Sudoku solution – New York Times 12 September 2024 Hard level

[Music] hello fellow sedans and welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian sodoku puzzle it's Thursday the 12th of September 2024 I hope you're doing okay as best you possibly can um I'm often bringing you sad news I've got some sad news to depart to impart to you uh in a moment um when I was young uh and lived in London uh I loved to go out to nightclubs and dance to Funk and Jazz and Soul music uh that was what I really loved and there was a DJ on radio London uh named Robbie Vincent he was great everybody listened to him on a Saturday afternoon to find out what was the latest music to be you know was going to be hitting the clubs and stuff like that and um I remember him going going absolutely insanely crazy over a group called mazee uh a group from well from Philadelphia I believe certainly the lead singer Frankie Beverly was from uh Philadelphia and unfortunately I'm using the word was because that is my sad news um Frankie Beverly is no longer with us a great great soul singer um from Philadelphia uh became incredibly popular in the UK as well um you know sometimes people groups and artists are popular in one country without being popular in another sometimes they can go to another country and become popular there and go back to their own country and become popular again I think that happened um with in the UK with groups like super who are more popular in America than they were in the UK despite being a british-based band um but anyway certainly um Frankie Beverly's popularity was uh massively increased by the club goers of the UK but it was his group maze Frankie Beverly Maze featuring Frankie Beverly um was a touring group and their live performances were amazing and um anyway it's a sad loss I have to say personally it's a really sad loss um but you know such is life these people are disappearing at a rate of knots it seems so age 77 no details given on the cause of death uh should have lived longer I'm afraid but anyway let's um get on with the game of sodoku from The New York Times this is their hard level puzzle um what can I see I can see ones blocking across here and here so that's how I'm going to begin let's put a one in here I can see some pairs I noticed the fives like in those squares um but not much oh here we are four across here and there and a four up there and obviously we got fours down like this um not spotting too much else uh we've got threes there and oh we've got nine and three nine and three across here so we we end up with a pair of three and nine in those squares so these are not three or nine they must be six okay so six blocking up there and uh two I think is the other number um so we have nines up there excuse me will I chat to myself for a minute I think we ought to just wand through the digits don't you because I'm not seeing anything at this moment in time we've got threes there and there fours are over here so uh five what do we know uh so I think we've got a pair of four and nine down here okay we got four and nine blocking down here right four across here nine across here but nine is in this square and this Square blocking across and four is here or here yeah we've definitely got a pair of four and N down here what does that mean that means it's four and N so three maybe I should look at these squares along the bottom in case we get something here so we've got four and nine there we're looking then for two 358 eight are there or there I'm not getting very far here today am I oh here we go here's something 1 5 7 8 missing across here so 1 s and 8 mean that that has to be a five and now we got fives across here and down there so there's a five uh of oh no two across here two down there there's a two three has to be in one of these squares blocking down here three blocking down here three across here back that way three blocking down three is in one of these two squares blocking across I know it's very long- winded but it's how I see it sometimes you just have to go around and around until you end up um not so dizzy okay I think we're missing 1567 here 56 7 four numbers just double check yeah I think so and we've got 1 six and 7even so that's got to be out five isn't it five and six blocking across here so we have five and six in those squares and this has to be 2 38 so now we know two across there two down here come on and two down here that means that's a two there eight down here blocking across there and eight blocking down here puts eight into one of these two squares blocking up means that's an eight and the missing numbers here are 1 3 7 and again different rows not helping much is it uh what did I say here this was what 238 did I say uh five six there there so 2 three and eight so this is four and what's the other number nine four and nine here oh yeah which I did work out earlier i' forgotten all about that now four and N in these squares so we are left here with uh 678 I guess so we got sevens across there so sevens have to be in those squares sevens are here sens are there ah okay so seven blocking down here seven is one of our missing numbers blocking down there as well okay uh this is 4 and N this is what six and8 so we've got six in this Square now so six blocking up here six blocking up here six across there there's our six and we need a one to finish this column for for for for um