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You can use a finned fish on [2] in cols 1 and 7 to eliminate [2] from r2c2.

You can use an XY wing to eliminate [5] from r2c1.

Now, r2c7 is forced to [5] and the rest comes easily after that.
...

DUH.

Thanks. It's amazing how long you can stare at something and miss the obvious.

Can't seem to make progress on this. I finally found an XY chain that solves it, but I'm starting to dislike those (seems a bit like guessing) and I wonder what the simplest way to solve this is. Ca ...

Thanks for the obvious solution I couldn't see. I finally got it through brute force (lots of xy chains), but of course, your solution was much better.

Stuck at this point. Tired of staring at it. Please ease my mind.

+------------+----------------+------------+
| 2568 56 3 | 58 258 4 | 1 9 7 |
| 28 7 18 | 38 1289 139 | 5 4 ...

Asellus,

Thanks for the help. I was over 2 hrs into this mess.

I had found all the x-wings, and I used the UR to eliminate 5 from R7C4, R7C6, and R8C3, since R7C4 or C6 must be 2. However, sin ...

I eventually resorted to a UR, which I consider cheating, and still didn't solve this B%$#. Here's my progress. Any help?

+-------+-------+-------+
| . 2 . | 4 . 1 | 9 . 6 |
| 9 4 . | 6 8 . | . ...

Very interesting. Kind of an bifurcation of naked pairs. Where does the term 2SDG(Q?) Sue de Coq come from?

Of note is that the puzzle grade goes from "too hard" to "easy" aft ...

Hi, new here. I've been trying all the VH puzzles on the site, and have gotten pretty good at X-wing, XY-wing, swordfish, etc.

But todays LA Times puzzle is a real stumper. For starters, the grad ...