This, frankly, is not so different from "forcing chains", yet the author dismisses bifurcation as "guessing" and arrogantly claims Sudokus that will not submit to his collection of logic techniques should not be allowed. This is not a process of pure guesswork, it is informed trial-and-error - "easy" logic reduces the puzzle to a few possibilities, and then we test one of those possibilities until it either leads to a solution or a contradiction. ![]() Without that ability, how does the merely-human complete a puzzle? Bifurcation will find a solution in deterministic time rather than spending an unknown amount of time staring at a grid for the trick that will solve it. Perhaps nobody has come up with one and the ability to find them is what separates the highly intelligent from the super-intelligent. There remains a gap in the market for developing a method to aid a NI (natural intelligence, as opposed to a computer) in spotting the more esoteric patterns necessary for cracking the harder puzzles. That said, it is as good as any other Sudoku guide I have come across. There are many pages devoted to providing a supply of puzzles (which can easily be had from any daily newspaper) but some of those pages could have been better used for diagrams to illustrate the logic of solving. In my opinion this book misses a trick: mostly, the diagrams do not highlight cells of interest in the discussion so leave the reader to search for them at the same time as following the discussion - perhaps the author can do that with ease, but I can't and it makes for a hard study. I was looking forward to some tips about the practicalities of solving tougher Sudokus - my own logic techniques are very similar to those explained in this (and other) books, but I fall down on being able to spot the patterns amongst the clutter. We will then contact you with the appropriate action.I am already adept at Sudoku solving, and a Mensa member.
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