Knight Sweats #2
(Published on 4. February 2023, 13:14 by SlowLarry)
On thermometers, digits rise from bulb to tip.
Equal digits cannot be separated by a chess knight's move.
This puzzle would fit well in Philip Newman's "Nerd-Snipe" series. The original question was how many two-cell thermometers (2CT) are needed to uniquely solve a sudoku. For classic rules, examples were found with 18 (and an overlapping bulb) and 19 2CT, see also Jealousy. With the additional anti-knight restriction, two practically identical constructions were recently found with only 10 2CT, see 10 2CT Anti-Knight at f-puzzles.com. However, these seem to not have a solution accessible to humans. This puzzle is based on a related construction with 11 2CT, meaning it is already unique with 11 thermometers. However, I have added three more 2CT to make the solution path findable and pleasant.
Solution code: row 8 + column 8
