A Medium 8×8 Puzzle Solved with Shape Squeeze in 15 Steps
Play this board yourself →A
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This 8×8 board rates as medium (difficulty score 806). Solving it from scratch takes 15 logical steps, using 5 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Region confinement, Shape squeeze. Every step below is forced: nothing here is a guess.
- First, every open cell left in this region sits in row 1, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the row.
- Next, every open cell left in this region sits in row 2, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the row.
- Then, place a marker at E3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column E, and its region. Placing here also clears its 2 touching neighbours.
- After that, place a marker at F1. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 1, column F, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- Now, place a marker at H2. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column H, and its region.
- From there, every open cell left in this region sits in column G, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
- Following that, every open cell left in this region sits in column D, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
- First, every remaining candidate in this region touches B7, so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
- Next, every open cell left in this region sits in column C, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
- Then, every remaining candidate in this region touches D7, so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
- After that, place a marker at D8. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 8, column D, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- Now, place a marker at C6. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 6, column C, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- From there, place a marker at A7. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 7, column A, and its region.
- Following that, place a marker at B4. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 4, column B, and its region.
- Finally, place a marker at G5. Region has exactly one open cell left.
The key move here was Shape squeeze. Once you can spot that, this board falls quickly. ∎