{"id":36129,"date":"2026-08-02T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=36129"},"modified":"2026-07-28T06:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T13:09:46","slug":"sum-before-nine-sudoku-by-clover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/sum-before-nine-sudoku-by-clover\/","title":{"rendered":"Sum Before Nine Sudoku by clover!"},"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>Can you rise above the challenge of the outside sum clues and end up on cloud nine in this Sudoku by clover!?<\/em><\/p>\n<p align='center'><img src='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260802-SumBeforeNineSudoku-CloudNine.png' alt='Sum Before Nine Sudoku by clover!' \/><\/p>\n<p align='center'><a href='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260802-SumBeforeNineSudoku-CloudNine.pdf'>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/s\/260802Clou'>solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> Cloud Nine<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 163rd puzzle from Clover, 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\/sudoku-rules-and-info\/'>Sudoku<\/a> rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). Clues outside the grid indicate the sum of all numbers that appear before the 9 in that row or column, looking from that direction. (For example, a row with a clue of &#8220;6&#8221; to its left might start with values like 249, 1329, or 69.)<\/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'>6:30<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style='color: white;background-color: white'>12:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style='color: white;background-color: white'>cloudy Claosaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view):<\/b> <span style='color: white;background-color: white'>1:41<\/span>, with <a href='https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-clover-August_2_2026_Sum_Before_9-a673-d102.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\/260802-SumBeforeNineSudoku-CloudNine-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> Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our <a href='https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/1059513302847336469\/1380897111599616020'>Daily GAS discussion<\/a> post on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click <a href='https:\/\/discord.gg\/RNNfEBEbQS'>this link<\/a> for basic access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.) Can you rise above the challenge of the outside sum clues and end up on cloud nine in this Sudoku by clover!? PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Theme: Cloud Nine Author\/Opus: This is the 163rd puzzle from Clover, part of the Genuinely Approachable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"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-36129","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 v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sum Before Nine Sudoku by clover! - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can you rise above the challenge of the outside sum clues and end up on cloud nine in this Sudoku by clover!?\" \/>\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\/08\/sum-before-nine-sudoku-by-clover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sum Before Nine Sudoku by clover! 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