{"id":36100,"date":"2026-07-25T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=36100"},"modified":"2026-07-22T08:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:51:16","slug":"deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Deficit 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>Not all the regions are measuring up in this Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy; avoid repeats, but don&#8217;t think about &#8220;full sets&#8221; in those spaces.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align='center'><img src='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260725-DeficitSudoku.png' alt='Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy' \/><\/p>\n<p align='center'><a href='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260725-DeficitSudoku.pdf'>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/s\/260725Defi'>solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 140th 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/deficit-surplus-sudoku-rules-and-info\/\" \/>Deficit Sudoku<\/a> rules, with numbers from 1-7: Insert a number from 1 to 7 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row or column. Some regions appear with fewer cells than there are numbers in the indicated range. No number repeats in these regions, but not all numbers will appear in each of these regions.<\/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\">5:00<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">10:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">Missing Manidens<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view): <\/b> <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">1:23<\/span>, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-Deficit_Sudoku-a364-d85.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\/260725-DeficitSudoku-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.) Not all the regions are measuring up in this Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy; avoid repeats, but don&#8217;t think about &#8220;full sets&#8221; in those spaces. PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Author\/Opus: This is the 140th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,48],"tags":[15,49,82,237],"class_list":["post-36100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puzzle","category-deficitsurplus-sudoku","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-deficitsurplussudoku","tag-classic","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not all the regions are measuring up in this Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy; Avoid repeats, but don&#039;t think about &quot;full sets&quot; in those spaces.\" \/>\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\/07\/deficit-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=\"Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not all the regions are measuring up in this Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy; Avoid repeats, but don&#039;t think about &quot;full sets&quot; in those spaces.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-25T07:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260725-DeficitSudoku.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\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Murphy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"headline\":\"Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-25T07:00:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":235,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/260725-DeficitSudoku.png\",\"keywords\":[\"wed\\\/thurs\",\"deficit\\\/surplussudoku\",\"classic\",\"gas\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Puzzle\",\"Deficit\\\/Surplus Sudoku\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/deficit-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/260725-DeficitSudoku.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-25T07:00:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"description\":\"Not all the regions are measuring up in this Deficit Sudoku by Bill Murphy; 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