EXTREMEPUZZLE BOOKS

Extreme Sudoku 3, puzzle 124: step-by-step solution

Step through the whole solution, or skip to the hard parts. Blue digits are placed by the walkthrough; red strike-through marks a candidate being ruled out.

Puzzle
Sudoku, number 124 of 150 in Extreme Sudoku 3
Difficulty
Expert 6 (expert and beyond), from the final, hardest third of the book
Key technique
Nice Loops/AICs
Hard steps
15 of 36 steps need an advanced or expert technique

Blue digits are placed by the walkthrough. Red strike-through marks a candidate being ruled out. Cells are named by row and column: R3C5 is row 3, column 5. Arrow keys step too.

The key technique: Nice Loops/AICs

An alternating chain of strong and weak links. Whichever end is true, the conclusion holds, so the digit at the marked cell is ruled out.

Other advanced and expert techniques in this solve: ALS-XZ (×2), XY-Chain (×2), Cell Forcing Chains, Empty Rectangle, Finned Fish, WXYZ-Wing, XYZ-Wing.

Every move above the basics is listed on the sudoku techniques page, each with a one-sentence explanation and worked examples from the books.

The hard steps, in text (15)
  1. Step 4 · Empty Rectangle advanced
    Rules out 1 from R1C5.
  2. Step 5 · Finned Fish expert
    Rules out 4 from R8C7.
  3. Step 6 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 2 from R8C7.
  4. Step 7 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 9 from R5C9.
  5. Step 8 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 4 from R1C7.
  6. Step 9 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 3 from R3C6; 6 from R3C6; 7 from R3C6.
  7. Step 10 · Cell Forcing Chains expert
    Rules out 5 from R9C3.
  8. Step 15 · XYZ-Wing advanced
    Rules out 7 from R2C1.
  9. Step 16 · ALS-XZ expert
    Rules out 6 from R7C6.
  10. Step 17 · ALS-XZ expert
    Rules out 7 from R1C8.
  11. Step 18 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 4 from R1C5.
  12. Step 21 · Nice Loops/AICs expert
    Rules out 6 from R1C6, R7C4, R8C4.
  13. Step 22 · WXYZ-Wing expert
    Rules out 5 from R7C8, R7C9.
  14. Step 27 · XY-Chain expert
    Rules out 8 from R1C1, R2C4.
  15. Step 32 · XY-Chain expert
    Rules out 2 from R1C5, R2C3.

The book

Volume three: 150 new classic 9×9 grids, none repeated from books 1 or 2, ramping from hard to brutal.

150 new puzzles. Expert and beyond. Puzzles by M. J. Bailey. Paperback, 5 × 8 in, 196 pages, £9.99 / $11.99. Every solution in the book carries a QR code to its own walkthrough, so you can check one step without seeing the whole answer.

On Amazon from 8 Dec About the book

Try a free sample puzzle (PDF) · prints on A4 or US Letter

More step-by-step solutions: Extreme Sudoku 1 · Extreme Killer Sudoku 1 · Extreme Sudoku 2 · Extreme Killer Sudoku 2 · Extreme Killer Sudoku 3.