help! oct 16 2006

spw · Post by **spw** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:35 am

First off let me say hello!

I was given a Nightmare puzzle to do and it has blown me away, i had actually got bored with Sudoku's because they got boring, this one is excellent.

It has taught me more since working on it than any puzzel has, x wing, x-y wing, and swordfish (i'm still having trouble with the concept).

My main question, can this puzzel be done WITHOUT forcing?
Is forcing same as guessing ( i refuse to guess, thats why i ahve bee nwroking on this for 4 freakin days)?

Is there a site that gives simple rules for the solving tech?

thanks for any help!!

Post by **Ruud** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:51 am

Hi spw, welcome to the forum!

the october 16 Nightmare can be solved with the following techniques:

Hidden pair (2x)
XYZ-Wing
Naked pair (2x)
Empty Rectangle pattern (2x)
Unique Rectangle (type 1) (2x)
Sashimi X-Wing pattern
Finned Swordfish pattern
XY-Chain (2x)
XY-Wing
X-Wing
BUG

Most of these techniques are explained in the solving guide.

There may be shortcuts that allow you to bypass some of the easier techniques, but I do not have the time to analyze all the alternatives.

cheers
Ruud

spw · Post by **spw** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:34 pm

I finally completed the puzle correctly, however i had to force, so it beat me, i will have to get better technically to be able to handle these with logic.