(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.)
Will the logic fall for you like dominoes in this Killer Sudoku puzzle by clover!?

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Author/Opus: This is the 34th 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 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 (🎩🥳): 7:00; One party hat (🥳): 13:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: deadly Diamantinasaurus.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 2:52, 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 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.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
Our testing was fine in a single country, like the US where Sudoku originated. But when we considered the rules of the road in Japan, and then the unusual spacing initially seen in Britain too, everything got messed up. Single systems are not useful. We’ll need to think about at least two, maybe three at a time to get to ASI.

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Author/Opus: This is 5th puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

Rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each white cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 7:30, Master = 12:30, Expert = 25:00

Solution: PDF and solving video from Unshackling Sudokus & Puzzles channel.

Note: Follow this link for 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.)
Literally no one is here to get this Sudoku started, so you’ll have nine to place before reaching the solution to this Nonconsecutive Sudoku by Philip Newman.

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Theme: Literally No One

Author/Opus: This is the 14th 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). No two orthogonally adjacent cells can be consecutive (i.e., differ by 1).

GAS Time Standards (highlight to view): Two party hats (🎩🥳): 7:30; One party hat (🥳): 15:00. All other solvers earn a 🦕: Conniving Cienciargentina.

Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): 3:22, 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 Consecutive Sudoku. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Consecutive Sudoku to get started on.

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.

(This post is part of: “A Story of Self-setting Sudoku”.)
Our testing is showing that we may have an ASI (believe the hype!), but not a GASI (Genuinely Approachable Sudoku Intelligence) without more prompting. So we’ve started to use prompts to get data for reinforcement learning with way mo’ focus on Sudoku-based decision making. This one starts with the basics, going from 0 to 9 in 8.1 seconds, a new sudoku speed record.

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Author/Opus: This is 2nd puzzle from “Dr. Sudoku”, our AI-powered puzzle engine pushing the limits of sudoku intelligence.

Rules: Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each white cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 1.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 1:00, Master = 1:45, Expert = 3:30

Solution: PDF

Note: Follow this link for 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.

As we master self-setting, we may need to start dialing back the AI so that even beginners can catch up to the awesome logic hidden by Dr. Sudoku. In the future, no more unsolvable puzzles until we see signs of intelligence to rival ours. Today, we’ll share some assistance from our deep sea radar to show the shallow waters.
No more missed promises. We’re launching “Full Setting Automation” tomorrow.

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Theme: Red Fish, Blue Fish (4.875 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 590th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 4.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 9:00, Master = 15:00, Expert = 30:00

Solution: PDF and solving video from Unshackling Sudokus & Puzzles.

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.

We’ve gotten the red flags outside of the grid but still cannot make sense of them. It may be tied to that shiny yellow number in the corner, another survivor from yesterday’s expanded challenge. The rest of this space is from the new training ground we traveled to. Who knew training reasoning models with just 50 word tokens could lead to such amazing intelligence?
Given our rate of progress, we’ll show off “Full Setting Automation” by tomorrow!

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Theme: Don’t Like the Sudoku We Doctor? Sue Us!?! (4.75 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 589th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

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.

Nothing to worry about; some minor issues before we can show off our full self-setting technology. We’re being warned that the flagged number is causing a disturbance that puts our powerful AI at risk. Still, we have new hope that we have eliminated all weak spots in our GPU core. No more big explosions today.
Given our rate of progress, we’ll show off “Full Setting Automation” by tomorrow!

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or solve online (using SudokuPad)

Theme: Unexpected Swerve (4.5 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 588th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 4:00, Master = 6:00, Expert = 12:00

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.

The fourth level of self-setting is “High Setting Automation”. The editor relaxes as an automated, intelligent process (AI) generates grids that are then passed to a second AI the editor has set up to reject almost everything that is not an outlier, since corner cases may be the only interesting things left to search for. When needed, the editor still acts to reject unfriendly logic before publishing.

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Theme: Intelligence is Thinking * The Box (4 of 5)

Author/Opus: This is the 587th puzzle from Thomas Snyder.

Rules: Standard Sudoku rules.

Difficulty (highlight to view): 3.5 stars

Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 3:45, Master = 5:45, Expert = 11:30

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.

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 and solving video from Unshackling Sudokus & Puzzles.

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 and solving video with explanation 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.