Can you solve it? Sudoku as spectator sport is unlikely lockdown hit:
It may not be as hair-raising as Formula 1, nor as dramatic as Premier League football, but Sudoku solving is acquiring a niche following as a spectator sport.
It's surprisingly thrilling, believe me. Just ask fans of the puzzle-solving YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic, which has seen its viewing figures shoot up over the last two months. Its top Sudoku video has had more than 3 million views.
In daily challenges, the channel's two British hosts, puzzle wizards Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, narrate their strategies and processes of deduction as they attempt to solve fiendishly difficult Sudokus.
What makes the videos so joyous is the constant stream of 'aha!' moments, as well as the ingenuity of the sudokus presented. The puzzle I am setting today, the Miracle, appeared on the channel last week. (Click here for a printable page for all today's puzzles. To solve them online there is a link underneath each grid.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:52AM
I'd hit that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Muad'Dave on Thursday May 21 2020, @11:19AM (2 children)
... to watch the solution to 'The Miracle' unfold.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)
It was amazing. I had never seen these variations with knight's move restrictions, etc. before. They open up a whole new level of puzzle.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 21 2020, @10:18PM
It was remarkably easy. Too many constraints spoil the puzzle. (As evidenced by unique solvability given only two items in the initial grid.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:12PM (1 child)
It was definitely interesting.
It was frustrating seeing things he didn't see yet, and somehow rewarding when he finally caught up to me. Not saying I'm better than him, he saw so many things I didn't but there were times that I was ahead of him.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:11PM
Your post, it was moderately interesting but I knew what you were going to say so when you finally said it it was kind of boring to me.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @02:16PM (5 children)
Isn't this all just linear algebra? I refuse to invert matrices by hand - I could do, what a 4x4 matrix on a good day? Fuck that. The computer will do it in 1 millisecond.
It's like some arcane pleasure from digging holes with a teaspoon rather than using a damn Mexican to do it for you.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:47PM (3 children)
Isn't this all just linear algebra?
No.
Correctly filled Sudokus don't form a vector space.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @08:16PM (2 children)
Yes they do.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 21 2020, @10:16PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @10:54PM
The field of common sense. I agree with the other guy.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday May 21 2020, @11:17PM
Yeah! And what the fuck is it with those guys who play computer games by hand? When I want to relax, I just set the computer up on my favourite fighting game - CPU vs CPU set to max difficulty. The CPU is going to be better at it than me anyway, so what's the point in learning to play that game?
And don't get me started on musicians...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:29PM
> It's surprisingly thrilling, believe me.
I think I am being outbotted.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday May 21 2020, @09:16PM
A robot arm takes a fresh swatch of dressing once an hour and applies it to a wall that has had fresh pigment coloration applied to it, in order to observe the degree to which the solvent of the color has evaporated.
This sig for rent.