Small, but Perfectly Formed

Place 1-6 in each row, column and marked region. Cells connected by an X sum to 10. Cells connected by a V sum to 5. All X's and V's are given. Along a thermometer, digits increase from the bulb.

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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 crossword championship and twice Senior World Champion in Sudoku, 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
▶ Contents ◀
0:00 Theme Music & News around the channel
2:03 Rules of today’s puzzle
2:58 Start Of Solve - Let's Get Cracking!

[nurglesgift]

Thank you for doing my little puzzle, love the channel.. also crazy to see 4500+ people having solved my puzzle in 2 days!

[TheLetterJ]

I always love to see "All [constraint] are given."

[f.b.jeffersn]

These negative constraint puzzles are so impressive!

[emilywilliams]

I did not try this puzzle - a 6x6 as part of a 30 minute video from you, Mark, is going to be beyond me, I think. I appreciate the logical rigor that you use, I always learn something, such as how to avoid jumping over an option because something looks promising. Thanks for the video!

[Roblilley]

Managed to do this somehow in just over 9 minutes. Really pleased with myself

[Mandragorn]

Watching you do the first 10-15 mins of the puzzle made me feel a lil better. I thought I could handle this one and did just about the same struggling as you before conceding haha Glad to see you crack it!

[davidhughes]

Clever puzzle and a good solve from Mark. Thank you.

[osgrim]

I usually just watch the intros and dip in to the solve if I hit a brick wall, but ended up watching this from start to finish after making sooo little progress! Watching Mark struggle made me feel a bit better 😂

[MattYDdraig]

8:09
A beautiful negative constraint snack. Loved it.

[thebitterfig]

Solved in 13:21, but all went when I said to myself "is there a problem with this being a 1-2 Thermo between Boxes 1-4?", and I pencil marked the possibilities and it was just right. Sometimes you go hunting for a contradiction and just don't find one.

[frankjiang]

Finished in 21:37. Wonderful logic which constrains the puzzle enough to solve.

Fun puzzle!

[stevieinselby]

27:50 Unless Mark had already worked this through and I had missed it, proving that the small thermo can't be *3-4* doesn't automatically make it 1-2 ... because there's still the option of it being 1-4. True, it doesn't take long to work through the consequences of 1 on the bulb placing 2 in box 2, placing 3 in box 4 to rule that out, but you do need to go through those steps rather than leaping straight to the thermo being 1-2.

[lexihopes]

Another way of eliminating the 3-4 thermo is if it makes the pencilmarked cells in the first row 123 leaving 456 for the remaining 3 since the two on the left can't be a 46 pair the other one has to be 4 or 6 but it can't because there's a 4 beneath it on the thermo. Not sure if that was intended or your way or the setter saw both.
I found this one a bit tedious trying to figure out what you should be looking at to make the breakthrough, but admittedly it is satisfying once you do.

[StephanSpelde]

6:57 for me. The break in I found early on was: since the two thermo cells in Box 3 cannot be a 23 pair, there has to be one of 2 and 3 on the thermo in box 6. And that means that R6-C6 is always a 2.

[arandamei]

All this and Penfold too! Got to love this channel.

[stonegardner]

I solved this one on my own first, and when I got to the last little thermo, I solved it but I thought my method was not on the solve path. You also weren't sure, but I can assure you that your method was simpler than how I saw it. Turns out the 4 forces a 123 triple in the box above pointing at the bulb of the thermo. Your path is much more elegant. Great puzzle and Great video!

[GuruJ_]

The thing that cracked it for me was the deduction that there were only two *unique* solutions for the double thermo at top right. This guaranteed 4 & 5 in box 1 in c6, and once you eliminate 3 as an option in r5c6, the rest falls into place pretty easily.

Luckily I had the intuition to avoid pencil marking too early, which possibly tripped Mark up on this one.

[navster]

I wished someone would make a puzzle called "the missing x or v" where the puzzle essentially has a lot of XVs where only one is not given. I would make it myself but im no puzzle maker i can barely solve them

[piarittersporn]

8:10. I've never been so fast before. Funny little puzzle.

[chocolateboy]

I finished in 25:53 minutes. This might have been a small puzzle, but it was packed full of cool logic and difficulty. Seeing that 1 couldn't be in r2c5 was very difficult to see, due to it's impact that forces 4 into r3c4, which in turn gives 123 to be in row 2 of box 2. This destroys every low opportunity in r2c3, making it a 4 at the lowest, finally breaking the arrow by having 4 rise to a 4. It was so hard to see that. As always, it feels good to beat Mark's time. Great Puzzle!