Grabbing a Bite of Sudoku

Normal sudoku rules apply, and identical digits cannot be a knight’s move apart. The grey region contains no repeated digits. The cage contains no repeated digits, and shows its sum. Along a thermometer, digits increase from the bulb end. A number outside the grid are sandwich indicates the sum of digits sandwiched between the 1 and the 9 in that row/column.

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▶Music◀
Tim McCaskey (Guitar) or Lucy Audrin (Piano) or Riffclown plays Mozart's Sonata no 16 ("Sonata Facile")
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Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). Thanks to Sam Cappleman-Lynes and Sven Neumann for their work.
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Melvyn Mainini

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Joel Blundell

▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships. We're also "cryptic crossword" aficionados. Mark is the twelve-time winner of The Times championship and Simon is the former record holder for most consecutive correct solutions to The Listener crossword. We hope we can help your puzzle solving while also introducing you to some of the world's best puzzles.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[trainsinpoland]

Definitely a Simon moment with ruling out the 9 in R5C4. Overlook the obvious but reach the same conclusion with some brilliant complicated logic. I loved the solve as always and I am sure I would not have solved it under 2 hours, if at all. Thank you for your commitment (and of course Simon's) to the channel producing these brilliant puzzles every single day.

[stephencraigen]

Reflecting on some of these comments and the recent error Simon made in a solve, those of you commenting saying you're words to the effect of 'annoyed' or 'disappointed' when Mark misses something need some perspective. Anyone who has solved a Sudoku knows that your brain gets very settled into certain logical paths that it is sometimes difficult to extricate yourself from, meaning that you can miss something that might have been staring you in the face for a long time. This is especially true when you are an outside observer not solving the puzzle yourself! So congratulations if you saw it, now solve the puzzle before looking at a video and see what you took ages to spot! ;)

Long time viewers of the channel will know that Mark is capable of the most astounding leaps of logic that would take most of us 5 times as long, if ever, to notice. I actually find his solves absolutely fascinating, as his brain works in a very different way to mine on this front. So honestly, if you're considering writing something negative on a video, take a step back, remember that both Mark and Simon are both humans on the other end of this channel, and take a moment to consider whether your comment is in good faith or just an easy thing to write for a laugh at their expense. There's a difference between gentle teasing and genuine snark, and there shouldn't be any of the latter on a channel devoted to some very chilled Sudoku solving!

[mikeharris]

The breakin is possible without set theory and much cooler.

1. The last digit on the thermo must be 9. If it was 8 then you would have 8765 and no room for a 21 sandwich.
2. The next digit must be 8. If it was 7 you would have 765 and need a 3 to complete the sandwich but that conflicts with the 3 in the thermo by knights move.
3. Now the sandwich either starts 876 or 865. If it was 865 then it would need a 2 to complete it and the first thermo digit would also be 2 but now column 6 has no place for a 2 because it can't go in the cage.

Therefore row 4 must begin 98761

[PhoenicisEstuans]

37:20 I've been screaming internally please see the knights move on the 7 in box 4 for so long now!!!

[dannstarrjp]

Was staring at todays Simons puzzle for like 15-20min and couldn’t find anything, decided to try Mark’s, longer video so didn’t expect to even solve it but managed in 48min, pretty happy with that:)

[emilywilliams]

I realize that you felt frustrated at times during this solve, Mark, but I feel that your frustration is because of your own internal standard of excellence and speed in spotting things, not because I am impatient. In some ways, seeing you cast your mind around the grid looking for a good next step is as instructive as if you found the next step and the next and the next in a smooth succession with no pauses. I get to see the kinds of things that I should consider when looking for a next step in a puzzle that I am attempting to solve much better when you do not have a speedy path than when you do. I enjoy the speedy solves for different reasons, mainly because I am awestruck at how quickly you do see things and how much data you keep in your mind which enables you to be quick. But this video was a great one, truly. I enjoyed it and appreciate you creating it. Lovely puzzle, too, Mountainfarmer.

