gareth Administrator Daily subscriber Has started but not yet finished this puzzle
Usually when you find a 5x5 Futoshiki hard it's because it starts with an 'x-wing'. What's an 'x-wing'? Well:
Columns 3 and 4 each can only have a '5' in their 2nd and 3rd rows, so you can eliminate a '5' from other columns on the 2nd and 3rd rows since you know these are already accounted for. This is called an 'x-wing' deduction.
If you then follow through the inequality in the 4th column you find that row 4 must have '1', '2' and '3' in columns 2, 3 and 4, which means you must have '4' and '5' in columns 1 and 5 in some order - this is called a 'naked triple' deduction.
Now in column 5 you only have '4' and '5' as options in the 4th and 5th row, so you can eliminate them elsewhere in that column. At this point the only place a '1' can fit in that column is in row 2.
And so on.
Posted 9th Mar 2015 at 05:42
Valazza Rated puzzle: ModerateCompletion time: 22:21Used 'check puzzle' when incorrect
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Columns 3 and 4 each can only have a '5' in their 2nd and 3rd rows, so you can eliminate a '5' from other columns on the 2nd and 3rd rows since you know these are already accounted for. This is called an 'x-wing' deduction.
If you then follow through the inequality in the 4th column you find that row 4 must have '1', '2' and '3' in columns 2, 3 and 4, which means you must have '4' and '5' in columns 1 and 5 in some order - this is called a 'naked triple' deduction.
Now in column 5 you only have '4' and '5' as options in the 4th and 5th row, so you can eliminate them elsewhere in that column. At this point the only place a '1' can fit in that column is in row 2.
And so on.
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.