Kolk is another of the ultra-difficult Sudokus I have been working on latey. I eventually recognized that it had the same basic design as cigarette (video #25). This definitely helped me work out a strategy to solve it. On the one hand, this means that Kolk was not as much of a challenge as it would have been if I had not previously seen cigarette. On the other hand, it shows that pattern recognition, arising from experience with a variety of designs, is a valuable tool for solvers to have in their kit. And these very difficult puzzles all seem to have distinct designs. This makes it very satisfying to work on them; they have an elegance and even beauty that is lacking in more basic puzzles, in which number seems to follow number all the way through without a sense of an overall structure or plan.
In the video I essentially account for the 4 that I supply at 00:20 and the 1 that I supply at 00:29. As for the 7 that I supply at 00:34, that is admittedly the result of trial and error. The 8 and 9 simply didn't work.
Update to information on video: Kolk was created by a Sudoku designer and theorist who went by the name of eleven on player forums.
24 апр 2024
