{"id":34456,"date":"2025-11-08T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=34456"},"modified":"2025-11-10T07:47:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:47:25","slug":"threes-a-crowd-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/threes-a-crowd-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Three&#8217;s A Crowd 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>This short stretch of Outside Sudoku puzzles continues with an interesting Three&#8217;s A Crowd Sudoku idea where only two of the three clues in each outside position are valid.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/251108-ThreesACrowdSudoku.png\" alt=\"Three's A Crowd Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/251108-ThreesACrowdSudoku.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/251108Thre\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 52nd 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> Insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region. Some sets of three numbers are given outside the grid. Two of the three numbers must appear in the first three cells in the corresponding direction, while the third number must not appear in those cells.<\/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;\">Second Saurolophus<\/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-Three_s_A_Crowd_Sudoku_II-a568-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\/251108-ThreesACrowdSudoku-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/mbDL0Zo9snU\">solving video<\/a> with explanation from GAS team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b>\u00a0Follow this link for more\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/outsidesudoku\/\">Outside Sudoku puzzles<\/a>. More Outside Sudoku puzzles can be found in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shop.gmpuzzles.com\/products\/masterpiece-sudoku-mix-4-outside-sudoku\"><i>Masterpiece Sudoku Mix 4<\/i><\/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.) This short stretch of Outside Sudoku puzzles continues with an interesting Three&#8217;s A Crowd Sudoku idea where only two of the three clues in each outside position are valid. PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Author\/Opus: This is the 52nd puzzle from Bill Murphy, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36,55],"tags":[15,37,56,237],"class_list":["post-34456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puzzle","category-outside-sudoku","category-variation","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-outsidesudoku","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>Three&#039;s A Crowd Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Outside Sudoku variations continue with a Three&#039;s A Crowd Sudoku idea where only two of the three clues in each outside position is valid.\" \/>\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\/11\/threes-a-crowd-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=\"Three&#039;s A Crowd Sudoku by Bill Murphy - 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