I enjoy easy to medium. Hard puzzles are a challenge. It takes me a while, but eventually I get through.

KM1304

Hello,
I'm still at easy or medium level after two years, but I love the puzzles.
Bob

im new to the game so im only on the easy ones but i love to get great tips on stuff like that i love to chat through internet so join my club its the GW crown

I've been reading "The Wild Trees" and enjoying it. :)

dear jayaa,
i have got the habitude to resolve the most fiendish puzzles. i am 3working with a program called "ancient sudoku". this program includes a puzzle-creator. so, i am solving the daily proposed puzzzles. i am solving 80%, and, with harvey intelm's method to create the possibility matrix, i can even get 90%. the remsainding rest is pure intuition got by solving as many puzzles as possible.
heartful greetings

Do a google on "hate sudoku"

Several possible suspects there.

I'd say middle to high medium

I might have no problem solving a Tough or a Diabolical puzzle (URLs forbidden, for risk of spam.)

For the easy puzzle today. I've been shell-shocked by the last few.

We wish to inform our members that the Sudoku Village site was down for the last three days owing to a mischievous spam compaint lodged against by a culprit who has done it twice before in the past. We are yet to establish the identity of this fraudster, and we shall take immediate legal action when we find him/her.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused.

...Please wear your thinking hats! Help us grow this community.

Good ideas that get implemented will be suitably rewarded!

Thanks.

Hi Everyone,

If you own/ manage a website of any kind, please contact us by posting a message thru 'Contact Us' OR 'Help Desk' link in this site. We may be able to help each other in some way!

Thanks.

Hi, i like solve sudoku and other games puzzles. morning sudoku and evening kakuro. what next. am looking for some material on spiral and web sudokus. anybody help?

Thank you for explaning the down time. I really missed all the sites. I can't imagine anyone being that mean. You have great sites and I love the e-mag and can hardly wait each week for the new one to come out. I hope this person starts to use their head and don't do something that affects so many people.

Thanks for explaining the web site down time. I appreciate that. I missed my Sunday Sudoku.

The Sudoku Village, Sudoku Smorgasbord, and Sudoku Browser sites were not functional over the weekend (the whole of Sunday, July 16, 2006, as per Sudoku Village Time).

We wish to apologize to our subscribers for the inconvenience caused as a result, and also clarify the reason why it happened.

In April 2006, a person who had wilfully subscribed to our newsletter made a spam complaint; as a result, our website was suspended for a day or two, and restored subsequently, after it was established that the complainant had, indeed, subscribed to our newsletter, thru our opt-in records. Though the person didn't un-subscribe, we removed the person from our subscription list, and our site continued to function smoothly.

A second complaint has been filed by the same person, after subscribing again to our newsletter, in the same name, but using a different email id. As the host has been shifted recently to a new service provider, in view of the increasing resource needs, and since we are fairly new to this host, our account was again suspended.

Now, we have again proved to the new host, using valid opt-in records, how the same customer has again re-subscribed, only to complain again of spam. Hopefully, this problem should not recur.

Unfortunately, there are some hosts who never give an opportunity to their customers to disprove spam complaints, before suspending their customers' accounts.

Meanwhile, we are working to insure that the members of Sudoku Village continue to enjoy a happy Sudoku experience.

...Sudoku Smorgasbord (Premium Version) - weekly puzzles, and Sudoku Village daily puzzles? You could win Prizes and get recognition in the Hall of Fame, besides facing challenging Sudokus?

All the best!

My computer is playing tricks on me - is htere anyone out there who can solve a problem?
When i log on my name appears on the list of online members but when i try and do the daily puzzle it tells me i have to log on first - i just go round in circles - strangely it doesn't happen on my work computer just the one at home (is there an easy settings issue i can fix?) as i'm now on holiday for seven weeks i'd like to not have to go to work to do sudoku
Thanks in advance
Cooky

I haven't yet found a puzzle I couldn't solve. It's all a matter of time. I can do an easy puzzle in 3-5 minutes. Mostly writing time. The level tens take me 30-40 minutes. Sometimes I have to start over.

...fails to get fired everyday at the start of the day since the shifting of the servers, and this is being handled manually now (though it completes the selection of the winner, alright).

On Sundays, the System Admin has to find the time to do it from home, despite being a holiday. Hence the minor hiccup.

There will be prize for all days, as long as there IS a winner.

But we're in the process of fixing this.
Please bear with us till we solve it.

Thanks.

mine is correct for 9'th July too.
it take some time to pick up the winner. so for 9'th i will wait for some more time but why there is no winner for 8'th.

probably for the same reason I didn't win on the 9th - we came in under the "minimum time".

My Solution is correct, why there is no winner...

This puzzle mostly came down to rows and columns which had the same two or three numbers (triplets and twins). As such, one had to play out the results of choosing one or the other in several places. Is this what made it so difficult? How can we help?

this puzzle was very difficult, what is your views...

