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 Post subject: Old Lace Test 2 X W
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:44 pm 
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Grand Master
Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:45 pm
Posts: 694
Location: Saudi Arabia
Old Lace Windoku X Test 2

So:
Old lace
Windoku
X

JS uses 5 smaller fishes
SS gives it 1.1 and avoids fishes - better solution in my view - unusual for SS to do better with my puzzles


Image

JS code:
3x3:3:k:11:1545:12:13:14:15:16:17:18:19:1545:20:3074:21:3587:22:23:24:25:26:27:3074:11530:3587:28:29:30:31:1544:1544:11530:32:11530:3841:3841:33:34:35:11530:36:11530:37:11530:38:39:40:1287:1287:11530:41:11530:3588:3588:42:43:44:45:1542:11530:2053:46:47:48:49:50:51:1542:52:2053:53:54:55:56:57:58:59:60:61:62:63:64:


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 Post subject: Re: Old Lace Test 2 X W
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:34 am 
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Grand Master
Grand Master

Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:04 pm
Posts: 1895
Location: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Thanks HATMAN for another enjoyable puzzle!

It starts easily, then gets harder; I consider the SS score to be deceptive, for the reasons I've given in my rating comment.

Here is my walkthrough for Old Lace Test 2 X W:
I’ve used W1, W2, W3 and W4 for the windows at R2C2, R2C6, R6C2 and R6C6. The hidden windows are given in full; they are explained in my post in the Standard Techniques forum here. I didn’t start using the hidden windows until I needed to.

Prelims

a) R12C2 = {15/24}
b) R23C4 = {39/48/57}, no 1,2,6
c) R23C6 = {59/68}
d) R4C23 = {15/24}
e) R4C78 = {69/78}
f) R6C23 = {14/23}
g) R6C78 = {59/68}
h) R78C4 = {15/24}
i) R78C6 = {17/26/35}, no 4,8,9

1. R4C23 = {15} (only remaining combination, cannot be {24} which clashes with R6C23), locked for R4, N4 and W1, clean-up: no 1,5 in R1C2, no 7 in R23C4, no 4 in R6C23

2. Naked pair {24} in R12C2, locked for C2 -> R6C23 = [32], placed for W3, no 4 in R78C4

3. Naked pair {15} in R78C4, locked for C4, N8 and W3, clean-up: no 3,7 in R78C6

4. Naked pair {26} in R78C6, locked for C6, N8 and W4, clean-up: no 8 in R23C6, no 8 in R6C78

5. Naked pair {59} in R23C6, locked for C6, N2 and W2, clean-up: no 3 in R23C4, no 6 in R4C78

6. Naked pair {48} in R23C4, locked for C4, N2 and W1 -> R2C2 = 2, placed for D\, R1C2 = 4

7. Naked pair {78} in R4C78, locked for R4, N6 and W2

8. Naked pair {59} in R6C78, locked for R6, N6 and W4

9. 7 in W1 only in R2C3 + R3C23, locked for N1
[With hindsight, step 23 could have been done at this stage but I didn’t spot it until later. Similarly for the other three quadrants. This would have slightly shortened my solving path.]

10. 1,2,6 in W2 only in R23C78, locked for N2

11. 4,8,9 in W3 only in R78C23, locked for N7, 4 also locked for C4

12. 3 in W4 only in R78C78, locked for N9

13. 2 in Old Lace only in R3C5 + R5C7, CPE no 2 in R3C7
13a. R3C8 = 2 (hidden single in N3)
13b. R5C7 = 2 (hidden single in Old Lace)
13c. R4C5 = 2 (hidden single in N5)
13d. R1C4 = 2 (hidden single in R1)
13e. R9C1 = 2 (hidden single in R9)
13f. 6 in N2 only in R123C5, locked for C5

14. R5C5 = 5 (hidden single in Old Lace/R5/C5), placed for both diagonals
14a. 9 in N5 only in R45C4, locked for C4, CPE no 9 in R5C3 using Old Lace
14b. 6 in N5 only in R456C4, CPE no 6 in R5C3 using Old Lace

15. R59C2 = {15} (hidden pair in C2)

16. 1 in Old Lace only in R3C5 + R6C6, CPE no 1 in R6C5
16a. 1 in C5 only in R123C5, locked for N2

17. 4 in Old Lace only in R46C6 + R7C5, CPE no 4 in R6C5
17a. 4 in C5 only in R789C5, locked for N8
[With hindsight the eliminations in steps 16 and 17 could have been made after step 14b using the Old Lace property R37C5 = R5C46 and R5C37 = R46C5.]