[srwapo]

20:29, don't normally do "hard" puzzles, but I like these rules and obviously did okay by my time being less than half the video length! I even forgot about the knight's move restriction at first.

[piarittersporn]

With Mark's jump start (thermo and 42 cage are identical sums) everything worked perfectly. Without this I would not have been able to solve this wonderful puzzle so quickly.

[keyaanmatin]

Couldn't you rule 9 out of r5c4 by realising that 9 was pencil marked already in the grey region in box 2?

[georgeaman]

I couldn't believe that I am going to solve this puzzle without any insight from Mark. What a nice puzzle!! Thank you Mark and Mountainfarmer!

[MrZilla]

3 hours solve time for me, and I needed the helping hint with the thermo/cage at the start. Still happy I managed to get through it at all!

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 01:30
Let's Get Cracking: 02:42
Mark's time: 41m01s
Puzzle Solved: 43:43

What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
The Secret: 1x (03:00)

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Ah: 17x (07:52, 08:26, 08:43, 09:26, 10:36, 11:17, 12:55, 13:13, 20:08, 21:17, 22:01, 26:09, 27:57, 33:33, 34:15, 38:23, 42:48)
Sorry: 4x (03:53, 04:11, 11:53, 32:31)
Hang On: 4x (11:03, 29:41, 30:23, 40:42)
Obviously: 4x (04:21, 11:06, 25:36, 43:10)
Goodness: 3x (01:17, 18:42, 39:54)
Clever: 3x (19:04, 43:50, 44:06)
Missing Something: 2x (14:02, 15:47)
Surely: 2x (28:17, 33:09)
In Fact: 2x (23:15, 27:44)
Wow: 2x (19:01, 35:00)
Good Grief: 1x (21:26)
Apologies: 1x (02:36)
Stuck: 1x (29:31)
Lovely: 1x (09:47)
What Does This Mean?: 1x (17:10)

Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Forty Two (5 mentions)
Nine (111 mentions)
Green (16 mentions)

Antithesis Battles:
Outside (2) - Inside (0)
Column (21) - Row (12)

FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[ThomasFjeldbonde]

Just a brilliant puzzle!!… A nice path through and stays challenging far beyond just the break-in…

[warren_r]

44 minutes for me. Very nice puzzle! Took me a little while to sort through the opening logic but then it flowed really nicely.

[OlafDoschke]

Don't be embarrassed for not spotting a knight's move. I had a deadly end pattern of many pairs in boxes 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9 and didn't see what you saw "just passing by", at 38:04. I had a 78 pair in row 6 both looking into r7c9 being 48 and I didn't see it removes the 8 as a possibility. I was looking at all solved cells pointing into all the unsolved cells and didn't find a knights move solving it, because I didn''t look for knight move constraints coming from within the unsolved cells.

I liked your deduction of the 9 in box 5 from 17:53 onwards. You could have seen the 9s in the grey cells of box 2 already rule out the 9 in r5c4, but the way you concluded it was a gem of a deduction, nevertheless. And I don't mean that ironically, I don't think this gem lost its shine just because there is a dull way to see it.

And that's how I learn to be patient about something I spot before you or Simon. On one side the video being released I know you will spot things at some point, on the other side sometimes the overcomplicated ways are actually always nice ideas, to make use of in even more challenging puzzles.

[barrydavies]

I think the grey area was a grey area and so open to wide interpretation.🙃😁 And the invisibility shield around the 7 was no help either.

[wanderlustwarrior]

38:05 for me. That was nice and easy with some interesting logic. I wound up not using coloring or SET theory.

[glennmelven]

Colors, sandwich clues and knights moves broke my brain.

[Coyotek]

34:04 ... had a good start, but found myself bifurcating to finish. Not proud, but I'm still a week behind so I'm still cutting corners a bit.

Nice puzzle!

[Swisswavey]

I've lost count of the number of puzzles where I get stuck and watch the video. Within 2 seconds I think "Oh yeah, the knights move. That's what I forgot".