The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[StrmCkr]

removed

[Mike Barker]

If I understand you, you have two overlapping Almost Almost locked sets (a4,b4,h4=12589) and (j4,b4,h4=12589) which are strongly linked twice to a 3rd AALS (e4=128). The question is can this configuration allow an elimination? This is a tough one to figure out theoretically, so, just as you did, I've summarized all the possibilities given the placement of a candidate (indicated by a "*"). If an elimination was possible based on the linking between the sets then one of the possibilities should result in an invalid grid. Unfortunately this is not the case, so I'd have to conclude that the arrangement doesn't yield the proposed elimination. It does avoid the problem of an invalid conclusion caused by swapping the 2 and 9, so you've made progress.

Code: Select all

A4=29   B4=1259 E4=128  H4=2589 J4=59
2*      159     18      589     59
9*      12      128     28      5
29      1*      28      2589    59
9       2*      1       8       5
2       5*      1       8       9
2       9*      1       8       5
29      259     1*      2589    59
9       1       2*      8       5
29      1       8*      259     59
9       1       8       2*      5
2       1       8       5*      9
29      1259    12      8*      59
2       1       8       9*      5
29      129     128     289     5*
2       15      18      58      9*

[StrmCkr]

removed