Obvious triples technique

Strategy #6 for solving Sudoku: Obvious triples technique

This tactic will help you solve difficult Sudoku puzzles. In combination with other advanced tricks, it helps solve even the most challenging Sudokus. It is important to note that to successfully solve complex puzzles, you will need knowledge of all Sudoku strategies. 

This strategy is a derivative of the previous tactic, but here, instead of involving 2 cells, it involves 3. According to this strategy, if in a 3 by 3 block there are 3 cells where the candidates are interconnected, it means that the candidates in these cells can only appear in these cells and nowhere else in the 3 by 3 square. For example, the first cell has candidates ab, the second bc, the third ca, here we see a clear intersecting relationship between 3 cells.

As we can see in the picture above, we have found a 3 by 3 area in which there is an obvious triplet of the following pairs (highlighted in yellow rectangles): 1 and 6; 1 and 3; 6 and 3. Accordingly, the numbers 1, 3, 6 are definitely only in these three cells, we just don't know exactly where each digit should be placed. But we know for sure that in this 3 by 3 block, these digits cannot be placed anywhere else. Therefore, the next step is to remove these numbers from the assumptions in this square, and as a result, we get the game field, which is depicted to the right of the arrow. 

Are you interested in this technique and want to try it out? Go ahead and play a very difficult Sudoku puzzle on our website online.