Welcome fog47, I've not seen your post before. You are absolutely right. IF it isn't enjoyable or becomes a chore, stop and put down the puzzle and come back to it. Some puzzles suddenly come together when one does this. Joyce

SOMETIMES, SUDOKU LOVERS, AN EVIL ONE IS COMING EASY AND OTHERS A SIMPLE SAMURAI CAN DRIVE ME CRAZY - I FEEL THAT IT DEPENDS IF I AM TOO TIRED.
JUST MOVING THE EYE-SIGHT AND ENJOYING IT. THE MOMENT YOU FEEL THAT IT IS A LOAD AND NOT HAVING FUN, PUT IT DOWN AND START OVER AGAIN LATER.
ENJOY ALL YOU SUDOKU SAMURAIS!
GREETINGS FROM HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY - LOST COAST OF CALIFORNIA - SURROUNDED BY FOG, REDWOOD TREES AND SUDOKU!
FOG47

Practice is very important, but if you continue to practice all the same old things without learning something new, then sometimes nothing is gained. I can heartilly suggest the ebook How to solve every sudoku puzzle. It was a revelation to me. I also look for any new trics online. And, sometimes, it simply ends up an Ariadne's thread..try and when that fails, try something else.

Thanks for the opportunity to brag. I feel so good, I'm a mediocre sudoku solver, but just for fun I attempted a 5-star puzzle and managed to finish it! Since I learned how to "force" it makes it so much easier, I can now sometimes do a puzzle without the "pencil marks", but I like that aide as a security blanket. I'd love to learn more tips and tricks, keep them coming!

Evil? I don't think so! More like horrendous, futile, bizarre, monstrous, quixotic!

I practice all the time and make a perfect fool of myself when I try to solve tough levels.

Practice is fine. But isn't that what everyone's already doing? So how come some are faster? I think champions have a different approach somehow.

So how many have done the evil puzzle in the eMag. I tried and failed. Need help. Anyone?

May be a litle tougher ones too. I am a purist
I hate to use pencil mark
PJ Naidu
Chennai
(Email id deleted due to chances of potential misuse)

I am new at sudoku. I have not been able to solve all of the puzzles. Do they ever tell you what level they are?
It would be helpful also to know the range of times, for those who submit the puzzle. It would not have to include the exact time of the winner, but a general range.

Agree with you guys.
Particularly, I agree with practice, practice, practice. Like playing piano, or the like. The more you do, a second nature appears to develop in you about those skills.
6 months ago, I started to solve Sudokus. Scanning is now an instant, a matrix for each of the 9 main squares is automatic, forcing comes next, and finally statistical. One day, I expect to see bigger matrix strings without jolting the numbers down. Isn't that worth an effort?.
May the Force be with you!.

I am learning to solve puzzles. I can currently solve the easy and medium level puzzles by simply looking at them. The more complex (4 or 5) levels still have me stumped. Our home-town newspaper publishes a puzzle each week, and I can usually solve them within 1/2 hour without any help even though some are rated as very hard. Today's (5/25/06) challenge on this site can be solved using forcing only. (see other postings for a definition of forcing.)

I believe that what seems to be intuition is actually the application of rules which have become so automatic with practice, that the logic becomes subconscious, and only the answer comes through as "intuition."

Anyone who plays a sport or a musical instrument has the same experience. Muscle movements which once were clumsy and slow have become precise and automatic, without the burden of thinking through it.

This is also why many teachers have a hard time communicating what has become automatic for them.

I agree with you that with enough practice, experts solve puzzles very quickly, without piecing through every logical step. But at a low level, their solutions are the application of rules.

This is the method I was using when I started learning, but this takes a lot of time to solve even the easiest puzzle. Solving the numbers intuitively having a good glace helps you solve faster. This requires a little experience, but works like a charm.

I have spoken to quite a few experts who agree.

Have I provoked a hot discussion? I welcome all views, pro- and anti-.

ok, I'll bite.

My favorite rule is what Tom Sheldon calls "forcing." (His book, Sudoku Genius, is good.)

Forcing is good to apply at the start of every puzzle. It works better early than late. To apply the rule, start with 1's. Scan the puzzle to find all the 1's, and visualize what rows and columns those 1's block off. Combine these rows and columns with cells containing non-1's, and only the possible 1-cells are left. This may reveal individual cells which must contain 1.

Sometimes forcing shows that 1 must be in one row or column of a block, and this will force 1 to be in a single cell of yet another block. There are a lot of variations on this rule, which you will discover as you practice.

For example, in today's contest puzzle (May 23), the top middle cell of the top middle block is forced to be 1.

Then, of course, go through all the numbers, checking for forcing. That can give you a good start on even the hardest of puzzles.