Forty-Four (fog)
(Published on 17. June 2026, 19:00 by jwsinclair)
Forty-Four, by James Sinclair
Normal sudoku rules apply, and all clues are standard.
Dynamic fog: correctly placed digits clear fog from their own cell and possibly other cells.
Cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner, and digits cannot repeat within a cage. Cage sums are in the left-most cell in the highest row reached by the cage, and all cage sums are given.
Renban lines: purple lines contain a non-repeating set of consecutive digits in any order. Lines do not branch or overlap.
SudokuPad
Originally published in Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 232. I gave this puzzle a rare 10/10 difficulty rating on my scale, which doesn't mean it's the toughest puzzle in the world, just that it's at the very high end of what I feel comfortable publishing in AS (I'm setting it at 3* here, and won't be shocked if it drops to 2*).
Solution code: row 9
Comments
on 25. June 2026, 12:45 by Grecolons
Really nice puzzle, took quite a while but it was very dynamic. Above average on difficulty, 3.5 stars.
on 24. June 2026, 20:35 by Sushila
Beautiful puzzle. I had marked up my puzzle so much I missed a renban line that appeared near the end.
on 24. June 2026, 18:03 by Flinty
Lovely puzzle :) For what it's worth, I would put it at the trickier end of 3*/5.
on 23. June 2026, 19:02 by yuripuppies
Very lovely, fun puzzle! Just challenging enough to be super rewarding experience when you succeed without being upsetting when you get stuck, a perfect 3*
on 22. June 2026, 18:45 by BorisTheSnake
Loved the logic, but was very hard to finish (I thought there was a deadly pattern, not seeing one of the Renbans behind my lines/colors). Great puzzle though, was a lot of fun.
on 22. June 2026, 16:09 by puzzlepandit
Very nice puzzle.
on 21. June 2026, 05:50 by psams
I like these kind of puzzles that start with a mainly geometric problem to discover the puzzle, and then finish with placing all the digits, with a bit of interaction between the two. Stumbled a bit with an incorrect assumption about a renban line - after that, steady to the end.
on 21. June 2026, 01:32 by DJV
This puzzle was a workout! But a very enjoyable one!
on 18. June 2026, 18:04 by pmays123
Very satisfying solve. Great construction. Thanks!
on 18. June 2026, 12:08 by Franjo
Thank you very much for creating and sharing another wonderful puzzle.
on 18. June 2026, 01:31 by Chaossudokusplease
Wonderful puzzle! Great flow with lots of switching up the approach all the way through. I don’t know how you would make a similar puzzle that doesn’t just feel like a copy paste, but I would love to see one!
on 18. June 2026, 00:50 by Mondo
Really enjoyable puzzle.
As with others, lots of markings and colours to keep track of it all!
And nice that the difficulty held all the way through.
on 18. June 2026, 00:04 by fitzie
wow, I had to change coloring scheme several times. and keep track of the cages. We're going to need a bigger palette.
on 18. June 2026, 00:00 by VitP
quite hard, primarily for administrative & technical reasons.
eg. very hard to do basic sudoku if you can't see the markup ...
but basic sudoku is what saves the day.
on 17. June 2026, 21:22 by Tank
Very nice puzzle! Just when you think you're in the clear another resistance appears. I loved it all the way through.
on 17. June 2026, 21:09 by wuc
3.5* to me. Feels very hand crafted. Huge fun to flow with the clever steps. Great setting thx.
on 17. June 2026, 19:33 by galium_odoratum
As expected, a well-crafted and fun to solve puzzle! I really like the idea and the execution is just excellent :)
on 17. June 2026, 19:28 by jwsinclair
updated image link
on 17. June 2026, 19:18 by RockyRoer
Clicking the picture brings us to a different link, by the way.
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D'oh! Lazy copy-and-pasting by me, thanks
on 17. June 2026, 19:18 by hundertzwoelf
Already solved it when you sent it in the newsletter. Very nice cage logic :) It feels a little bit like chaos construction, which I really love!
