Bud from Florida

nice summer weather in spring here in Chicago but alas, winter/spring will return tomorrow - that's Chicago -- Cubs on a roll and hope you enjoy your time on the site also, Mary

Hey Bud! to your page in Sudokuland. Hope you enjoy yourself here. I look forward to meeting you on the puzzle pages!

Bud!
to the wide wonderful world of Sudoku-land!
Can't help you with your question, but several questions are answered on the 'Forum' page.

I hope you enjoy your time here Bud. Below is a link to all things sudoku - methods etc. if you click the link it takes you to the first page and on the right hand side of the page are further links which may help you. Cheers.

The link:

http://sudoku.com.au/sudokutips.aspx?Go=B12-4-1999&category=sudoku

UP stands for 'unique possibilities' which basically is a shorthand way of saying that it's really obvious what goes where because there's only one place a number can fall in either a row, column or section (cage).

When people post a solution they'll usually start their explanation after the initial markup and the first round of obvious solving by 'basic techniques,' so if there are 19 numbers given and the initial markup of obvious asnswers fills another 4 squares, the solution will start off saying "UP to 23 ..." and continue from there by pointing out more advanced solving strategies.

Then, towards the end of a solution, one square is filled in that allows all the rest of the puzzle to resolve with no further mental effort. At that point the solution will simply read: "UP to 81" because a filled board has 81 squares filled with numbers.