Timing TBLR Sudoku, 3/12/10-3/25/10

Part of doing Sudoku puzzles on a timed basis is the ability to move on quickly from a situation where one can’t make any further progress without finding more restrictions, or more squares in other places. At least for me, anyway.

For those who are just tuning in, this is the seventh of a series of posts occuring once every two weeks. In these posts, I show how long it takes for me to do a Sudoku puzzle with the additional restriction of having to fill in the numbers in top-to-bottom, left-to-right order. Hence the name TBLR Sudoku.

Here are the times for the last two weeks, shown with the difference between the time and my personal best for that level of difficulty.

3/25/10 – 4-Star Sudoku in the Star-Tribune, top-to-bottom, left-to-right, Fail.
3/24/10 – 3-Star, 27:26, 2:57 improvement on my personal best (for a 3-Star) from 3/10/10
3/23/10 – 2-Star, 21:27, 1:03 slower than my personal best (PB+1:03)
3/22/10 – 1-Star, Fail. Trying altogether too hard, evidently.
3/21/10 – 5-Star, Fail.
3/20/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
3/19/10 – 5-Star, 31:38, 3:35 improvement on PB from 2/26/10
3/18/10 – 4-Star, 32:49, PB+3:57
3/17/10 – 3-Star, 32:29, PB+2:06
3/16/10 – 2-Star, 24:09, PB+3:45
3/15/10 – 1-Star, 30:00, PB+11:47
3/14/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
3/13/10 – 6-Star, 53:24, PB+8:15
3/12/10 – 5-Star, 38:21, PB+3:08

Here are the updated personal bests:

1-Star: 18:13, 11/23/09
2-Star: 20:24, 1/12/10
3-Star: 27:26, 3/24/10
4-Star: 28:52, 2/18/10
5-Star: 31:38, 3/19/10
6-Star: 45:09, 2/13/10

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