{"id":34399,"date":"2025-10-30T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T07:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=34399"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T20:15:00","slug":"x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"X-Sums 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<em>Even I had a joyful smile from Bill picking a really nice visual theme to follow up on earlier outside clue puzzle idea from <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/sandwich-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/>9 days ago<\/a>. The rhyming grids hav been some great GAS for my imagination these last two months. Enjoy the puzzle.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/251030-XSumsSudoku-AllFutures.png\" alt=\"X-Sums Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/251030-XSumsSudoku-AllFutures.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/251030AllF\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> All Futures<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 49th 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, the clues outside the grid indicate the sum of the first X numbers placed in the corresponding direction, where X is equal to the first number placed in that direction (e.g., if R1C1 is 3, then the three numbers in R1C1 (i.e., 3) and R2C1 and R3C1 all add up to 18).<\/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;\">7:00<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">13:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">Simplified Sigilmassasaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view):<\/b> <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">2:05<\/span>, with <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-All_Futures-a695-d125.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\/251030-XSumsSudoku-AllFutures-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/zWEDz0lo9Sg\">solving video<\/a> with explanation from GAS team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b> 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.) Even I had a joyful smile from Bill picking a really nice visual theme to follow up on earlier outside clue puzzle idea from 9 days ago. The rhyming grids hav been some great GAS for my imagination these last two months. Enjoy the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,126],"tags":[8,15,56,237],"class_list":["post-34399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puzzle","category-othersudoku","tag-sudoku-3","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-variation-2","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>X-Sums Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even I had a joyful smile from Bill picking a really nice visual theme to follow up on earlier outside clue puzzle idea from 9 days ago.\" \/>\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\/10\/x-sums-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=\"X-Sums Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even I had a joyful smile from Bill picking a really nice visual theme to follow up on earlier outside clue puzzle idea from 9 days ago.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-30T07:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-02T20:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/251030-XSumsSudoku-AllFutures.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Murphy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@drsudoku\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Murphy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Murphy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"headline\":\"X-Sums Sudoku by Bill Murphy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-30T07:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-02T20:15:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2025\\\/251030-XSumsSudoku-AllFutures.png\",\"keywords\":[\"sudoku\",\"wed\\\/thurs\",\"variation\",\"gas\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Puzzle\",\"Other Sudoku\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/x-sums-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"name\":\"X-Sums Sudoku by Bill Murphy - 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