The central square in the puzzle is the most powerful as it is in five different regions: row five, column five, the middle box, and both the diagonal regions. Using a keyboard, press the space bar to toggle between big and small numbers. Remember to use pencilmarks, or 'small numbers' on our player tool, to keep track of what can go where. Where can the 3 go in this region? Now look at the other diagional: where can the 8 go in that region? In both cases you should be able to restrict it to three locations instantly. For instance, look at the top-left to bottom-right diagonal of the sample puzzle. This is the key difference to remember between sudoku X and regular sudoku. Practice scanning the diagonal regularly rather than just the rows, columns and boxes to help you make progress. In order to solve a sudoku X puzzle you will use the same logic as with standard sudoku, but remembering to apply it to the diagional 'X' regions, too here are some solving tips: Strategy and Solving Tips for Sudoku X PuzzlesĪll of our sudoku X puzzles have a single solution that can be reached through the use of logical rules alone, no guessing is ever required. If you enjoy this puzzle type, you can join our online Puzzle Connoisseur's Club for £12 or $17 a year and play a new Sudoku X Puzzle puzzle every day of the year, together with many other fun and interesting logic puzzles. Like to have a go at the sudoku X puzzle that is displayed above? Then you can do so for free online with our Online Sudoku X Puzzle Player The key to solving them is to remember that these two extra regions exist and using the information they provide to help you reduce the options for squares and hence solve the puzzle. Whereas standard sudoku on a 9x9 grid has 27 regions, in a sudoku X puzzle there are 29 regions instead. Sudoku X is one of the more commonly seen variants of sudoku, and one of the easiest to understand, as there are no new rules as such, just additional regions. Here is an image of the start position of a sudoku X puzzle: These regions must also contain 1-9 once only. In addition, there are two shaded diagonal regions in the grid, which together form the shape of the letter 'X'.Place the numbers 1-9 once in each row, column and 3x3 box of the grid.There are also two examples which show the pitfalls of Uniqueness strategies - and how they do not always apply in the case of Sudoku X.The rules of Sudoku X Puzzles are as follows: Some of the basic strategies are illustrated after the examples and show how they can be extended to the diagonals. As the grade increases the diagonals contain much more important information. Gentle puzzles should require little to no note taking and can often be solved with normal ‘eye-balling’ techniques. This rule is in proportion to the difficulty. But to complete tough and harder puzzles the solver must be expected to use the extra diagonals. In Sudoku X all the normal Sudoku strategies apply - and there are a great number of these. Note, it is perfectly possible to create a normal Sudoku that co-incidentally has the unique 1 to 9 in each diagonal but unless this information is revealed first it is usually of no help to the solver. However, these extra constraints allow the puzzle compiler to reduce the number of necessary clues thus creating a balanced puzzle that rivals normal Sudoku in variety and difficulty. The puzzle solver can use this information to reduce the possibilities in those lines and make deductions across the the board previously out of reach in a normal Sudoku. In Sudoku X the two diagonals containing nine cells and sharing the central grid cell must also be filled with exactly 1 to 9. There are nine ‘cells’ in every row, column and box. In a normal Sudoku puzzle all rows, columns and 3x3 boxes must be filled with the numbers 1 to 9 without repeating a number. This is a variant of the popular Sudoku puzzle which contains two extra constraints on the solution, namely the diagonals, typically indicated by grey cells.
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