Wednesday, January 11, 2006

sudoku, killer & kakuro

I've finally succumbed and purchased a book of kakuro.
I manage to get a daily fix of killer from The Times, and also a couple of sudoku although I don't always bother unless I'm really too quick on the killer. But finding a daily fix of kakuro is still challenging, without forking out for the print version of the Grauniad.
I actually find kakuro the most stimulating of the number puzzles now as I haven't quite mastered all the logic rules to speed it up. I can complete most of them - eventually. But they require more than just the knowledge that 24 in 3 cells can only be 9/8/7, instead you have to work up to 5 and 6 cells (35, and 39 are what I'd call the reverse triangle numbers for 5 & 6 respectively). You also need to know about the (reverse) triangle numbers +/-1 have only 1 solution eg 4(2) [total of 4 in 2 cells] = 3/1, 7(3)=4/2/1, 11(4)=5/3/2/1 23(3)=9/8/6, 29(4)=9/8/7/5 etc.

2 Comments:

At 9:39 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do like the Guardian Kakuro, particularly the "Hard" ones they've finally got round to recently which can take up to half an hour.

You might be interested in my "Kakuro Masterclass" article, but it is aimed at beginners.

 
At 3:52 pm, Blogger Radders said...

Thanks Will. I've not used the "add rows/cols find difference" method in kakuro - Always use it in the start of Killer though. (Yesterday's Times Killer done in -27 mins below their par of 40).

 

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