Gingham Games
(Eingestellt am 7. März 2026, 22:21 Uhr von SingingFish)
I've had the idea for a puzzle like this for a while now, hopefully I did the idea justice and the solve is nice. I think the logic to get going in this configuration may be tough to find and so I have detailed the intended solve path below the picture if you get stuck/ are interested in how I intended it to be solved. It is certainly the style of puzzle I would struggle with as a solver! I hope you enjoy :)
Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply.
German whisper : Adjacent digits along the green line have a difference of at least 5.
Even: A digit in a grey square is even.
Thermometers: Digits along a thermometer increase from bulb to tip.
Little killer: A clue outside the grid gives the sum of the digits along the indicated diagonal.
This is a puzzle intended to be broken-in using SET. The restrictions come from some interactions between the sets, the given digits and the whispers line.
1) Highlight the rows with the even squares (r2,r4,r6,r8) one colour and the columns with the even squares (c2,c4,c6,c8) with another. These are your 2 equivalent sets and you should have a checkerboard (gingham) pattern. Interestingly using the rows and columns without the even squares will give you the same set.
2) Remove from each set the overlaps and you can also remove the even digits given 2 sets of 2468 in each set.
3) Digits on the whispers line alternate from low to high and on the line one set contains only low digits and one with only high. The minimum difference between the cells for each set on the whispers line is 30. You can think of it like this: to minimise the difference for each low digit I place there is a high digit of exactly 5 more -> 6 low digits -> min difference of 30.
4)To compensate for this large difference between the sets (which are equivalent in total) we can maximise the difference between the digits in each set off the line. To maximise the difference we can do for one set of 6 digits off the line 123 and 234 because of the given 1. And similarly 987 and 876 in the other. This maximum difference is 45-15 = 30. We are therefore constrained to keep equality between sets by this minimum difference on the line and this maximum difference off of it.
5)We can place some pencil marks in the set cells with the thermometers giving which colour takes low and which takes high. On and off the whispers line we give low and high digits to the opposing colour i.e. r2c3 is high (987) and r3c4 is also high 6789. They should be opposite colours.
6) You can now do some logic with the evens and also place a 5 in r8c2, but really we want to focus on the line where we are more restricted than usual. Normally on a German whispers we know that if you place e.g. a 6 it has to be next to a 1, however, on this line as we have to minimise the total difference we also know that if we place a 1 there has to be a 6 on the line to compensate. We can restrict some 6s and 4s on the line by usual whispers logic. Then using the 1 which is limited to column 5 in box 2 and the 9 which is limited to row 5 in box 6 we can remove 1s and 9s in box 5 on the line and remove some 6s and 4s that are no longer possible given they cannot take adjacent 1s and 9s.
7) There is now a 123 triple in row 6 on the line. As we know there has to be a 1 on the line in the triple there also has to be a 6 on the line to minimise difference. The 6 can only be in r7c4, this also places the 1 in the triple. You can do the same logic to get a 9 and a 4 and actually the restrictions from the German whispers places all the digits on the line. This can be done easily once realising r4c3 can not be a 3.
8) An 8 is placed in r8c5 and this, along with other restrictions from evens and what we have deduced from SET gives all the digits on the little killer sum of 30.
9)The rest can be done quite conventionally albeit with some tricky parts. The 29 little killer will resolve the rest of the puzzle after a naked single 1 is placed in r1c5.
Lösungscode: Row 7 (left to right 9 digits no spaces)
Kommentare
Gestern, 10:27 Uhr von Snookerfan
Very nice! Beautiful break-in and challenging afterwards. Thanks
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Update: just read the hint and I did it completely differently, which was still a great solve path.
am 8. März 2026, 09:26 Uhr von dinonugs
I had a very different path than you, but still a great puzzle. Thanks!
am 7. März 2026, 23:42 Uhr von SingingFish
Clarifying some text in the hidden solution path.
