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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 1:34 am

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Puzzle rating table, with links to archive entries and puzzle threads in this forum.

Abbreviations used in Rating Table:

+----------------------------+-----------+-------+-------+-----------------------+-------+
| Puzzle                Est  |  Made By  | Afmob | Andrew|     Other Raters      | Score |
+----------------------------+-----------+-------+-------+-----------------------+-------+
| Anti-King Killer           |    Dan    |       |       |                       |       |
| Assassin 194         H1.00 |   Afmob   |   **  |  1.25 |                       |  1.45 |
| Assassin 194V2       H1.75 |   Afmob   |   **  |       | Solved as a "tag"     |  3.10 |
| Paper Solvable 3           |  HATMAN   |       |       |                       |       |
| (3 versions)               |           |       |       |                       |       |
| Assassin 195               |   manu    |       |  1.25 |                       | *1.25 |
| Assassin 196               |   manu    |       |  1.25 |                       | *1.25 |
| Minimum Cages Zero K       |  HATMAN   |       | H1.50 |                       |       |
| Minimum Cages 14           |  HATMAN   |       | E1.50 |                       |  2.65 |
| Assassin 197               |   manu    |       | H1.25 |                       | *1.80 |
+----------------------------+-----------+-------+-------+-----------------------+-------+

Some of the selected quotes in the puzzle entries have been edited to remove "spoilers"; the full rating comments are included with the walkthroughs. In some cases the puzzle makers gave hints; these are included in tiny text in the selected quotes.

Last edited by Andrew on Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:14 am

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Anti-King Killer by h3lix(Dan) (May 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 9 1 | 8 6 2 | 4 7 3 |
| 6 3 2 | 9 4 7 | 8 5 1 |
| 4 8 7 | 3 5 1 | 9 6 2 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 1 5 | 4 2 6 | 7 8 9 |
| 2 7 9 | 1 8 5 | 3 4 6 |
| 8 4 6 | 7 3 9 | 2 1 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 9 5 8 | 2 1 4 | 6 3 7 |
| 1 2 3 | 6 7 8 | 5 9 4 |
| 7 6 4 | 5 9 3 | 1 2 8 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

Dan: Here's an Anti-King Killer, no diagonally adjacent cells can have the same value.
Difficulty HARD (4/5)
I wrote a visual walkthrough, I'll post it later this week.

Andrew: Thanks Dan for a fun puzzle. Fairly easy by the standards of this site, I'd say it was about as hard as an early Assassin on Ruud's site.
My technically hardest step was 2a; I might have been able to solve it without this step but I couldn't resist putting it in.
The anti-King steps are clearly needed to give a unique solution, as I realised at the end.

Dan: Thanks Andrew. Your walkthrough is nearly identical to mine as I was making it. The visual walkthrough I made, which I'll post wednesday (to be consistent with other places I posted this puzzle), was written after the fact and was written to be as concise as possible. In this, I discovered that, unfortunately, step 2a is actually not necessary (it was one of my favorites too)
As for the difficulty, I feel my scale may have shifted in the 2 or so years I was on hiatus as I tried to think of these puzzles from the point of view of someone who's never done killers. I'll have to try some of the insanes in my book to see if I can realign it. I get the feeling this might have only been a Hard 4/5 in the book.
Edit: it would seem my suspicions are confirmed, at least according to JSudoku
Here are the list of techniques it used for this puzzle: …
I've officially reclassified this puzzle as HARD (4/5)

Dan: Here's my visual walkthrough and solution. I tried to make it as concise as possible, but feel that using technique names may have obscured my solving steps. I think I will use plain English and omit singles in the text portion of future walkthroughs.
As a note, I will be publishing future Anti-Chess and experimental killer variants in the "Other Variants" forum, including an FNC Killer today.
Also, I ran a few INSANEs from my book through SudokuSolver and the difficulties ranged from .86 to 4.23!

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Dan’s post including list of techniques used by JSudoku:

Dan’s optimised walkthrough:

Archive Note: Some diagram links in this archive entry and the original puzzle post no longer work.

Last edited by Andrew on Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:59 am

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Assassin 194 by Afmob (May 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 3 9 | 7 4 5 | 2 6 1 |
| 4 5 1 | 2 3 6 | 7 9 8 |
| 2 7 6 | 1 8 9 | 3 5 4 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 2 3 | 8 1 4 | 6 7 9 |
| 1 4 7 | 9 6 3 | 8 2 5 |
| 6 9 8 | 5 2 7 | 1 4 3 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 6 2 | 4 5 8 | 9 1 7 |
| 9 8 5 | 6 7 1 | 4 3 2 |
| 7 1 4 | 3 9 2 | 5 8 6 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

Afmob: The original plan was to create a Killer with no preliminaries. I succeeded but that Killer was way too difficult for a V1. So I changed some cages and this puzzle was the result. Despite it's SS Score it can be solved with steps of rating 1.0.
SS Score (v3.3.1): 1.44. Estimated rating: 1.0 - Hard 1.0.
V2 will be posted on Monday, if V1 was solved with a proper walkthrough. To give you a teaser:
Ratings for V2]SS Score (v3.3.1): 3.10
Estimated rating: At least 1.75!

