SudokuSolver Forum

Has anyone trid the program called SUDOKU MENTOR?
If yes, what are your experiences and does it generate good Samurais?

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I downloaded the trial version of the software. Unfortunately, the Samurai option was grayed out. I guess you have to have the program registered.

In the help file, the following are listed as advanced techniques:
x-wings, swordfish, working with graphs, univalue graph cycles, bilocation graph cycles, bivalue graph cycles, conflicting paths, impossible puzzles.

I generated a standard sudoku possible at the impossible level as a test.
6.94.....
...2..61.
8..7..9..
.6..9.3..
7..6....8
......7..
.1...2.7.
.7...4.39
........4
JSudoku said the following techniques are required:
22 Naked Singles
35 Hidden Singles
1 Naked Pairs
1 Hidden Pairs
3 Intersections
1 X-Wing
1 Finned Swordfish
1 Y-Wings
3 XY-X Chains up to 3 links
1 Grouped XY-Chains up to 3 links
2 ALS-XZ up to 5 cells
7 XY-X-Chains

Some puzzles enerated, even at the impossible level, had cells that only had one possible candidate shown. To me, this is about the same as a given.

The learn mode is also greyed out, so the demo doesn't even show you what one might be buying the program for.

Other than picking difficulty levels, there is not a way to pick specific techniques. Also since the advanced techniques listed above do not include the ones that JSudoku reported, my feeling is this program will not do any teaching for those techniques.

Anyway, the above is my comments for 20 minutes of playing around with the program.

George

They're equivalent to naked singles at the start of a puzzle. For people solving without pencilmarks they would be different to givens. There may also be a need for these to make the initial clue-pattern symmetrical (if symmetry is an issue there).

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