Thursday, February 08, 2007

Advanced-YChains

Y-Wing Chains
The Y-Wing strategy can be extended into chains. Remember, the Y-Wing consists of a pivot cell and two pincers. We keep the principle of the pincers exactly the same. The difference is that the pivot can be replaced by locked pairs. Our pivot chain for a y-Wing must proceed at odd numbered lengths. A Y-Wing is simply a chain with length = 1.

In Figure 1 we have a Y-Wing Chain marked our in green cells. The 5/7 pivot consists of three pairs of 5/7. The first 5/7 (in which ever order) is connected to the last 5/7 by a third 5/7 in the middle, and by definition this is a locked pair. If the first 5/7 is a 5 them the third one must be a 5 as well. Same goes for number 7.
Our pincer is based on the two green cells marked with a red border - the pairs 7/9 and 5/9. The principle of the Y-Wing says that any cells that both those can see we can eliminate the common number - in this case 9. The two cells marked with a red circle can be 'seen' by both and the 9 removed.

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