Hello everyone.
Nice Web site.
I have a tough-level sudoku which I have been unable to solve. Now I have eliminated certain rows & columns down to two possible numbers so I could get the answer by excel spreadsheet/guessing. However, I have completed many difficult and a few diabolical sudokus without ever having to guess once. I was always able to eliminate all possibilities of a box down to one number. (By the way, i totally disagree with using spreadsheets or guessing. You should be able to work it out without ever having to do this).

Anyway, this one has me stumped. Let me give you the suduko (as it stood at the beginning) and then let me give you how far I got. You will notice that you only need to figure out ONE more number to solve the entire puzzle and it doesn't matter which number it is. Please help me if you can. And by the way, I do not want the solution to the sudoku, I simply want help getting one more number somewhere.

The starting sudoku:

AND I GOT TO THIS POINT:

9	.	.	5	.	.	3	6	2
2	5	3	9	.	.	8	1	.
6	.	1	2	.	3	9	5	.
.	6	9	.	3	2	.	8	5
1	.	.	6	.	8	.	3	9
3	.	.	4	9	.	.	7	6
5	3	.	.	.	4	6	9	8
8	9	.	3	.	.	7	4	1
.	1	.	8	.	9	5	2	3

Please help if you can but replying to this post (on www.sudoku.org.uk) or by email: [email protected]

And remember: I do not want the solution to the sudoku as I saw it in the paper the next day. I can confirm that all the numbers i worked out are correct. I simply want help getting one more number somewhere - ie...a box that could only possibly be one number. In other words, I am trying to solve this without having to guess or attempt different excel combinations.

Thanks

Matt