Nine Kings
(Published on 6. February 2021, 11:53 by Qodec)
A puzzle I created a couple of months ago but forgot to post here earlier. It looks like a killer sudoku but it's really about the anti-king constraint. Without it, this puzzle has over 5000 solutions. This is where I stopped counting; if someone can tell me how many solutions there are to this puzzle without the anti-king rule, I'd be very grateful! The lay-out is inspired by Joseph Nehme's excellent VXX-XVX-XXV puzzle, featured on Cracking the Cryptic.
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Anti-king: Cells that are orthogonally or diagonally adjacent cannot contain the same digit.
- Killer cages: An area in the grid surrounded by a dashed line is a 'killer cage'. The number in the upper left corner of a cage is the sum of the digits within that cage. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.
You can play this puzzle online using f-puzzles: https://f-puzzles.com/?id=y4h8avc6.
Good luck!
Solution code: Columns 1 and 9. I.e. the 9 digits in column 1 from top to bottom, followed by the 9 digits in column 9 from top to bottom, for example: 123456789123456789
Solved by SirWoezel, cdwg2000, Marcos, LKegel, Fedo , Nairi, abed hawila, sgreveling, ManuH, Kigor, Zzzyxas, rimodech, gige, Woodsy, Greg, Binhex, cfop, GremlinSA, MB_Cyclist, polar, fpac, chuffinora, SKORP17, ... thetiredsaint, butch02, Lakritze, Saskia, eyuporhan, Crul, Vebby, apwelho, Playmaker6174, Megalobrainiac, bolado, GexTed, Carolin, Bellsita, Just me, zhergan, EmX68, Bobbobert, mezkur7, gxorgx
