dailysudoku.com

[Billsol]

If you ask for a hint from the program you can make it through even the most befuddling of puzzles. On Thursdays I took a hint and from there it was easily solved.
But can anyone tell me how a #1 can be positively excluded from the square where the hint was?

Here's the layout. The hint given was the 5 in R7 C3.

x69 357 2xx
3xx 962 57x
xxx 184 963

9xx 845 6x7
x5x 736 x29
6xx 219 xx5

735 698 xx2
x96 423 7xx
xx4 571 396

[geoff h]

Hi there,

If you look closely at Column 3, you will see there is a pair of 1,8 in cells r2c3 and r5c3. This then means you can exclude all other 1s and 8s from Column 3. Since the only possibilities for cell r7c3 are 1 and 5, this means the 1 MUST be excluded, leaving 5 as the only possibility.

Hope this helps,

Cheers.

[Billsol]

Would you be interested in tutoring me through one from our local paper that's still giving me trouble?

[geoff h]

Yes, sure. Post it on the site and I'll have a look at it for you.

Cheers,