Timing TBLR Sudoku, 4/9/10-4/22/10

It has been emerging in my thinking to not only look for pairs of numbers that fit in two squares, but for triples of numbers that fit in there squares. This has made the solution go a little faster on easier puzzles.

For those who are just tuning in, this is the eighth 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.

4/22/10 – 4-Star Sudoku in the Star-Tribune, top-to-bottom, left-to-right, Fail
4/21/10 – 3-Star, 39:24, 11:58 slower than my personal best (PB+11:58)
4/20/10 – 2-Star, 26:13, PB+5:49
4/19/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
4/18/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
4/17/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
4/16/10 – 5-Star, 45:02, PB+13:24
4/15/10 – 4-Star, Fail
4/14/10 – 3-Star, Fail
4/13/10 – 2-Star, 26:19, PB+5:55
4/12/10 – 1-Star, 31:44, PB+13:31
4/11/10 – 5-Star, 56:08, PB+24:30
4/10/10 – Didn’t do the puzzle
4/09/10 – 5-Star, 38:46, PB+7:08

The personal bests haven’t changed from the last post. This is the first time in eight weeks that I’ve gone for 2 weeks without a new personal best.

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

Technorati: Sudoku