Mike (mhparker): Hi folks,
Unfortunately, I wasn't around to attempt Ronnie's A193X, due to being "stuck" on a beach in Turkey :sun:

. So thought I'd give this one a try first. Thanks, Afmob, for an enjoyable puzzle with an interesting cage pattern (which I admittedly took some time to get used to! :scratch:

).
From Afmob's comments, it looks like the V2 will make a good team challenge...

Dan (h3lix): Had a lot of fun with this one! I only have some vague notes now, but I'll try to flesh them out into a full solve path tomorrow hopefully.

Andrew: I hope that posting my walkthrough won't put you off posting your solving path. Maybe you've found a different way than both Mike and I did.
Thanks Afmob for a nice Assassin and Mike for an interesting walkthrough; I liked your CCC moves.

Afmob wrote:

The original plan was to create a Killer with no preliminaries.

You came pretty close; there were only three of them.
Rating for my walkthrough. 1.25.

Afmob: Here is how I solved A194 with moves of rating 1.0:
Nice start from Mike on A194 V2! I don't know why I didn't see your step 10. I'll borrow your move to make my wt shorter and (a bit) easier. :cheesey:

Walkthrough by Mike:

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Walkthrough by Afmob:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:42 am

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Assassin 194 V2 by Afmob (May 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 3 9 | 7 4 5 | 2 6 1 |
| 4 5 1 | 2 3 6 | 7 9 8 |
| 2 7 6 | 1 8 9 | 3 5 4 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 2 3 | 8 1 4 | 6 7 9 |
| 1 4 7 | 9 6 3 | 8 2 5 |
| 6 9 8 | 5 2 7 | 1 4 3 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 6 2 | 4 5 8 | 9 1 7 |
| 9 8 5 | 6 7 1 | 4 3 2 |
| 7 1 4 | 3 9 2 | 5 8 6 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

Afmob: Ed told me that he was looking forward to a difficult Assassin, so here it is! No preliminaries and a wicked cage pattern should keep you busy for a while.
SS Score (v3.3.1): 3.10. Estimated rating: Hard 1.75.

Mike (mhparker): Thanks, Afmob. :roll:

Fascinating to have an Assassin without any preliminaries (but please don't feel obliged to make a habit of it...

).
Time to get the ball rolling:
Maybe someone else can take over from here?

Ed: Me and my big mouth! :pallid:

But a wonderful start from Mike!

This next batch is mostly pedestrian but can't find anything else.

Andrew: You shouldn't complain Ed.

Afmob gave us exactly what he said he would in the hidden message in the V1 post.
As Ed and Mike already know, I decided to have a try at the V2 myself to see how far I could get before joining the "tag". After struggling for some eliminations I managed to make all the eliminations in their steps and then found some more today. Some of my steps were different from those already posted so I've given my original steps below.
Here are my first 38 steps …
Now, to get into the spirit of the "tag", I think the following are those of my steps which take us further than Ed's marks pic. I've renumbered them to be consistent with the "tag" steps and changed the references in the step 34 clean-up to refer to the original "tag" steps.
My feeling is that there's a lot of hard work still needed, probably using some even harder steps than those already used by Mike, Ed and myself.

Mike: Thanks, Andrew.

I've taken the liberty of continuing the tag from your step 40, after finding a more direct substitute for your step 41 later
Many thanks to Afmob for a great puzzle! :thumbs:

Afmob: Nice tag walkthrough from all of you guys! I solved it using some forcing chains.
Rating 1.75.

Andrew (in 2012): Just for the record I had another try at this puzzle, as I have done with other puzzles which were originally solved as "Tags". My solving path wasn't any better this time, so I'm not posting it.
Rating. I agree with Afmob, at least 1.75.

"Tag" Solution by Mike, Ed and Andrew:

Walkthrough by Afmob:

Andrew's alternative ending:

Discussion about posting ratings:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:49 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Paper Solvable 3 - Boxes Twin Killer by HATMAN (June 2010) here (3 versions)

Easy

Puzzle Diagram:

Image with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 5 9 | 4 6 7 | 2 8 1 |
| 2 1 6 | 5 8 9 | 3 7 4 |
| 7 8 4 | 3 1 2 | 5 6 9 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 6 2 | 9 7 4 | 8 1 3 |
| 4 7 1 | 8 5 3 | 9 2 6 |
| 8 9 3 | 6 2 1 | 7 4 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 1 4 5 | 7 9 8 | 6 3 2 |
| 6 2 8 | 1 3 5 | 4 9 7 |
| 9 3 7 | 2 4 6 | 1 5 8 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

HATMAN: This easy one is to give you the feel of it if you have not done twin killers before. Do it without pencil marks.

