(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Today’s GAS features the full Battenburg dessert: the checkerboard clues show where an alternating even/odd pattern must appear and the absence of such clues indicates there is no such “pretty” pattern in that space.

PDF

or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Accentuate the Negative

Author/Opus: This is the 84th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Whenever a checkerboard clue appears at the intersection of four cells, the numbers in those cells must form a “checkerboard” pattern of odd and even (i.e., one diagonally opposite pair is odd and the other pair is even). All possible checkerboard clues have been given, so any sets of four cells without a clue cannot have a “checkerboard” pattern of odd and even.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 8:00; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: negative Neovenator.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:54, with SudokuPad replay file shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).

Solution: PDF; solving video with explanation to be added later from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for other less common variations of Sudoku.

Note 2: Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our Daily GAS discussion post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click this link for basic access.