterns quickly. What you describe there is already close to the strategy I've been developing on my own, but thanks for the refinements!

And last, Nick67, thanks for the link to the other thread that discusses speed, which was quite helpful.

I'll post again in a few days and let you all know if I've gotten any faster... meanwhile, anyone else out there, feel free to chime in.

best,
KP

[9X9]

KP - I was going to reply last night (GMT) but, having spent no less than seven hours, off and on, in (ultimately successful phew!!) mortal combat with a Pappocomasaurus Verihardicus, I collapsed into bed at 11 pm and didn't surface until 9.30 am today. Ah, the joys of retirement!!

Now back in the land of the living, I have just posted an important addendum to my method, in the "marking up the intelligent way" thread, so you may like to wend your way there when you have a spare moment.

[9X9]

Slightly off-topic but just a muse about the deterioration in the speed of thought with advancing years that I mentioned in an earlier post. I wonder just how much of that is due not to losing brain cells, or to their impaired efficiency, but to the increasing amount of stored data (wisdom?) that has to be searched for decision-making? Presumably, at some point, stored data stops increasing and starts decreasing because the reducing brain cells result in overflow and the impaired efficiency increases?

[stuartn]

Either that or the industrial quantities of alcohol that some of us knock back

Stuartn

[INKcogKNEEdough]

or for that matter competition in general.....I am fairly new to sudoku myself and BRAND new to the site. Is there a site to go to where you CAN play against other people?

INKcogKNEEdough

[Karyobin]

Well believe it or not there seem to be people in Mongolia (posting here, no less) who are very keen on competition. Good luck in challenging one of them. luckyluke and Sudoku_Mastor seem to be very keen to pit their wits against someone.