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Sudoku Strategies - Marking Up
The
scanning process is complete once no more numbers can be discovered
using this method. The next step is to
introduce another Sudoku strategy, marking up. This involves bringing
logical analysis into the puzzle solving procedure. One
method that advanced Sudoku solvers use to guide analysis is to mark
potential candidtate numbers in the blank squares. This can be done
using either Subscript notation or Dot notation.
Subscript Notation
When using Subscript notation to guide analysis, potential
candidate numbers are written in subscript in the blank squares.
Unfortunately this can be difficult because the puzzles that are
printed in the daily newspapers are too small to contain more than a
few subscript digits of average handwriting size. It can be helpful to
create a bigger copy of the puzzle, it is also a good idea to use two
colours for adding subscript notation. Another common Sudoku strategy
is dot notation.
Dot Notation
In dot notation a pattern of dots is used in each cell for
candidate numbers, rather than suscript. The position of the dot
indicates a number between 1 and 9.
It is easy to make mistakes with this method, so great care must be
taken when using it.
Alternatively dot notation can be used to mark the squares that a
numeral cannot be, and as more numbers become apparent each empty cell
fills until only one mark is missing. Again, it is easy to make
mistakes with this method as one missed dot can cause confusion.More
Sudoku strategies are discussed in other articles on this website.
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