The third level of self-setting is “Conditional Setting Automation”. The author can now simply ask, for familiar grid patterns, for automation to generate valid Sudoku with specific characteristics. The author — now more of an editor — relaxes until there are thousands of solution paths to watch go through their steps, and looks for whatever is “interesting” to the eye. Beauty is in the eye of the editor.

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Theme: Intelligence is Thinking * The Box (3 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 586th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 8:30, Master = 13:30, Expert = 27:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for all entries in A Story of Self-setting Sudoku. Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.
Bill Murphy presents this beautiful classic sudoku with one perfect solution and no flaws at all.

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Theme: I Admit My Faults

Author/Opus: This is the 9th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 5:00; One party hat (🥳): 10:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Single Suuwassea.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:15, 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 classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More Sudoku including variations can be found in these books in our e-store. Also, visit this page to purchase all of the puzzles from the 16th World Sudoku Championship including classic 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.

The second level of self-setting is “Partial Setting Automation”. The author, who has come up with a previously interesting grid pattern, finds a new starting seed, and then uses computer assistance to add all other numbers to generate lots of valid puzzles which guide the picking of a preferred “gem” from suggested characteristics including novelty, breadth of solving path, and the kind of steps.

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Theme: Intelligence is Thinking * The Box (2 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 585th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:30, Master = 10:00, Expert = 20:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for all entries in A Story of Self-setting Sudoku. Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.
Like a Little Killer Sudoku, the internal arrows in this Sum Detector Sudoku indicate the sum of some number of cells along their path, but the number of cells must be determined.

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Author/Opus: This is the 30th 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). Also, the number in each cell with an arrow must equal the sum of the values in one or more cells along the diagonal pointed at by the arrow, starting with the cell that the arrow points to directly. (For instance, R1C3 could equal R2C4, or R2C4+R3C5, or R2C4+R3C5+R4C6, and so on.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 6:30; One party hat (🥳): 12:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: additive Anzu.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:34, 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 and solving video with explanation 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.

The first level of self-setting is “Setter Assistance”. The author, who has thought of an interesting idea, comes up with a grid pattern by hand, fills in a starting seed, and then adds the remaining numbers with some software to characterize the remaining solutions and get a unique Sudoku. AI is used for making postscript art, but not the AI within AI which is more than just assistance.

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Theme: Intelligence is Thinking * The Box (1 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 584th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 10:30, Expert = 21:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for all entries in A Story of Self-setting Sudoku. Follow this link for other classic Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Sudoku to get started on. More classic Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku, The Art of Sudoku 2 and in our beginner-friendly collection Intro to GMPuzzles by Serkan Yürekli.

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

This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.

How will you find your way through this Killer Sudoku by Philip Newman? A walk in the park, or a death by tuples?

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Theme: Death by Tuples

Author/Opus: This is the 11th puzzle from Philip Newman, 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). Also, the sum of the numbers in each cage must equal the value given in the upper-left corner of that cage. Numbers cannot repeat inside a cage.

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

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:25, 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 more Killer Sudoku and this link for classic Sudoku. More Killer Sudoku puzzles can be found in Killer Sudoku by Serkan Yürekli.

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.

Unlike our usual Arrow Sudoku, there are no sum constraints here; the arrows tell you how many different numbers appear on the path. Can you solve the sudoku by Bill Murphy?

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Author/Opus: This is the 8th puzzle from Bill Murphy, 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). The number in the bulb of an arrow indicates the number of unique numbers that appear along the arrow.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Cotton Cumnoria.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:21, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.

In this second puzzle in a Surplus/Deficit series this week, all the extras from puzzle one are leading to some less full spaces in this grid. Can you still complete this Deficit Sudoku by Clover?

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Author/Opus: This is the 29th puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team.

Rules: Standard Deficit Sudoku rules, with numbers from 1-8: Insert a number from 1 to 8 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row or column. Some regions appear with fewer cells than there are numbers in the indicated range. No number repeats in these regions, but not all numbers will appear in each of these regions.

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: deficient Daspletosaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:19, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.

Happy Two Pi Day to those not yet aware of other events today. We thought a combination of Thermometers and Arrows would be a great way to celebrate a natural constant!

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Theme: Because 2 π’s Are Better Than One

Author/Opus: This is the 583rd puzzle from Thomas Snyder, aka Dr. Sudoku.

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). Some thermometer shapes are in the grid; numbers must be strictly increasing from the round bulb to the flat end. Some arrow shapes are in the grid; the sum of the numbers along the path of each arrow must equal the number in the circled cell. Numbers can repeat within an arrow shape. The coloring is strictly to emphasize the theme.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 12:00, Master = 24:00, Expert = 48:00

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for more Arrow Sudoku. Follow this link for more Thermo-Sudoku puzzles. More Arrow and Thermo-Sudoku puzzles can be found in The Art of Sudoku 2.

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

All the straight blue lines in this Region Sum Lines by Philip Newman are hiding curious logic that might just work out like some “blue” magic.

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Theme: Magic Blue

Author/Opus: This is the 10th puzzle from Philip Newman, 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). Along each line, the numbers in every region it passes through have the same sum. (In this puzzle, for example, R1C9 + R2C8 + R3C7 = R4C6 + R5C5 + R6C4 = R7C3 + R8C2 + R9C1.)

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 9:00; One party hat (🥳): 18:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Sumptuous Sulaimanisaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 4:04, 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 and solving video with explanation from GAS team.

Note: Follow this link for more Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles on this site. 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.