two um um um I've come to a dead end I think I'm going to need to put in pencil marks to go forward I'm pretty stuck here and I think that when when the pencil marks are in I think it's going to be easy so I should do that let's put the five and six the block across here into these oh excuse me what happened there uh five and six into those two squares I don't what happened I touched the keyboard and it went insane for a moment uh this was four and n and this is six and eight and we had nines over here and we have three and nine up here and we have nines up there and we have Nines in these squares up here uh okay we've got ones in those squares we've got threes in these squares and we've got uh seven in those squares we've got sevens here as well and sevens here and sevens there ones are there and pair here twos are somewhere across there oh this is let me do this bottom bit as well twos are there three are there and eights are in those squares I remember also got eights there and twos there fours must be up there somewhere fours are in one of those two squares sixes across there there pair of eights in these squares and I think I'm about done so that's all of the pairs that I know I was hoping this block up here which is empty would have a little bit more than that I was hoping I might find a reasonable reasonably good pair there but didn't quite get it so uh uh let's have a quick Wonder around in case there's anything new um not sure bang bang bang sorry about the banging outside there is uh obviously some kind of construction going on oops excuse me I hit the eight instead of the nine what meant to do so this this leftand shoot is now complete nothing to see here let's get on with this block here what do we know we've got twos blocking like this and up here so we get twos in those squares there uh what do we know about the threes threes block up the middle and across there so threes are possible there four also blocks up the middle four could go in those squares there fine like so 6 7 8 n all done um anything immediate to see not sure not sure let's try this let's do this one down here there's not much to do one two three four five like this 6 7 8 9 all done let's have a look at this shoot then see if there there anything pretty much as I remembered it so no not much to do this is done down here so there are two more blocks to fill fill in this is the most important one I guess but we'll do this one first uh because there isn't much to go is there one two 3 four five six seven what do we know seven blocks like this so we have sevens in those squares and then nine blocks up here like this and so we get nines here and that's done then again pretty much as I remember it and uh so all I hopes are up on this block here we get ones like this there goes the one we've got twos blocking across here lots of there doesn't look like we're going to get any singles does it uh three blocking like this there's our three uh four is done five blocks like this oh I said we might not get any singles but then we weren't going to get we're not going to get any singles but that could be a nine five six 7 8 n it is the very last square that I look at okay we got nine in this Square thank you let's uh put it in then and let's get a five there quickly it's not going to be any bother to solve this particular puzzle I believe I'm pretty sure it's going to go smoothly now and guess get rid of the four seven there and uh down here four uh let's do a little bit of removals shall we let's get rid of those candidate fours that we can't use now and let's put a nine here right okay so as I said I don't think get rid of the night there I don't think we're going to have huge amounts of difficulty with this still a nine to remove there uh where are we now have we got rid of all of the excess nines I think so so let's see what's left uh we've got five here I've got to get rid of all of these candid at fives now is that looking okay I think it is okay 147 right I think I'm just going to go through the digits and see what's left uh two here has got to be removed okay and then three uh I think that's looking okay four yeah fives then that's okay sixes yep seven blocking cross here so that's our seven there which gives us a three in that square and means that we have to remove all of these threes this will be a nine and our three will go here uh seven is our first completed digit uh this is the only nine in this row or this block I should say nine is now finished as well um we've got a pair of two and eight here so that two can't be true we also got one there so get get rid of the one and the two leave me with five and six okay uh what else do we know actually I should probably count backwards now nine is done eight uh not sure about the eights from there how about the sixes six blocking across here here's our five then six in that square six there two there three here three there let's get rid of that three and that one 3 S8 done okay we've got five in that column already that must be a six then so here's our two 8 two goes there eight is in that square uh this is the only spot for five uh where are we where are we here here's our one so that's a four here's our one uh that's a four and and two finishes the game so took me some pencil marks to get there there was a single nine on offer if you managed to see it uh which I didn't that's it take care bye-bye