{"id":35757,"date":"2026-05-23T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=35757"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:06:36","slug":"cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloned Strands 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>To solve today&#8217;s GAS, you&#8217;ll need to pull apart the cloned strands and identify a special set of numbers that repeats several times.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260523-ClonedStrandsSudoku.png\" alt=\"Cloned Strands Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260523-ClonedStrandsSudoku.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/260523Clon\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 118th 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. Each line must contain the same set of numbers, but they can be in any order.<\/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\">14:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">Fourtress Fabrosaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): <\/b> <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">2:59<\/span>, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-Cloned_Strands-a639-d180.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\/puzzles2026\/260523-ClonedStrandsSudoku-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a>; solving video with explanation to be added later 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.) To solve today&#8217;s GAS, you&#8217;ll need to pull apart the cloned strands and identify a special set of numbers that repeats several times. PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Author\/Opus: This is the 118th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku [&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-35757","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 v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cloned Strands Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To solve today&#039;s GAS, you&#039;ll need to pull apart the cloned strands and identify a special set of numbers that repeats several times.\" \/>\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\/2026\/05\/cloned-strands-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=\"Cloned Strands Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To solve today&#039;s GAS, you&#039;ll need to pull apart the cloned strands and identify a special set of numbers that repeats several times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-23T07:00:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260523-ClonedStrandsSudoku.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<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Murphy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"headline\":\"Cloned Strands Sudoku by Bill Murphy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-23T07:00:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":212,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/260523-ClonedStrandsSudoku.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\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/cloned-strands-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cloned Strands Sudoku by Bill Murphy - 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