# Speedsolving Sudoku's



## pjk (Jul 8, 2008)

Anyone interested in speedsolving sudoku's? I've been getting into it lately.

If we can get enough interest, I'd like to setup a site dedicated to it, or expand off of this site.

anyway, we should start posting sudoku's daily and post our times on it.


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## JBCM627 (Jul 8, 2008)

The (weekly) competition forum could include a sudoku (or a few), as well. AvGalen?


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## Pedro (Jul 8, 2008)

I like it 

I don't practice a lot, and I use probably not the best "method", analysing each square at a time...

some times I do "smarter" stuff, but my times are probably not very good...and I don't go for time...but, if we have a competition...

I like the idea of having daily sudokus


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## Dene (Jul 8, 2008)

I can do the easiest ones fairly quickly, maybe 4-5 minutes. The really hard ones might take me 20-30 minutes. Sounds like fun!


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## badmephisto (Jul 8, 2008)

i solve sudokus on my way to the university sometimes  sounds good


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## pcharles93 (Jul 8, 2008)

This is a great idea. I never feel like searching for sudoku puzzles online so having them where I usually am is very convenient for me.


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## fanwuq (Jul 8, 2008)

I suck at speedsolving this. I can't even do LBL.  I analyze each square and eliminate choices. Any way to multislot?


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## CAT13 (Jul 8, 2008)

I don't even know how to do them :/


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## pjk (Jul 8, 2008)

Instead of integrating them into our twisty puzzle weekly competitions, perhaps we can start with them here in the off-topic, and if it gets enough interest, expand from there. There are some sites for speedsolving sudokus, but I can't find any forums.

As for rules, do we want to use stackmat timers and all the same rules as with a cube? A modification: no inspection.

To get started, this site has a timer and generates puzzles:
http://www.sudokuspeed.com/

Timer starts when you first visit the page. No cheating and viewing the page twice, you get 1 chance.


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## JBCM627 (Jul 8, 2008)

There is a forum here: http://www.sudoku.com/forums.html Stackmat timers themselves wouldn't work, as often these take over 10 minutes... so the timers shut off. Other timers should be fine, though, such as online ones. Like the one you found 

Actually, hey, it is the same one over and over... it doesn't generate a new one


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## pcharles93 (Jul 8, 2008)

pjk said:


> Instead of integrating them into our twisty puzzle weekly competitions, perhaps we can start with them here in the off-topic, and if it gets enough interest, expand from there. There are some sites for speedsolving sudokus, but I can't find any forums.
> 
> As for rules, do we want to use stackmat timers and all the same rules as with a cube? A modification: no inspection.
> 
> ...



4:57 on the one I was presented with. Whoa, and I'm placed first for the day.


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## CAT13 (Jul 8, 2008)

MM 0:22:02

LOL! pretty slow. First time ever solving one, so I didn't really expect much.

Is there any rule against using a separate piece of paper while solving?


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## pcharles93 (Jul 8, 2008)

Just keep doing puzzles without having to write stuff down. You'll get used to it. Unless you're guessing and checking. That is not the way to go. Learn to eliminate columns, rows, and entire boxes.


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## Kian (Jul 8, 2008)

i wish i could participate, but before i figured out how to solve the ll, it popped and the cheap plastic its made of formed a crease and is now broken for good. oh well, i'll try to get another and get into it again.


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## pcharles93 (Jul 8, 2008)

Here's another site you guys can use until we pjk decides on sudoku or not.
http://www.websudoku.com/


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## badmephisto (Jul 8, 2008)

pcharles93 said:


> Just keep doing puzzles without having to write stuff down. You'll get used to it. Unless you're guessing and checking. That is not the way to go. Learn to eliminate columns, rows, and entire boxes.



Ahhhhh I cringe whenever I see people solve sudoku by writing down numbers 1...9 in corners and edges of each cell and start crossing them out. Just terrible... terrible. I want to rip the newspaper out of their hands and show them how its done.

I'd be very interested in trading different strategies. I came up with everything I know all by myself, I wonder how my strategy compares with that of others.


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## Lofty (Jul 8, 2008)

6:55 BL, second place 
I never do these things so I'm quite slow... 
I don't really have a strategy.


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## Swoncen (Jul 8, 2008)

cool.. a 9x9x1 cube!


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## hawkmp4 (Jul 8, 2008)

my heart stopped when I saw this.
I thought you meant the sudoku CUBES...and not the ones with the numbers in order.
I spent weeks trying to figure out where the pieces on mine had to go.
Grids, tables, it was a mess...i solved it once and its staying solved.
Anyway, sudoku! I like. Good idea. Maybe we find a couple of different difficulties and have a thread where we post times daily or something? I'm sure we could find images we could link to, that way everyone would have the same grid.


