WPF Sudoku GP

[Feadoor]

Here you go James: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1697

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Many congratulations to Sam for the excellent result!

I agree that the symmetric products sum was a good inclusion: I thought it shouldn't have been worth anywhere near 72 points, because as soon as you fill in the first 'box' the rest solves easily.

Seeing a finned swordfish in a competitive scenario is highly impressive. I inserted the puzzle into a sudoku solver, and the solve involved a lot of naked pairs and triples, so the swordfish bypassed a lot of tough logic.

[Feadoor]

Seeing a finned swordfish in a competitive scenario is highly impressive.

Some would say "pointless", or "a waste of time". I know that a lot of solvers don't think that such logic has a place in speedsolving.

But I've made the argument before that there are specific types of (finned) fish that are not very difficult to spot if you know you're looking for them. Simon and Mark would have called this one a "Slot Machine", although I find their presentation as a trial-based method less useful than the formulation as a finned swordfish.

[detuned]

They're much easier to spot when there are natural partitions in the grid - odd/even being a particularly helpful one as that gives 4/5.