There were quite a few comments from our visitors, especially on the Daily Killer Sudoku page, which makes that and other pages load slow. Therefore, I have moved some of the old comments to this new category.
If you’d like to read what other people had to say about our puzzles you may find the old comment by clicking on the “comments” link below or here.
UPDATE (some 5 years later): I reopened the comments on all pages. Feel free to add your comments there, it means a lot to me!
Puhh! Todays killer was one of the hardest I’ve seen so far. Compliments!!!
ND’s 5th puzzle is out… so people looking for a challenge could grab it now…
These days I’m doing all Times’ and djape’s sub-IQ ones “without pencilmarks”, that’s just putting the cell values in without listing the candidates at all. That way most puzzles are quite enjoyable, including the Brain one on Monday. So I suggest all those who keep complaining for puzzles being too easy to try and do that (if you’re not doing it already), and you’ll enjoy more killer sudoku puzzles, even the Times ones!
hi!
dont understand anything. i got stuck totally today. this iq is the hardest one ever as far as i am concerned.
am i the only one who has problems today???
ron
Tuesday’s puzzle was a bit challanging, but fun.
tuesday’s construction was so beautiful!! loved the puzzle.
a hint for ron: If you have an 8-cell cage (sumbox with room for 8 numbers), then all except one of the numbers 1-9 must be in it. Subtracting the sum of the cage from 45 will tell you that number. So for example, in nonet c3, there can’t be an 8 in the 37 cage (because 45-37 is 8), so there must be an 8 in the 11 cage, and so the only other numbers that could go in that 11 cage would be 1 and 2. this quickly gives you the 10 cage and 8 cage on the bottom row, and so on. you can also do this is nonet a1
serious kudos on this one DjApe!
as to my above comment, that smiley face should be the number 8 … not sure why it came out that way
Good one today! Took me three attempts to get it right. 🙂
December 13 killer was great!!! Thanks DJape.
ATB, STan.
The other day I clicked a link to a japanese site with killer-type samunampure’s which only had greater/less than signs (=)instead of cage totals.
Was just getting the hang of it on my printouts then went wrong. Want to re-try but have lost the link. Tried the ND – ‘Don’t Explain’ site but still can’t find.
Anybody know it?
btw I would like to comment on the ‘warm’ nature of this (DJ’s) site. Other pages that I converse on sometimes have a bit of an edge – critical and even abusive. DJ’s correspondents are invariably helpful, pleasant and encouraging. A pleasure to belong to.
Many thanks.
Dec 13 Killer was probably one of the most difficult problems I have tried. Had to go to several trial & error sheets to reduce the unknown areas.
hello hasher,
that is the link you ask for:
//www.ndorward.com/blog/?p=75
My opinion about djape’s site is very positiv too.
I thought it would be nice if we posted our country like Mike signs off Mike Japan. I often wonder where everyone is from, especially with the time zones.
Adele – Australia
Yesterday (Dec 13th) was the Golf Club Christmas Lunch, so I was late downloading the killer. Was it the wine, or was yesterday’s HARD! I spent all evening doing it, finally resorting to trial and error for the last few numbers so that I could go to bed. Will have to try it again sometime – without the wine! Did anyone finish it without any ‘trial and error’, and did anyone think it ‘a piece of cake’?
Yesterday’s was the only one I haven’t finished – I just could not get the 6th nonet to work. Looking at the solution I had almost everything correct so don’t know why I didn’t finish it! I don’t know how people can do the puzzles in their heads! Must have younger heads than me.
I found Monday’s Times puzzle easy!
Re the 13th December Killer. OK, I got all the “small numbers” you show on solution 1, but apart from the 3-5 in the bottom row, I couldn’t see how to fill in any answers. Any chance of a bit of detail, at least of how to start…
Hey Gaynor,
finished the puzzle IQ from 13 Dec without ‘trial and error’.But had to look at the last cages (21 starting in the nonet 5 and 16 starting in the nonet 3) extremly intensiv and had to think over all possible combinations for this cages considering the numbers left.
But then it works!
