Hi everyone,
Mark has recorded his solve of the June Club Monthly Special crossword from The Times. This is, as usual, an insanely difficult puzzle and it's nice to see Mark have to pause for thought :)
Thanks for all your support.
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
As promised in this evening's video, I've recorded my solve of Serkan's incredible Cross The Streams puzzle! You can find it by following the link below.
Keep cracking,
Simon
Hi everyone,
We hope you all enjoyed our Olympic Rings sudoku :)
We've made this video that talks through the solve. Enjoy!
As always, we'd like to say "thank you" for supporting the channel here.
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
The Listener crossword series is considered to be the hardest in the world. It's been running since 1930 with weekly puzzles that are loved the world over. Four times a year instead of being a cryptic crossword that week's Listener puzzle is a mathematical crossword. Knowing our audience, we were sure you'd be interested to see one of these and also a guide on how to solve it. Our friend Neil Talbott has kindly created the attached video fo...
11 June marks three years since we released our first video on YouTube. Looking back at that video it is quite incredible where we've come. Chiel Beenhakker has constructed this delightful Aquarium puzzle to mark our 3rd birthday and we wanted to share it with you. (The puzzle can be played by clicking the link in the attached pdf).
Watch out for a hidden message in the finished grid!
Chiel is also, of course, responsible for this amazing spreadsheet, which catal...
2020-06-10 14:27:36 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
As mentioned on the channel a couple of days ago, I've recorded my solve of the recent Fillomino puzzle that appeared on gmpuzzles.com on Saturday June 6th. The puzzle is by Elyot Grant and it is a beautiful construction.
The video can be viewed here. (If you would like to play the puzzle then we've included a link in the video description).
Thanks as always for supporting us here. We really do appreciate it.
Simon & ...
2020-06-08 22:32:38 +0000 UTC View PostWe're very proud to be able to share this video with you. It features the world-class setter Christoph Seeliger explaining how to construct a Thermo Sudoku from scratch. We're very grateful to Christoph for making this video and letting us see the thought-processes of such a brilliant constructor.
[Links to the puzzle in our software and to the page on L...
2020-06-07 15:17:46 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
Here is a bonus video on Matt Gaffney's wonderful weekly crossword competition - which features some amazing metas at the end of each puzzle.
Enjoy!
Simon & Mark
Matt's weekly competition can be found here:
Hi everyone,
It's the start of the month and that means our new reward puzzle. We're sad the Olympics won't be happening this summer so we have made an Olympics-themed sudoku for you!
As usual, around the middle of the month, we'll publish a solution video for $3 (and above) Patrons so look out for that in a couple of weeks time.
Stay safe, keep cracking and thank you for your support - we really do appreciate it.
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
As mentioned on yesterday's video, one of our viewers (thank you Chiel Beenhakker!) has created a spreadsheet which lists the whole back catalogue of Cracking The Cryptic videos. Here is the link:
https://tinyurl.com/CTCCatalogue
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
A couple of weeks ago we published Kurt Hugo Schneider's incredible difficult (and beautiful) irregular 6x6 diagonal sudoku. That puzzle can be played at the link at the bottom of the post:
As mentioned in tonight's video we have had very few correct solutions. Luckily Kurt has made this awesome video on how to logically solve the puzzle.
https://youtu.be/uhYYUVYsS_c&nb...
2020-05-30 18:33:49 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
As mentioned in tonight's video, we are delighted to share with you a bonus video by Kurt Hugo Schneider in which he goes through the reason that all 6x6 Diagonal Sudokus are symmetric. Hold on to your hats because there is some VERY nice logic here.
The video link is below. If you want to try the original puzzle, you can do so here:
Hi everyone,
We're also publishing today the solution to Joke's lovely collection of puzzles published here on 20 April:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/36199477
Do try the puzzles if you've not yet had the chance!
For those of you who'd like to see the solution - it's attached :)
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
We really hope you enjoyed Nicolas Rasmussen's awesome puzzle (published on 10 April here if you haven't tried it yet):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/35846524
The attached document contains the solution.
Best,
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
As mentioned in tonight's video, we are delighted to share with you a bonus puzzle from the brilliant constructor, Ashish Kumar.
Fittingly, given the release this week of our Thermo Sudoku app, it's a thermo sudoku!
Rules: Normal sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end.
Enjoy and big thanks to Ashish. You can find his own patreon page here:
Hi everyone,
We have a great new junior puzzle hunt to share with you. It's been created by Scott Strosahl - who many of you will know makes very good puzzles for adults too :)
It's always hard to guess the age range it will be appropriate for but perhaps 8 - 12. We hope kids (and the bigger kids out there enjoy it - we did!) and please do leave comments.
