A Medium 6×6 Puzzle Solved with Shape Squeeze in 12 Steps
Play this board yourself →A
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This 6×6 board rates as medium (difficulty score 807). Solving it from scratch takes 12 logical steps, using 7 techniques: Single cell, Row/column exclusion, Adjacency clear, Region confinement, Line confinement, Paired regions, Shape squeeze. Every step below is forced: nothing here is a guess.
- First, together, two regions have open cells only in columns F and E; with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two columns, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
- Next, every open cell in row 1 belongs to the same region, so that region's marker has to be somewhere in this row; that clears every other open cell in the region.
- Then, together, two regions have open cells only in columns A and B; with one marker each, those two markers have to fill exactly those two columns, so every other region's open cells there can be cleared.
- After that, every remaining candidate in this region touches D2, so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
- Now, place a marker at F2. Row 2 has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 2, column F, and its region.
- From there, place a marker at E6. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 6, column E, and its region. Placing here also clears its 1 touching neighbour.
- Following that, every open cell left in this region sits in column B, so its marker has to land there; that clears every other open cell in the column.
- First, every remaining candidate in this region touches B4, so whichever candidate ends up marked will clear it, and it can be ruled out now regardless of which one wins.
- Next, place a marker at B5. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 5, column B, and its region. Placing here also clears its 2 touching neighbours.
- Then, place a marker at A3. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 3, column A, and its region.
- After that, place a marker at D4. Region has exactly one open cell left. Placing here clears the rest of row 4, column D, and its region.
- Finally, place a marker at C1. Region has exactly one open cell left.
The key move here was Shape squeeze. Once you can spot that, this board falls quickly. ∎