Sudoku solution – Los Angeles Times 14 September 2024 Expert level

hello fellow sedans and welcome to Zen and the Art of the Guardian sodoku puzzle it's Saturday the 14th of September 2024 I hope you are keeping well enjoying your weekend I see the sun is out now it's been pretty cloudy most of the day but it's afternoon now sun is the sun has got his hat on hip pip hiip o hooray H the cat will be going to the hospital later um I've got enough time to play a game of sodoku so it's going to be the Los Angeles Times expert level puzzle in a moment what's an item of in the news that I've noticed well done to the Netherlands and specifically the ha which has become the first city to ban all fossil fuel advertising and advertising likely to from from uh high carbon um producing companies um so that's good uh well done it's a small step I know but um you know every small step counts I think we doing have to do the best we can in in small amounts it seems uh I'm quite pleased well on days like this I'm quite pleased to have some Dutch Heritage I don't really know anything about country too much uh I just went there for a a holiday once for a couple of days and I met some of my d relatives once uh but uh that's that's all really the connection I have with the Netherlands except I feel like it's rather a nice place uh I rather like the people there um I think their temperament is pretty nice okay uh so let's get on with the game of sodoku and as soon as I can see the first digit I'll tell you what I can see I've seen some things I've seen some action I've seen these threes blocking up there and across there so I know threes are there and are somewhere across there and I've seen eights blocking across here and up there so I know eights are going to be over there so I've got some threes here some eights there and we've got sevens up there but where is the rest of it we've got one going up here and across here so a pair of ones there which means ones will be ah yeah there we go all right so uh we've got one blocking these two squares here right one blocking this Square here down here we have one in this P excuse me in this pattern here so one in either in this square or this Square blocking up here so we will get our first digit as a one there oh that's six and seven across there I've just realized six seven across there so we've got ourselves a pair of six and seven right there so the nines are like this so nine blocking across here nine up here and nine up there will give us nine in that square nine uh yep nine across here and then nine in one of those two squares blocking across here and nine up there nine down here nine up there nine across there one up here and across there we know this is six and seven shall I investigate the other digits we've got six and seven in those squares so we're looking for two three four five I think two three four five five blocking there and there so a pair of fives there okay so 2 three four five uh in the top row we've got five blocking these these two end squares like that so we know five is in one of these two squares here five blocking across here five blocking up there did I need to do that no I didn't I could have just said five blocks up there I didn't need to do that at all never mind uh finding more than enough information is better than not finding enough right uh so we're looking for two four and eight in those squares there this then will be three and seven and I don't see any reason why not let's go through in numerical fashion just to try and do a bit more okay yeah see now we got one blocking down here and across here one across here puts one into one of those two squares blocking down we get ourselves a one there one across here one down there there go digit one uh with the two we've got four and seven blocking down there we get ourselves a pair of four and seven in those sores in fact we got seven blocking down here so we're going to get seven there and we're going to get four there for eight blocking up here eight across there eight this way and this way it's going to be two4 there and two4 there for three is one of our missing digits here blocking up there three blocking up there there's a three uh two blocking this Square we need a two in this column it has to go there the missing digit here is six one and eight block this Square here that puts one and eight into those squares leaves us enough room for a five five blocks across here down here and one blocks up here and across there so we've got a pair of one and five in those squares there uh what does it mean seven blocks across here so seven is in one of those two squares blocking up seven across here seven across there there's our seven seven blocking down here seven across there seven down here and across there and I just said that seven is in one of those two squares so that can't be seven that must be seven uh what did I say here one and five what else can we do anything else uh not sure should we look at these just in case we've got one and five already so we're looking for 2 three four six not sure about that we don't have any completed digits just yet two across here across here and up there two is one of in one of these squares two and four block up here we know that's two and four in those squares this will be five six blocks this Square six blocks this Square so six arrives there uh two four here two four there two four in those squares and this is no doubt two four two three four n for oh I did say I've got one and five here right so five in one of those squares five blocking down here five across here five across here five down there we can get a five in that square e nine down here across there across there there's a nine and then nines to the top gives us a nine in this Square here oh that's the last last digit nine okay two blocking down here and across here means two is in one of those squares blocking across blocking across there's our two and so 36 here can we can we uh not sure what we can do is say this has to be a three three up there three down there there's a three so we've got threes in those squares there it's pretty unguarded there four oh I can get this can't I I know that's two and four up there so this is not that's going to be a seven oh just started with the construction banging again that's been silent all day they must know I'm playing sodoko I think they have an automatic sodoko alarm to know when to start hitting their hammers for oh so we've hit the difficult bit of the game I guess for I'm sure that if I put pencil marks in that will finish very easily but just try a little bit harder to see what I'm missing um what do we know about this middle block I can't I've looked at this I've looked at this I've looked at this this block and this block I'm finding difficult so let's see we know that this is one and five uh now what do we know about the threes threes are there so we got one five three there so 1 2 3 four five dealt with uh six are in those squares there five uh threes sixes there and there sevens are there and eight it's such a nuisance eight still possible in there so I don't think I've got a single there okay let's finish the game off I've had enough uh sitting around let's put in the candidates and finish the game missing down here is three and six uh Missing here is uh 4 and eight and this is two and four up there and this is two and four in those squares and we have threes along there and we have two and four in the rest of those squares there right uh what else do we know this was we have fives in those squares there this was one and five let's put that in let's sort this middle beit out sevens are there uh threes are down there sixes are there we also have six in those squares and what do we know about the eights not enough uh down here what do we know twos over there all right let's do this properly let's see uh are all the ones in I think they are twos all of the twos are accounted for threes uh we have three kind of anywhere along here oops no restriction on three uh what do we know about fours fours can appear in those squares there and a pair there I forgot to put the four up there I thought I did but I forgot to do it fives are accounted for sixes uh could come in those squares there oh sorry not that one ah so we got oh that's it then oh no no no no sixes can go there as well sorry I knew that was I thinking that was a bit odd uh okay sevens are there eights can go anywhere there and down here and anywhere in that block and nines are done so we should have everything in in situ now so let's see we've got 2 3 4 6 2 3 4 six 2 3 4 six so that six can't be true can it got to remove it six then will be in that square and those sixes can't be true sixes are down there now so we have a pair of one and five does that help us any no not really that's all done now uh but we have seven and eight there so that's got to be a three and so that would be a three up there and none of these can be three neither can that we got a pair of seven and eight so this eight is no longer true let's remove it and we end up with a pair of two and four in those squares 2 4 6 and 38 that looks okay 48 yeah 3 six yep we're looking okay here now has to be an eight so there's our four there's our eight that should finish the game hopefully three there eight there and three there six there so six in that Square Four there two arrives there yep that's the end of it because we've got all of these twos and fours now sorted out so that was what it meant checking out finding that six in that square was what it needed to finish the game uh this is a five now five one one8 eight there seven there I enjoyed that game now I thought it was a pretty good game uh I think an enjoyable game uh not too easy also not impossible with a couple of candidates okay that's it thanks very much bye-bye