Stay safe,
Simon & Mark
We're sure many of you attempted Kurt's 6x6 Irregular sudoku (to win the wallet) a couple of weeks ago. Kurt has been busy creating an even harder test! Do have a go but, be warned, this is an exceptionally hard (but ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL) puzzle.
Rules:
Fill each row/column/region with the digits 1 to 6. Regions are only partially defined and need to be completed (the given boundaries MUST be respected). Both marked diagonals also contain the digits ...
2020-05-17 16:57:13 +0000 UTC View PostHere is our solution to video to May's Monthly reward puzzle!
As always, thank you all so much for supporting the channel, we really do appreciate it.
Simon & Mark
You can watch Mark's monthly battle with The Times Monthly cryptic at this link. This IS worth watching :)
Simon & Mark
Hi everyone,
We're thrilled to be able to share this special sudoku designed by Prasanna Seshadri with you. This puzzle is very unusual in that it involves 14 different sudoku variants!!
The sheer length of the ruleset makes it difficult to include them all on the right-hand side on the video screen SO we're going to publish the puzzle here and then, in a few days time, our video solve will appear on the main channel.
Prasanna is one of the world's best setters/s...
2020-05-13 14:42:02 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
Here is a VERY nice Anti-Knight puzzle designed by one of our patrons Mike Halderman.
https://cracking-the-cryptic.web.app/sudoku/jDrG7G2hpM
Rules: Normal sudoku rules apply. Cells separated by a knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit.
Mike's puzzles have appeared twice on the channel - videos below - so, if you...
2020-05-10 09:53:31 +0000 UTC View PostWe are absolutely thrilled to bring this incredible Sudoku Puzzle Hunt to you.
It has been created by Ben Needham and we can't recommend it highly enough. Read the instructions very carefully and enjoy :)
The first correct solution we receive (which needs to include a brief description of how the final word has been obtained) will get a shout-out on the channel.
Good luck.
Simon & Mark
PS Please no spoilers in the comments. 2020-05-03 14:15:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone,
Herewith our reward puzzle(s) for May. These three linked sudokus that should prove quite interesting/challenging!
As always, a big thank you from both of us for your support - we really appreciate it.
Simon & Mark
PS Following feedback, we've slightly amended the instructions about the transfer of the boxes from puzzle 2 to puzzle 3 to make it clearer.
Hi everyone,
Kurt was kind enough to provide us with a video discussing how he envisaged the solution path to his brilliant 6x6 partial jigsaw sudoku. You can watch at the link below.
As always, thanks for your support.
Simon & Mark
2020-04-30 11:19:06 +0000 UTC View PostHi all,
Here a link to Mark's latest solve of The Times cryptic crossword.
Enjoy!
Simon
2020-04-30 11:08:46 +0000 UTC View PostWe have another bonus for our patrons! Thanks to Ashish for creating this special "Cracking The Cryptic-themed" Thermo King Sudoku for us.
https://cracking-the-cryptic.web.app/sudoku/d7jp3BMg2b
Rules: Normal sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, numbers must increase from the bulb end. Equal digits must not touch each other diagonally (ie cells that are a...
2020-04-22 16:43:29 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
Here is our reward video for April's puzzle.
Thanks for all your support - what a few days this has been for the channel :)
Simon & Mark
2020-04-21 13:19:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi everyone,
Here is a new puzzle hunt for children also by Joke van Veenendaal. We estimate that children aged 7-10 might enjoy it (but we actually enjoyed it too and we're older than 10!).
Each of the three puzzles has a single English word as its answer. Used together, they can be used with the what3words website to indicate a location, which is the answer to the hunt.
Hi everyone,
Here is a new puzzle hunt by Joke van Veenendaal. Each of the three puzzles has a single English word as its answer. Used together, they can be used with the what3words website to indicate a location, which is the answer to the hunt.
Good luck!
Simon & Mark
2020-04-20 13:04:19 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone,
We're delighted to share this bonus puzzle by Ashish Kumar with you. Ashish created this puzzle specially as a gift for our patrons (how awesome is that!).
https://cracking-the-cryptic.web.app/sudoku/RtmPdrn446
This puzzle is a doppelganger sudoku. You can treat the grey cells as all needing to contain odd digits or all needing to contain...
2020-04-15 13:13:34 +0000 UTC View Post