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## genwin (Jul 8, 2008)

anyone using the ultimate ninja sudoku by frank longo(have yet to solve one).. i only finished a book by nikoli publishing if i'm not mistaken...

i remember a sudoku forum i joined to help me with longo's book but that forum was not that active as this.... 

so i agree with pat's idea...


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## AvGalen (Jul 8, 2008)

Let me make this perfectly clear: NO sudoku in the weekly competition!


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## JBCM627 (Jul 8, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> Let me make this perfectly clear: NO sudoku in the weekly competition!



Haha I thought it was worth a try 

I should start participating in those...


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## pjk (Jul 8, 2008)

Okay, so I have decided that I hate solving these online. Instead, I will print them out or draw them out.

Lets start off with one ranked hard (no cheating and searching for answer). Post your times here:


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## masterofthebass (Jul 8, 2008)

42.94 


Does it count if I wrote the solving program myself?


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## MistArts (Jul 8, 2008)

pjk said:


> Okay, so I have decided that I hate solving these online. Instead, I will print them out or draw them out.
> 
> Lets start off with one ranked hard (no cheating and searching for answer). Post your times here:



15:20.51 DNF


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## Johannes91 (Jul 8, 2008)

masterofthebass said:


> 42.94
> 
> 
> Does it count if I wrote the solving program myself?


My extremely simple-minded program solved it in 0.00. Here are some harder ones: http://people.csse.uwa.edu.au/gordon/sudokumin.php.


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## Pedro (Jul 8, 2008)

gah
gave up on that one  after like 35 mins

was able to put only 10 numbers
highlight below to see:


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


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## pjk (Jul 8, 2008)

Johannes91 said:


> masterofthebass said:
> 
> 
> > 42.94
> ...


Dan: I guess we can say that counts, under the condition that the timer starts when you first start writing the program. Does 42.94 include the time it took to enter the numbers? I hope so.

Johannes: Impossible, it has to take some time. Nice link, thanks.


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## masterofthebass (Jul 8, 2008)

pjk said:


> Johannes91 said:
> 
> 
> > masterofthebass said:
> ...



That time is from when first looked at the puzzle. It includes opening the program, typing in the numbers, and then clicking solve  I did write the program 2 years ago, so I guess my time should be 2 years 42.94 s


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 8, 2008)

masterofthebass said:


> pjk said:
> 
> 
> > Johannes91 said:
> ...



Yes, but think of the great multi result you can get out of it!


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## Kian (Jul 8, 2008)

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i thought you were talking about sudoku cubes. 

speedsolving sudoku's sounds great, though, i'm definitely in.


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## hawkmp4 (Jul 8, 2008)

14:02.xx
Ick. I screwed up a couple times, ended up with two 5's in a row... but I got it. I'm out of shape. Anyone ever do the samurai sudokus?


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## MTGjumper (Jul 8, 2008)

Sudokos = meh. I solve them in ~4 mins most of the time...

Now, speedsolving nonograms would be good. They're awesome.


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## cmv0116 (Jul 8, 2008)

DNF (22:45), somehow ended with two 8's in a row and couldn't find my mistake, but I was close. Can someone who solved it post the solution?


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## Dene (Jul 9, 2008)

I will do this as soon as I have ordered my v-cubes. I can't put that off any longer!

Edit: 54 minutes, 28 seconds. It came to a situation where I literally had to take a guess, I guessed right  .

Edit2: Taking Pedro's grid, there is only one more that can be added before there are no more "free" choices, in that there is literally no other option left. I didn't want to, but I went through and filled in every box with the options at this stage, and there was definitely at least 2 choices for every box:

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

The bolded "7" is the added one


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## cmhardw (Jul 9, 2008)

pjk said:


> Okay, so I have decided that I hate solving these online. Instead, I will print them out or draw them out.
> 
> Lets start off with one ranked hard (no cheating and searching for answer). Post your times here:



Took me 45 minutes to complete. I like Sudokus, but I'm certainly no expert at it.

Chris


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## Johannes91 (Jul 9, 2008)

pjk said:


> Johannes91 said:
> 
> 
> > My extremely simple-minded program solved it in 0.00.
> ...


Rounded to the centiseconds, it took 0.00 seconds.

```
$ time -p ...
.
.
.
real 0.00
```
I actually solved it by hand first, took 15-20 minutes, but thought everybody else would be much faster so didn't post. Haven't solved any Sudokus by hand in ages.


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## pjk (Jul 10, 2008)

Johannes91 said:


> pjk said:
> 
> 
> > Johannes91 said:
> ...


Watch your sig figs 

Instead of me posting hard ones that take so long and hard to compare times, I will post a medium one here. I will post an easy one sometime too, so we can get more comparable times. Here is one for today:




From http://www.sudokutoday.com.

While we are on this note, would you all be interested in a Speedsolving Sudoku subforum on speedsolving.com?


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## hawkmp4 (Jul 10, 2008)

Yes! I would be!
22:16 on the medium one btw.
Kinda tired...