Andrew: Thanks. I tried this one first because I've never tried a twin killer before. I've only just worked out a way to represent the cages as overlapping coloured cages on my Excel worksheet.

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Main

Puzzle Diagram:

Image with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 4 7 9 | 3 5 8 | 2 6 1 |
| 1 2 6 | 4 7 9 | 3 5 8 |
| 8 3 5 | 2 1 6 | 7 9 4 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 4 1 | 7 9 3 | 8 2 6 |
| 7 6 2 | 8 4 5 | 9 1 3 |
| 9 8 3 | 6 2 1 | 4 7 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 6 1 4 | 9 8 7 | 5 3 2 |
| 2 5 7 | 1 3 4 | 6 8 9 |
| 3 9 8 | 5 6 2 | 1 4 7 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

HATMAN: This is the main puzzle I found it very pleasant.

Andrew: I've now tried the main version. Nice puzzle, not too difficult apart from keeping track of the overlapping cages. Maybe those who solve TJKs would find that easier?

A Hint:

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Hard (Two cages omitted from the Main puzzle)

Puzzle Diagram:

Image with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution (same as Main puzzle):

+-------+-------+-------+
| 4 7 9 | 3 5 8 | 2 6 1 |
| 1 2 6 | 4 7 9 | 3 5 8 |
| 8 3 5 | 2 1 6 | 7 9 4 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 4 1 | 7 9 3 | 8 2 6 |
| 7 6 2 | 8 4 5 | 9 1 3 |
| 9 8 3 | 6 2 1 | 4 7 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 6 1 4 | 9 8 7 | 5 3 2 |
| 2 5 7 | 1 3 4 | 6 8 9 |
| 3 9 8 | 5 6 2 | 1 4 7 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

HATMAN: This is a harder version (not paper solvable for me - so I've included JSudoku codes).

Andrew: And then I had a go at the Harder version. I followed my walkthrough for the main puzzle as far as I could, to save thinking

Then I used:

Walkthrough by Andrew:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:39 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Assassin 195 by manu (June 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 3 9 8 | 4 1 7 | 2 5 6 |
| 6 4 7 | 8 2 5 | 9 1 3 |
| 2 1 5 | 9 3 6 | 7 4 8 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 2 4 | 1 5 9 | 3 6 7 |
| 5 7 3 | 6 8 4 | 1 9 2 |
| 1 6 9 | 3 7 2 | 4 8 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 7 8 2 | 5 9 1 | 6 3 4 |
| 9 5 6 | 2 4 3 | 8 7 1 |
| 4 3 1 | 7 6 8 | 5 2 9 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

manu: Hi all, an other x-killer with small cages ! So, there are more places to search for. I had to use many little steps to make a "decent" solving path, but , with the right order .... Not difficult for SSolver, but a bit more for me !

Andrew: Welcome back manu and congratulations on your 100th post. Thanks for a fun Assassin.
I took some time to reach the key steps; now I know where they are I expect someone to post a much shorter optimised walkthrough.
Rating for my walkthrough. 1.25.

manu: Thanks Andrew for your WT showing interesting interactions between hidden cages at R7. The first part is similar to mine, but my further steps are different (whereas I also use several hidden subsets for blocking combos too).
I have an Assassin (#196 ) ready; please tell me if you are interested and allow a same puzzle poster for two consecutive weeks. It seems that many of us are in holidays .... 8-)

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Walkthrough by manu:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:57 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Assassin 196 by manu (July 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 2 7 9 | 3 1 5 | 6 8 4 |
| 3 4 1 | 7 6 8 | 9 2 5 |
| 5 6 8 | 4 2 9 | 1 7 3 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 5 6 | 9 7 3 | 2 4 1 |
| 9 1 4 | 6 5 2 | 7 3 8 |
| 7 2 3 | 8 4 1 | 5 9 6 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 1 3 7 | 2 8 6 | 4 5 9 |
| 6 8 2 | 5 9 4 | 3 1 7 |
| 4 9 5 | 1 3 7 | 8 6 2 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

manu: Hi, I won't be able to post my puzzle tomorrow because I'll be really busy for next days for my job and other personnal reasons, so Assassin 196 is posted one day before.
It's not a difficult one and the cage pattern enables to try many things. Different approaches are possible, and you can try to make a WT as optimized as possible with this one. I hope this killer will give you some pleasure. I 'll be really interested if anyone could make a V2 with the same cage pattern.

