A Hot Summer Knight
(Published on 14. July 2025, 17:15 by PhysicistFromFunen)
Click on the image to play!
Rules
Normal sudoku rules apply.Anti-knight: Cells a knight's move apart (in chess) cannot contain the same digit.
Parity Thermometers: Thermometers see only one parity. Blue ones see even digits, orange ones see odd digits.
On a thermometer, digits of the seen parity must strictly increase from the bulb end and must also be strictly dominant. Digits of the unseen parity are unaffected by the thermometer.
Bulb-to-end examples:
Valid blue thermo: 2-5-6-1-8
Valid orange thermo: 3-4-5-4-7-9
Invalid of either colour: 1-2-3-4 (no majority)
Play on SudokuPad!
Solution code: Box 1, in reading order.
Comments
on 31. July 2025, 00:39 by amb
Wonderful. Absolutely loved it.
on 23. July 2025, 06:08 by tecu
That was a lot of fun! Agreed with the commenters saying that it's probably somewhere between ☆2 and ☆3
on 16. July 2025, 20:06 by matthew.v
Interesting break-in, and a nice solve path after that. Great puzzle!
on 16. July 2025, 01:13 by Exigus
What a lovely puzzle, I had a great time colouring, thanks!
on 14. July 2025, 23:16 by avishai
Delightful! It took me a while to find the break-in, but i loved the logic and it flowed smoothly and fairly! Thank you!
on 14. July 2025, 21:58 by VitP
another fine addition to the series.
now let's consider the difficulty.
1) first, the variants in use mean it's automatically level 2.
2) you can make considerable headway using just the standard procedures (*). still level 2.
3) there is a single test (obviously in box 9) that must be performed to distinguish between the two main cases. after that, it's easy enough to give to an intern. so the level is a little bit more than 2.
(*) if there WERE a textbook of standard procedures, then the section for the main variant in use would be easy for a beginner to learn. the fact that no such textbook exists is irrelevant. and to be clear, there ARE procedures that are difficult to explain.
on 14. July 2025, 20:51 by PhysicistFromFunen
Changed the estimated difficulty level
on 14. July 2025, 18:56 by deltameth
The complexity is definitely lower than originally assigned: interesting break in, though not super-difficult, and after that it falls almost immediately. 2.5 for me.
Other than that, it was quite enjoyable and smooth, with an interesting ruleset. With this puzzle I had a very satisfying lunch break. Thank you for setting this!
on 14. July 2025, 18:11 by AutoNick
Nice idea, very smooth solve.
-- PFF:
Thanks a lot, I'm glad to hear that!
on 14. July 2025, 17:44 by Isfan
Very nice concept, had fun solving this for sure. The break in was a bit easier than expected for 4*, definitely felt like a 3* for me.
-- PFF:
Thank you! Yeah, I can definitely see the argument for 3*