For Adele:
Bye bye from Germany
13th december killer was very difficult and took me over 2 hrs to do. more please dj.
Zauspon
Thanks for the site. Can’t find it through the link you gave me.
The puzzle has a copyright mark: Miyuki Misawa, but a google doesn’t give anything useful (ie not Japanese).
Any other ideas?
Really struggling with tuesdays IQ. Am I missing something obvious!
nothing obvius David!
It took me several hours. My clue: concentrate on the square (nonnet?) on th left at the bottom. It worked for me!
Ana Spain
Tuesday’s IQ:
Got well into it, about 60% of numbers solved then unable to proceed. Lots of pairs in cols and rows but no clues to proceed esp nonet 6+ 9,
Eventually resorted to guess wok and succeded on 2nd attempt. Not happy with this. Missing something to make the final resolution.
Hasher
Greece
So far tried four times to solve Dec 13 IQ and still not succeeded. I refuse to guess or look at the answer. I know I’m missing something but what? For light relief I completed ND’s excellent #5 puzzle. I also agree with Udosuk (fools and idiots seldom differ!). With the easy puzzles in Djape’s killer book I’m trying to do them all in my head with no pencil marks – the same for the Times.
Mike Japan
weds easy X
last two columns of row 3 4 and 7 are interchangable ie not unique – have I missed something – I know it is an X
leggedit, you can’t switch R4C8 and R4C9 because the cage sums wouldn’t be correct.
To all: Tuesday’s IQ killer was solvable by “logic” alone. Lots of cage splitting and naked/hidden subsets required. No trial and error.
whoops – brain dead!!!
went into high spped normal suduko mode at end sorry.
Today’s killer samurai – (the 1-4 one) has two solutions…
The central 2 rows can either be
1234
2413
OR
2413
1234
Makes no difference to the rest of the puzzle though
ArgonO, I was so close to admitting that there is a bug in the puzzle, BUT, I found an error in your second solution: the middle 4×4 square must be a valid Sudoku puzzle, but in you second solution you have two times number 4 in the top left nonet of the middle puzzle.
You nearly got me there! 🙂
Looks like the symbols made part of my post delete itself! The link for the greater than/less than puzzles by Misawa is http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sumnumberplace/79790008/
Also check the “Non-Pappocom” section of the Players Forums on http://www.sudoku.com – much discussion on these puzzles initiated by yours truly 🙂
Have just completed ND’s 5th puzzle at the 2nd attempt. Looking forward to something a bit harder from DJ tomorrow!
Just to let you know that I really like the double/triple trouble puzzles (although Wednesday’s was pretty easy). I find regular Samurai sudoku kind of dull and repetitive.
Finally finished 12/13 IQ — the most challenging killer I’ve ever seen.
Bob – try these 2
www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sumnumberplace/79790008/
Phyllis – England
Spent the week doing ND’s puzzles so miles behind on this week’s killers. ND’s puzzles are slightly different to DJ’s and hence a new and interesting challenge. Both 3 & 4 are very difficult, especially number 4 which took me 3 days on and off and I had to solve with a substitution in the end! Good challenge though.
DJ can todays samurai thing be broken up into separate puzzles – for the lovers of killers only?
Adele, sorry but it has to be solved as one.
Really there is nothing different in solving this puzzle from solving 5 separate puzzles, you just need a bigger paper :). You start off on one sub-puzzle, when you get stuck, move on to another one and so forth. Once you got stuck on all 5, the clues from other sub-puzzles should help you with solving the first one etc.
Have fun! 🙂
Were you keeping us in suspense today? Had to resort to doing the Times Killers instead.
Thanks, Zauspon, will look at it (Dec 13) again. I thought it should be possible but my brain had packed up for the day.
I keep doing the overlapping puzzles, but don’t enjoy them as much as the killers. Better than watching TV though.
