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Advent Calendar – Dec 3
On to Day 3, and today’s puzzle is a combination of XV and King’s move sudoku called ‘We 3 Kings’. Cells with an X or a V between them sum to 10 or 5 respectively. No digit may appear within a Chess King’s move of itself. Additionally, there are a few short thermometers, along which the digits must increase (but need not be consecutive).
For the standard version, be sure to note that there is a negative restraint (all Xs and Vs are given), but this is not the case on the family puzzle.
If you are subscribed to the standard or family advent calendars, you’ll find links to the pdfs of today’s puzzle below.
For some tips on how to solve XV and Kings move sudoku, check out today’s video:
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Loved the use of negative constraints!
Glad you liked it. The negative constraint can be hard to keep track of sometimes, but it adds an interesting dimension to an XV puzzle.
Another great puzzle. Amazing you can come up with these!
Raise your hand if you forgot about the King restraint until 25 percent of the way through.
[raises hand]
You’re definitely not the only one. It’s easy to forget, because King’s move isn’t that restrictive, so it doesn’t come into play as often.
Favourite puzzle so far. After yesterday’s farce of getting stuck because I forgot the constraints I successfully managed to keep the king’s move and negative constraints in the forefront of my mind. Really liked the interactions that went on, and every time I thought I was stuck something popped up and made me smile. Caught myself commenting out loud at one point “and this can’t be that because of the kings move… just beautiful” 🙂