Comments on: Just a Sudoku

By: Spittledung

Spittledung — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:47:24 +0000

I thought what I said might be taken incorrectly. What I was trying to say was that I am against the ideology of haste, and not Thomas as a person. I have seen too many times in this world where haste gets rewarded with a disregard for the consequences that arise from it.

There are many times I do a sudoku and intuitively say “that’s a 6, I know it” … but I can’t prove it yet. So I take the time to prove it. My times would be faster if I relied on my intuition more but part of my grounding is the proof and understanding.

If this comes across as grumpy I apologise. I recently read “Full Contact Sudoku” and was one of the few that was not amused.

To show I have no personal beef with Thomas, one of this things he has said about sudoku I am in total agreement with: “The place in a puzzle where you think that progress will not be made is EXACTLY where you should be looking!” Amen! I use that principle all of the time.

I plan to get Mutant Sudoku when I can find it on the store shelves. The other contributor is Wei-Hwa Huang, who not only is a Sudoku Champion, but is a fellow game designer who recently worked on the icons for “Race for the Galaxy”.

By: Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:12:21 +0000

Well, I am not going to comment on Thomas’s result but I must say that, whilst I’ve never met him in person, over the past few years I’ve had a couple of private conversations with him by email and I’ve always found him very polite and decent. If he comes across as arrogant, perhaps it’s just a natural result of being light years ahead of most other puzzle solvers – his times are unbelievable. But I don’t know him, so I’m just guessing. In any case, no matter what you think of him I must say that his new book, Mutant Sudoku, is truly excellent – I’m sure you’d enjoy it!

By: Spittledung

Spittledung — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:58:51 +0000

Welcome back to your blog. I have been busy myself.

Good easy sudoku.

What I find funny is not only the shenanigans you mention but the fact that Thomas Snyder’s hubris got in his way and he lost it. Haste makes waste, and I do have some vindication (and schadenfreude) to see this proven on such a big scale.