HodokuRevisited

Techniques / Subsets

Naked Pair, Triple and Quad

Medium

N cells in a unit that together hold only N digits.

If two cells in a unit both have only the same two candidates, say 3 and 8, then those two digits must fill those two cells, in some order. Remove 3 and 8 from every other cell in that unit. That is a Naked Pair.

The idea extends: three cells whose candidates together are only three digits form a Naked Triple, and four cells with four digits a Naked Quad. The cells do not need to hold every digit of the set: {1,2}, {2,3} and {1,3} work, and so does {1,2,3}, {1,2}, {2,3}.

Notation

Naked Pair: 5 can be removed from r5c2.

93783824568246124712151582476824639274691352788971253466352358941272574151256379825364582791578937412862317218376948534
Naked Pair: 5 can be removed from r5c2.

pattern removed

Open in app
83195246767459176328726483591591682947573457542317867897997368465124812423945567834648127456712467238756346129456924696145572984573
Naked Triple: 4 can be removed from r6c9.

pattern removed

Open in app