Category Archives: Puzzle Reviews

Reviews of preselected puzzles from published collections. Summary review table, and highlight analysis.

UHC 397 Fills the Stocking

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Sudent

After two “simple” ANL, Beeby finds a candidate removal by pattern overlay analysis. On PhilsFolly.com, this is requested under “POMs”.  Then a pattern analysis for The Guide offers many more removals using freeforms.   A finned swordfish gets us to coloring, … Continue reading →

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An AIC Parade by ultrahardcore 397

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Sudent

This post follows basic with a variety of Alternate Inference Chains. It is an opportunity to compare their effects and corresponding Sysudoku labeling. Three bypass clues, naked triple eliminations, and the line slinks marked in cell corners, that’s the  outcome … Continue reading →

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A BARN Storming UHC 353 Finish

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Sudent

This posts finishes left page ultrahardcore 353, using several notable moves to expand a cluster.  Sudokuwiki starts it with a grouped terminal ANL with line and box winks, a regular swordfish expands the cluster, trapping four candidates. Expansion creates an … Continue reading →

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Softening left page ultrahardcore 353

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Sudent

Here is another puzzle the DIY oriented solvers suggest is too hard for human solving, even as the moves they find are too instructive to ignore.  This post gets quickly to ALS methods that demand exhaustive enumeration from the DIY … Continue reading →

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UHC 309 Rounds the Bases

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Sudent

The ultrahardcore review solvers illustrate a diverse solution path, before and after AIC and cluster building. Here is the grid after the bypass and box marking. Beeby found a naked single SE4 in r8c7 in its basic. The Sysudoku Basic … Continue reading →

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The UHC 265 Wrap Up

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Sudent

This post continues on the solution path for left page ultrahardcore 265. We begin where we left off, with the two solvers synchronized and with the first preliminary coloring cluster on the grid. Next, a 3 – ANL creates a … Continue reading →

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Two Solvers Play With UHC 265

Posted on November 9, 2021 by Sudent

Heine’s left page ultrahardcore 265 is solved in two posts. This post follows the alternative methods of the review solvers Beeby and Sudokuwiki until they converge on a long series of AIC in the second post. Here is the grid … Continue reading →

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An ultrahardcore 221 ALS AIC Clinic

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Sudent

Continuing a solution path with a finned starfish (5 lines), Beeby carries us through an unlikely  series of ALS aided AIC, dancing around two stalled coloring clusters. The contest ends with regular AIC finally expanding and wrapping the clusters. Here … Continue reading →

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UHC 221 Vies for Right Page ultrahardcore Status

Posted on October 26, 2021 by Sudent

In this post, an unbalanced line marked grid is chiseled down some by an unlikely series of 1-ways and ALS chains by the two DIY oriented solvers. Starting with the bypass grid, with the bypass clues and fill strings in … Continue reading →

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UHC 177 Stretches It Out

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Sudent

In this post, Heine’s left page ultrahardcore 177 gets from one cluster wrap to two more in a long series of AIC and boxlines. Continuing from the green wrap of last week, blue SW3 takes the last r9 5 outside … Continue reading →

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