18. 1 on D/ only in R2C8 + R3C7, locked for N3

19. 3 in W1 only in R23C3 + R4C4, CPE no 3 in R1C1 using D\

20. 1 in R6 only in R6C69, CPE no 1 in R9C9 using D\

21. 9 in R4 only in R4C14, CPE no 9 in R1C1 using D\

22. Naked quad {1346} for W2 in R2C78 + R3C7 + R4C6, CPE no 3 in R1C9 using D/
22a. 3 on D/ only in R2C8 + R3C7 + R4C6, locked for W2, no 3 in R2C7

23. Naked quad {3679} for W1 in R2C3 + R3C23 + R4C4, CPE no 6 in R1C1 using D\

24. Naked quint {13478} for W4 in R6C6 + R78C78, CPE no 4,7,8 in R9C9 using D\

25. Naked quad {3469} in R4C1469, CPE no 3,6 in R3C5 using Old Lace and hidden window R234C159

26. Naked quint {14678} in R6C14569, CPE no 4,7,8 in R7C5 using Old Lace and hidden window R678C159

27. Naked quad {3679} in R4569C4, CPE no 7 in R5C3 using Old Lace and hidden window R159C234 -> R5C3 = 8
27a. R6C5 = 8 (hidden single in N5), placed for hidden window R678C159, no 8 in R78C9
27b. R9C6 = 8 (hidden single in C6), placed for hidden window R159C678, no 8 in R1C78

28. 4 in Old Lace only in R46C6, locked for C6
28a. 6 in Old Lace only in R46C4, locked for C4

29. 4 on D\ only in R6C6 + R7C7 + R8C8, locked for W4, no 4 in R7C8 + R8C7

30. Using Old Lace R3C5 “sees” all 1,7 in C6 except R5C6 -> R5C6 = R3C5 = {17}

31. Using Old Lace R7C5 “sees” all 3,9 in C4 except R5C4 -> R5C4 = R7C5 = {39}

32. Using Old Lace R3C5 = {17} “sees” all 1,7 in R6 except for R6C9 = 1 or R6C1 = 7 -> no 6 in R6C9 (because R6C4 = {67})

33. Using Old Lace R7C5 = {39} “sees” all 3,9 in R4 except for R4C9 = 3 or R4C1 = 9 -> no 4 in R4C1 (because R4C6 = {34})
[Continued further use of the hidden windows, but the puzzle is now cracked.]

34. 4 in hidden window R234C159 only in R234C9, locked for C9 -> R6C9 = 1, placed for hidden window R678C159, no 1 in R78C1
34a. R5C6 = 1 (hidden single in R5), placed for hidden window R159C678, no 1 in R9C78
34b. R3C5 = 1 (hidden single in Old Lace), placed for hidden window R234C159, no 1 in R2C1
34c. R2C8 = 1 (hidden single in N3)
34d. 7 in R5 only in R5C12, locked for N4

35. R1C1 =1 (hidden single in C1), placed for D\
35a. R1C9 = 8 (hidden single in R1), placed for D/
35b. R7C2 = 8 (hidden single in C2)
35c. R8C8 = 8 (hidden single on D\), R4C78 = [87]

36. R7C8 = 3, R7C5 = 9, placed for hidden window R678C159, no 9 in R8C9
36a. R5C4 = 9 (hidden single in N5), placed for hidden window R159C234, no 9 in R1C3
36b. R4C1 = 9 (hidden single in N4), placed for hidden window R234C159, no 9 in R23C9
36c. R5C9 = 3 (hidden single in R5), placed for hidden window R159C159, no 3 in R19C5
36d. R9C9 = 9 (hidden single in C9), placed for D\
36e. R8C2 = 9 (hidden single on D/)
36f. R8C7 = 1 (hidden single in N9), R78C4 = [15]
36g. 7 on D/ only in R6C4 + R7C3, locked for W4, no 7 in R8C3

37. R3C3 + R4C4 = {36} (hidden pair on D\), locked for W1 -> R3C2 = 7, R2C3 = 9, R23C6 = [59], R5C2 = 6, placed for hidden window R159C234, no 6 in R19C3, R56C1 = [74], R6C6 = 7, R7C7 = 4, R6C4 = 6, R7C3 = 7, R4C4 = 3, R3C3 = 6

and the rest is naked singles, without using diagonals or windows.

Rating Comment:
I'll rate my walkthrough at Easy 1.5. Several steps needed the combination of the Old Lace and hidden windows. Also steps 32 and 33 can be considered to be implied chains.

I've stepped through a lot of the SS solving log. I get the impression that it used many of the same steps that I did but one has to think about them to realise this. As an example SS's step 40 Naked quad {3679} found at r4569c4 seems deceptively simple, but one has to think why this eliminates 7 from r5c3 so that it can then give step 41 Naked single 8 found at r5c3. Later it uses the equivalent of my steps 32 and 33. In my opinion the SS score is far too low; I consider that it should be Easy 1.5.


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