The Quiet Grid, Issue 2: The Fair Fight

Hello again! Before anything else: the answer to Issue 1’s row was 5, and a tip of the cap to everyone who wrote in. Several of you added “that was too easy,” which is exactly the point. The easy ones are where the feeling lives, and we are going to build on it.

Three squares

One. Before you touch a pencil mark, scan. Take each digit, 1 through 9, and sweep the whole grid for it once: where is every 4? Which rows, columns, and boxes already have one? Most easy puzzles surrender entirely to a patient scan, and the habit trains your eye for everything that comes later.

Two. A puzzle you finish in one sitting is a small, complete story. Beginning, middle, and the satisfying last square. Not every evening has room for a novel. Most evenings have room for a story.

Three. Behind the grid: what “Easy” promises at Quiet Grid Press. On our covers it is a promise, not an apology. Every Easy puzzle we publish has been checked to have exactly one solution and a recorded logical path with no guessing, and the difficulty does not quietly climb halfway through the book. The puzzle you open at bedtime plays as fair as the one you opened with breakfast. We call that a fair fight.

Two voices

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. — Psalms 23:1

Chapter two of Bible Verse Sudoku is called Trust and Guidance, and that is the verse that opens it. It sits right after Light and Creation the way wonder gives way to a path you can follow.

Your voice, this issue: after your next puzzle, tell us in three words how it went. Breezed. Fair fight. Earned it. Those three little verdicts are going to matter around here; more on that soon. Reply to the email with yours, or leave it on our new Facebook Page, which opened this week.

One grid

This time, a whole grid, but only one square matters: the one in the very center, row 5, column 5.

.  6  5 | .  4  . | 1  .  .
9  .  1 | 6  5  . | .  4  3
.  .  4 | .  .  . | .  .  9
--------+---------+--------
.  .  . | .  .  . | 3  .  .
6  .  3 | .  ?  2 | .  7  .
2  9  8 | .  3  5 | 6  1  .
--------+---------+--------
.  8  6 | .  9  . | .  .  .
.  3  . | .  8  . | .  .  .
.  .  . | 3  .  . | .  .  .

Look at that center square’s row, its column, and the box it sits in. Between the three of them, eight digits are already spoken for. Which one is left? Solvers call this the last possible digit, and it is the second-easiest move in Sudoku, right after the full house.

The answer comes next Monday, gently, as always.