It's Saturday February 13, 2010. Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow and Happy Family Day on Monday. Today's the day the secret of THE CHALLENGER is revealed. You'll find it on P7, in the puzzles and comics section of the Saturday Star. Get over it! Go buy one.
For reference let's number the rows 1 to 6 from bottom to top and the columns will be 1 to 5 from left to right.
The fist thing to look for is a row or column with a low total. Look at column 3. Subtract the given number,6 , from the total of 12 for the column and we have 6 left to make up in that column. This can be made up with a 4 and 2-ones. But where to place them? Consider row 4. If the 4 is placed in the third square , the ones go above and below it.
The current total then for row 4 is 7. Subtract this from 25, leaving 18. This must be made up with 2-nines.
Looking for similar relationships, check column 4. 16-9-2=5 which is made up with a 4 and 1-one. Place the 4 in row 3. The remaining square in row 3 must be 9. The rest of the puzzle is duck soup, as the Marx brothers would say.
Let me know whether or not this makes any sense at all.
Please post the secret to solving the Challenger puzzle in the Star. I can't find anything online to help with the strategy to use, other than your few paragraphs here. Lots of computer programs are available, but how do we use our brain to work this in such a short time??? Also checked archives of Feb 13 2010 Star and can't find this article you reference... HELP
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