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## Lofty (Jul 10, 2008)

DNF.
I gave up 18 minutes in because I found a pretty bad mistake. I was working on like a double size post-it note with a pen so it would have been killer to go back and fix it. 
I don't know if there is quite the demand for a whole sub-forum. But we should keep this up.
Is there a website with blank squares where you can just plug your numbers in?


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## badmephisto (Jul 10, 2008)

pjk said:


> While we are on this note, would you all be interested in a Speedsolving Sudoku subforum on speedsolving.com?



im not sure if thats a good idea, this is a cubing forum after all. I dont think there would be enough of us to keep it running.

I would participate on this but not if you put an image, im too lazy to copy it down let alone print it... (i dont even own a printer). I liked it more when it was a web-based app and you could just fill stuff in


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## JBCM627 (Jul 10, 2008)

badmephisto said:


> im not sure if thats a good idea, this is a cubing forum after all. I dont think there would be enough of us to keep it running.



Speedsolving the Rubik's Cube *& Other Puzzles*. Sudoku I consider much more of a puzzle than something like Magic... For all we know, if sudoku-lovers start looking at this forum, we might increase the size of the cubing community as a result  Edit: Although, I guess Sudoku isn't exactly a twisty puzzle.


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## cmv0116 (Jul 10, 2008)

12:06 on the medium one, that wasn't too hard


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## Dene (Jul 11, 2008)

17:47. Doing it on a really roughly sketched table was not the best idea, I will print them all off from now on >.<


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## pcharles93 (Jul 11, 2008)

NOOO!! Someone beat me on sudokuspeed.com. OK, I'm over it. I gotta read up on some techniques and start on medium level puzzles now.


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## pjk (Jul 13, 2008)

Here is an easy one, lets see if we can get more comparable times:


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## gogozerg (Jul 13, 2008)

pjk said:


> While we are on this note, would you all be interested in a Speedsolving Sudoku subforum on speedsolving.com?


No.
When I want to practice Sudoku, I go to specialized sites, with serious online competitions and championships, and dedicated forums.
BTW, above 4 minutes for an evilish grid is not a good time.


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## hawkmp4 (Jul 14, 2008)

gogozerg said:


> pjk said:
> 
> 
> > While we are on this note, would you all be interested in a Speedsolving Sudoku subforum on speedsolving.com?
> ...


I don't think pjk is trying to turn this into a 'main attraction' at speedsolving.com. I think this is just going to be a fun little thing like the weekly contests. Obviously if we really wanted to be competitive we'd go other places.


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## Dene (Jul 14, 2008)

9:09.24

Now I know I'm out of shape (plus way too tired), but these are merely excuses: that time was really bad.


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## pjk (Jul 17, 2008)

Perhaps 1 a day is too much. I will post one every couple days instead:


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## JBCM627 (Jul 17, 2008)

8:05.30. Nice'n ez... very straightforward. I think I'll try and make a solver on one of these... time myself doing that...

solution, I just pasted the puzzle into paint and put text in from there while solving...


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## Dene (Jul 17, 2008)

6:16.00. Getting better


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## cmhardw (Jul 17, 2008)

pjk said:


> Here is an easy one, lets see if we can get more comparable times:



Got 20:00.64 on this one. So close to sub-20 lol!

Chris


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## shafiqdms1 (Jul 17, 2008)

umm...is there a method to solve it like there is to the cube...because sudokus take me about an hour or more to solve because i suck at them...any help?


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## hawkmp4 (Jul 17, 2008)

To start, use dot notation... think of each square divided into nine smaller squares, a dot corresponds to a particular number being a candidate for that box.
Eliminate dots from boxes by looking at the columns, rows, and boxes. You can fill in a box with a number if there's only one dot in it, or there's a particular dot that only appears once in the larger box, row or column. As you do this more you'll be less reliant on the dots and you'll start to see little tricks and just be able to recognize where numbers go.


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## pjk (Jul 23, 2008)

Sorry about the delay in posting another puzzle, I just got in from out of town.

Here is another easy one, post your times on it:


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## cmhardw (Jul 23, 2008)

pjk said:


> Sorry about the delay in posting another puzzle, I just got in from out of town.
> 
> Here is another easy one, post your times on it:



13:43.26 for this one. It feels weird to use netcube for something non-cube related.

Yeah.... I'm slower than a lot of you guys... need to work at this more.

Chris


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## Dene (Jul 28, 2008)

8:47.91. Uh, slower again...


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## MistArts (Jul 28, 2008)

15:23.04

Wow, I haven't been doing these for a long time.


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## gogozerg (Jul 29, 2008)

4:10

Infinitely slow compared to what you can do with a computer interface.


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## gogozerg (Jul 29, 2008)

Just got 3:46 on this one:







Good luck.


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## Karthik (Jul 29, 2008)

I have a Nokia 6630 and use this program for generating and solving sudokus.


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