GridWits

W-Wing

Expert Used by Smart Hint

Two cells with the same candidate pair, linked by a strong chain on one digit elsewhere on the board.

A 1 B 2 C 3 D 4 E 5 F 6 G 7 H 8 I 9 4 7 4 9 5 7 2 4 4 7

How it works

  1. A1 and I7 both carry the same candidate pair {4, 7}, but they don't share a row, column, or box, so they can't rule each other out directly.
  2. Column E has a strong link on 4: E1 and E7 are the only two candidates for 4 in that column, and each sits in the same row as one of the bivalue cells.
  3. That strong link forces one of A1 / I7 to be 4 and the other 7 — so 7 can be eliminated from I1, which sees both of them.

Play a Sudoku that needs this technique →