Know the right no. in the 1st guess?

[Haisook]

I'm a newbie. When I do pencil marks, for instance there would be 1, 4, and 9. What I do is try each of the numbers till the right no. appears. Is that strategy correct? Or do I need to know the right number in the first guess?

Plus, what order should I begin solving with? From top to bottom or right to left.. or?

I'd be grateful for your input
Thanks

[Howard]

Hi!

Sudoku is a puzzle of logic - and that means that the puzzles are solvable without guessing!

You're using the pencilmarks (1,4,9 in your example) knowing that those are the only possible three values for that cell. But you'll have to do some more work before you know which it is for sure!

You shouldn't have to guess which, though - there are further ways to work out which it would be.

The aim is really to narrow it down without guessing - and there are lots of techniques for this! I've described them (with plenty of examples!) at : http://www.palmsudoku.com/

Hope this helps!

Howard.

[Haisook]

So if guessing is unfavorable in the game, there should be some sort of punishment if it's used, like lowering the score, adding more time thus decreasing the score...etc. What do you think?

[Howard]

We let you play the way you want to play. There's no single "correct" style - some people like to use auto-pencilmarks, some prefer to fill them in themselves. Some even prefer to not use them at all!

If you turn of error warnings then you will put in an incorrect value which you might not see for a few more moves... that would be punishment enough :)

It is all up to you, and how you want to play!

Howard.

[icebox]

Haisook, consider this. Do you want to duplicate the experience of doing a puzzle on paper? If so, then turn all assistance off and allow errors, pencilmarks are pretty much the only thing you can do on paper, and you don't know when you've made a mistake usually for a long time afterwards. If you are doing a Sudoku puzzle that is a timed challenge, same advice. But if you don't want to do a puzzle unaided then use whatever assistance you desire!

In terms of where you start trying to solve, there is no standard place to start, but rather people will tend to default to standard strategies at the start. For example, I generally look at the numbers one at a time at the start, starting with the most commonly appearing numbers, since usually those numbers will have the most likely chance of an immediate deduction. I build the pencilmarks manually this way, then move on to finding pairs and other patterns in the remaining numbers based on what looks obvious first. I'm sure others have different methods that work just as well.

Once you become more skilled, you'll find that you won't need to be so methodical with the easier games, because there will be many things that will jump out with minimal effort on your part.

Happy solving!

[Haisook]

Thanks all for your help!