Inverted Hourglass
(Published on 21. July 2026, 20:45 by Sudokujoker)
Some time ago I created a puzzle called "Hourglass" which featured Dutch Whispers, Region Sum lines and XV sums. The ratings were generally good and I was lucky enough for the puzzle to feature on CTC .
Recently I was looking back at it and wondered if it was possible to create a puzzle using the same design but with the Region Sums and Dutch Whispers swapped over. This is the result of my experiment...
Sudokupad link: https://sudokupad.app/qsiukgk4p8
Normal sudoku rules apply: place the digits 1-9 in each row, column and 3x3 box.
Dutch Whispers: Adjacent digits along an orange line must differ by at least 4.
Region Sum: Box borders divide each blue line into segments which have the same sum. Different lines may have different region sums.
X/V pairs: cells joined by an "X" sum to 10. Cells joined by a "V" sum to 5. Not all possible X/V pairs are necessarily labelled.
Solution code: Row 5
Comments
on 22. July 2026, 12:01 by Snookerfan
Very nice! Solid 3-3.5 stars for me. Thanks
on 22. July 2026, 10:54 by EmX68
Amazing, the similarity between the two puzzles. Is this one a tiny bit harder than the previous one? A nice solution path, though. Many thanks!
on 22. July 2026, 09:09 by Gunkan
Nice flow, more like 2*?
on 21. July 2026, 20:53 by Sudokujoker
As usual I wasn't quite sure where to pitch the estimated difficulty on this one. My test solve had a few tricky steps, but perhaps that isn't the only logical path possible. I don't want to write any spoilers so will look forward to seeing any feedback and ratings...
Thanks for viewing, and if you liked this please check out my other puzzles!