Gaynor, UK
Wow! A killer samurai! How did you know it was my birthday? It only took me 3 days to finish tues IQ. The voting at the top of the page isn’t going too well. I reckon most people (like me)are killer-holics and don’t do the usual sudoku unless they’re bored. How about a vote about where people do killers (I like the bath), or a vote about what people listen to while they’re doing them (Coldplay)
Mike Japan
Excellent Killer Samurai. Completed without too many problems. Once you get started it all falls out fairly simply. The problem with this and standard Samurai is that they tend to be number crunching exercises, not particularly difficult just time consuming. However, it was very enjoyable and many thanks. Keep up the good work and make them harder!
Haven’t posted yet but I get the killers every day and I love them! Regarding 12/14’s Easy X. I came up with two solutions, and even after checking the posted solution I am convinced there are two. My problem lies in R3C4 and R3C5, and R7C4 and R7C5. I have every other number correct by the posted solution, but it seems that the two numbers in R3 and R7 are interchangeable. Did anyone else have this problem, or was it just me?
Lyndru, I’m confused by your explanation – which numbers you think can be interchanged?
Make sure your cage sums are correct when you exchange them. At later stages of solving a puzzle it’s often easy to ignore the cage sums, but they are there and must add up.
Nevermind! I was referring to the numbers 2 and 3 in rows 3 and 7. I can’t believe I missed the cage sum restriction. This is the first of your puzzles to stump me. But, I haven’t yet started the Dec. 13 puzzle…I understand that might take me a while!
Thanks,
Lyndru
Great Killer Samurai…
Good printablility (the Killer samurai is really difficult to be printed), smooth solution and great fun as usualy,
thanks again Dj!
Hi Folks, Congrats, djape, on being able to generate killer Samurai. I have to say, though, that like Steve C, I tend to favour 9×9 difficult killer puzzles (like Dec 13)to bulky-but-mainly-number crunching ones. I agree, too, that ND’s are also good (although non-symmetrical?) and the ‘greater-than’ ones on biglobe.jp are a gas. The only other ‘greater-than’ that I’ve come across is at http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_09_05_05.html. I’d love some more of these, hmmm, Xmas is on the way, …..hint,hint, nudge, nudge,
All the best:-)
Stan – London.
I agree about the killer samurai which I will not attempt. I dislike these “multiple” puzzles. They are too confusing, take too long to finish and are not such a good intellectual challenge to complete as a good difficult 9×9. Will try those greater than puzzles Stan.
Stan can you give us a link to the biglobe.jp puzzles. Thanks
Julie – Berkshire
Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m going to try to do the killer samurai on the 1.5 hour train journey between my house and Yokohama on the way to watch Liverpool v Sao Paolo in the World Club Championship final (my birthday present). As it’s nearly Xmas, why don’t other killer-holics write about their strangest, most interesting place they have sudokued?
Mike Japan
PS The toilet is also a good place!
PPS I’d rather read an interesting story from you guys than read about swordfish/Nishio solving techniques or people having 2 answers for an X.
Hi Julie,
They’re the Miyuki Misawa ones that Cathy mentions above. http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sumnumberplace/79790008/ . Hope I didn’t get your hopes up too much for a further source. All the Best:-)
Stan.
DJs book arrived and Pat is in heaven.
No need to get a movie and doesn’t care that Foxtel or TV is super boring, apart from the sport. He will be occupied for some time.
Who are you supporting Mike? Have a good birthday.
Hi Frank
RE: www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sumnumberplace/79790008/
Thanks for your suggestion on Dec 16th, 2005 at 4:29 am
[shouldn’t you be sleeping at 4:29am, rather than doing killers??]
I did the first puzzle – [after finishing DJ’s killer samurai, I needed to do something to avoid work until the new killer appears on Monday] – and found multiple solutions. For the last dozen or so cells I did cheat just a little and used the assistant from http://www.soduko-san.com
Thanks again – and have a nice weekend! Bob
Concerning samurai sudoku in Washington Post Express Friday 12/16/05: Is there an error in this puzzle? I solved 3 squares and doublechecked them several times, but they do not mesh in the middle square. Also left lower square has two solutions. Fourth and sixth horizontal lines counting from the top:fives and eights are interchangeable.
Please tell me I’m right, since I spent all evening on this.
Thanks
I like to do the easy 9×9 puzzles but I don’t which ones they are. Can you help me?