{"id":33918,"date":"2025-08-22T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=33918"},"modified":"2025-08-23T18:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T01:17:06","slug":"big-bands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/big-bands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bands Sudoku by Bill Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/gas\/\">Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS)<\/a> series.)<br \/>\n<i>Bill Murphy brings a clever, bendy version of Sudoku reminiscent of our familiar <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/category\/sudoku\/shape-sudoku\/>Shape Sudoku<\/a> variant. Can you twist and turn your thinking to get everything to fit?<\/i><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250822-BigBandsSudoku-ReallyBigBands.png\" alt=\"Big Bands Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" width=500\/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250822-BigBandsSudoku-ReallyBigBands.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/250822RBB\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 26th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (<a href=https:\/\/sudokutheory.com\/gas\/>GAS<\/a>) team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Rules:<\/b> 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, each band outside of the grid must be put into the grid, with some bends and rotations needed to make them fit exactly to an interior band of matching length, labeling the interior bands with the same numbers in the same relative positions.<\/p>\n<p><b>GAS Time Standards (highlight to view):<\/b> Two party hats (\ud83c\udfa9\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">8:00<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">15:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">Hey Big Spinophorosaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): <\/b> <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">3:54<\/span>, with <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-Really_Big_Bands-a978-d235.replay>SudokuPad replay file<\/a> shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).<\/p>\n<p><b>Solution:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250822-BigBandsSudoku-ReallyBigBands-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4MvThD1nRvk\">solving video<\/a> with explanation from GAS team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b> Follow this link for more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/gas\/\">Genuinely Approachable Sudoku puzzles<\/a> on this site. Follow this link for other less common variations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/sudoku-3+variation-2\/\">Sudoku<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note 2:<\/b>\u00a0Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/1059513302847336469\/1380897111599616020\">Daily GAS discussion<\/a>\u00a0post\u00a0on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/RNNfEBEbQS\">this link<\/a>\u00a0for basic access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.) Bill Murphy brings a clever, bendy version of Sudoku reminiscent of our familiar Shape Sudoku variant. Can you twist and turn your thinking to get everything to fit? PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Author\/Opus: This is the 26th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[210,3,55],"tags":[15,56,200,237],"class_list":["post-33918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shape-sudoku","category-puzzle","category-variation","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-variation-2","tag-shapesudoku","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Big Bands Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today Bill Murphy shares with us a clever, bendy version of Sudoku reminiscent of our familiar Shape Sudoku variant.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/big-bands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Bands Sudoku by Bill Murphy - 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