{"id":36362,"date":"2026-08-30T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T07:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=36362"},"modified":"2026-08-29T08:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:39:04","slug":"fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Fortress 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>Will this Fortress Sudoku have you going in circles, or is the solution just around the bend?<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260830-FortressSudoku-AroundThaBend.png\" alt=\"Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/260830-FortressSudoku-AroundThaBend.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/s\/260830Arou\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> Around Tha Bend<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 153rd 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\/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). A number in a gray cell must be larger than any number in an adjacent white cell that shares an edge. (To assist solvers, this is shown like a greater than\/less than shape in how the gray cells are drawn.)<\/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\">7:30<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">14:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn an \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">Encased Epidexipteryx<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view):<\/b> <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">3:13<\/span>, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-Around_Tha_Bend-a597-d194.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\/260830-FortressSudoku-AroundThaBend-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/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.) Will this Fortress Sudoku have you going in circles, or is the solution just around the bend? PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Theme: Around Tha Bend Author\/Opus: This is the 153rd puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) team. [&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-36362","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>Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Will this Fortress Sudoku have you going in circles, or is the solution just around the bend?\" \/>\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\/fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy - 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