Andrew: Thanks manu for a fun Assassin with an interesting cage pattern!
As usual my walkthrough is how I solved the puzzle. I'll leave it to others to post an optimised walkthrough. I expect that will use the same technique that I used but will probably be quicker in the later stages.
Rating for my walkthrough. 1.25.

Walkthrough by Andrew:

Last edited by Andrew on Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:19 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Minimum Cages Zero Killer by HATMAN (July 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 1 3 4 | 2 7 8 | 9 6 5 |
| 9 5 2 | 3 6 4 | 1 7 8 |
| 6 7 8 | 9 1 5 | 3 2 4 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 2 1 3 | 5 8 6 | 4 9 7 |
| 4 8 5 | 7 9 3 | 2 1 6 |
| 7 6 9 | 1 4 2 | 8 5 3 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 9 7 | 6 3 1 | 5 4 2 |
| 5 4 1 | 8 2 7 | 6 3 9 |
| 3 2 6 | 4 5 9 | 7 8 1 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

HATMAN: I noted that Nikoli_freak's hands allowed 16 cages if twins and singles are allowed (less than minimum Vanilla). So I started wondering about the minimum number of cages.
This one is a 10+ cage zero that is theoretically solvable (about 20 fishy things). So the questions are for a plain killer (no X, no zeros, no twins):
What is the minimum number of cages?
What is the minimum number of cages at Assassin level?
If there have been previous discussions on this please point them out.
Note this counts as human solver as both SudokuSolver and JSudoku fail completely on it.

Andrew: Thanks for a fun puzzle.

Quite an achievement to create a solvable 10 cage zero killer! Your introduction gave the impression that it would be very difficult but once I realised how to get into it I didn't find it too hard although I wasn't really happy with my step 23; I hope someone can find a better way at that stage.

HATMAN wrote:

What is the minimum number of cages at Assassin level?

That's a good question. I interpret it to mean one which can be solved without using chains, "clones", fishy moves (apart from X-Wings), etc.
Rating for my walkthrough. Hard 1.5.

HATMAN: Well done Andrew

Walkthrough by Andrew:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:34 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Minimum Cages: 14 Cages by HATMAN (July 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 1 7 2 | 5 9 4 | 3 6 8 |
| 3 8 6 | 7 2 1 | 5 4 9 |
| 4 5 9 | 3 6 8 | 1 2 7 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 6 4 8 | 1 3 2 | 9 7 5 |
| 2 9 7 | 8 5 6 | 4 1 3 |
| 5 3 1 | 9 4 7 | 2 8 6 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 8 6 3 | 2 1 9 | 7 5 4 |
| 7 1 5 | 4 8 3 | 6 9 2 |
| 9 2 4 | 6 7 5 | 8 3 1 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

HATMAN: I've found some 14-cagers. I do not believe that a 13-cager can be unique. (H3lix can you prove or disprove this?)
This is my best 14-cager so far. Sumocue solves it, JS uses some small fishes but SS ends up going bingo and gives it a 2.63.
I'll try and find one that is suitable as an assassin.

Andrew: Thanks HATMAN for another fun puzzle, well after I got into it. At first I found it harder to get going than for your 10 cage zero killer, even though this one is technically easier, until I found step 10. After that it was fairly straightforward.
Rating for my walkthrough. Easy 1.5.

I enjoyed the:

Walkthrough by Andrew:

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Andrew

Post subject: Archive Part G. Assassins 176-200, variants, other puzzles

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:46 pm

Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Assassin 197 by manu (July 2010) here

Puzzle Diagram:

Images with "udosuk style Killer Cages" by Børge:

Code: Select, Copy & Paste into solver:

Solution:

+-------+-------+-------+
| 5 6 8 | 2 1 9 | 7 3 4 |
| 2 7 9 | 8 3 4 | 5 6 1 |
| 1 4 3 | 6 7 5 | 9 2 8 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 7 1 5 | 4 8 2 | 3 9 6 |
| 6 8 2 | 9 5 3 | 1 4 7 |
| 3 9 4 | 7 6 1 | 2 8 5 |
+-------+-------+-------+
| 9 2 6 | 5 4 7 | 8 1 3 |
| 8 5 1 | 3 2 6 | 4 7 9 |
| 4 3 7 | 1 9 8 | 6 5 2 |
+-------+-------+-------+

Quote:

manu: Hi, this one should be a bit more difficult than my previous one, whereas TE and chains are not needed. ENJOY !

Andrew: Thanks manu for another fun puzzle.

In my walkthrough, step 7 was amazingly productive; then step 12b was the only tricky step after which the puzzle was cracked.
Rating for my walkthrough. Hard 1.25.

Walkthrough by Andrew:

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