Pete wrote:I found a great many of the samuris out there to be the solve any one portion easily ...
Pete, you are absolutely right.
But bear in mind that almost all Sudokus found on the Internet are meant to be solved with pen and paper only or a rudimentary online helper (pencil marks at the best, but no highlight etc.), and not an offline solver/helper with fancy visual aids. Hence, except for Ruud, virtually nobody else publishes the Sudoku code.
Many Internet sites have ratings like Fiendish for puzzles that when solved with a good solver/helper aren’t really that difficult. The reason is likely that whoever operates the site wants people to feel good about being able to solve such Sudokus so they come back and visit the site again. Having a high number of visitors makes it easier to earn money from ads and banner clicks. Or they want you to by their often
silly Sudoku stuff, like
this ridiculous helper or lure you to give them your email address.
The average (and occasional) Sudoku solver is not like "us addicts here" and has little knowledge about the many different solving techniques that exist, except for cross hatching and similar stuff.
One reason that Sudoku has become so popular is that the basic rules are very easy to grasp and that you allegedly get lightly intoxicated when you have solved one, especially when you subjectively think that this was a difficult puzzle. Whenever you in everyday life are able to solve and master a (big) problem, the brain supposedly produces
endorphins ("drugs"), which make you feel good and happy. So like regular workout, solving Sudokus could actually be addictive.
I freely admit that when I solve using pen and paper only, I can get into trouble with a puzzle that requires anything more than Naked and Hidden Singles. The reason is that I have to make pencil marks myself and I am not a computer but a human and make mistakes. And then I have to interpret my pencil marks without any visual aids (highlight, etc.)
I am impressed by people who solve Clueless puzzles and Ruud’s Samurais using pen and paper only.