{"id":36698,"date":"2026-10-20T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=36698"},"modified":"2026-10-20T01:47:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:47:39","slug":"palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Palindrome 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>Colonizing Mars or the Moon sounds more like a matter of <b>when<\/b> than <b>if<\/b> these days, so perhaps we earthlings are the true space invaders. Get ahead of the trend by populating the grid of this Palindrome Sudoku.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader.png\" alt=\"Palindrome Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/s\/261020Spac\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> Space Invader<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 170th 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). The numbers along each gray line form a palindrome (i.e., read the same forwards and backwards).<\/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 an \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">Unearthly Uintasaurus<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view):<\/b> <span style=\"color: white;background-color: white\">2:44<\/span>, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-Space_Invader-a504-d164.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\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader-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.) Colonizing Mars or the Moon sounds more like a matter of when than if these days, so perhaps we earthlings are the true space invaders. Get ahead of the trend by populating the grid of this Palindrome Sudoku. PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) [&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-36698","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 v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Palindrome Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Colonizing Mars or the moon sounds more like a matter of when than if these days, so perhaps we earthlings are the true space invaders. Get ahead of the trend by populating the grid of this Palindrome Sudoku.\" \/>\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\/10\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palindrome Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Colonizing Mars or the moon sounds more like a matter of when than if these days, so perhaps we earthlings are the true space invaders. Get ahead of the trend by populating the grid of this Palindrome Sudoku.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-20T07:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-20T08:47:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2026\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader.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\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Murphy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"headline\":\"Palindrome Sudoku by Bill Murphy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-20T07:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-20T08:47:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader.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\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/\",\"name\":\"Palindrome Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/palindrome-sudoku-by-bill-murphy-3\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/images\\\/puzzles2026\\\/261020-PalindromeSudoku-SpaceInvader.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-20T07:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-20T08:47:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.gmpuzzles.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/552de1c88fa03b2180785f81655f8014\"},\"description\":\"Colonizing Mars or the moon sounds more like a matter of when than if these days, so perhaps we earthlings are the true space invaders. 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