PUZZLE TECHNIQUES

 

GAPS SOLVING TECHNIQUES

Learn advanced tips to solve easy and difficult gappy puzzles. When you have learned our techniques, then you can play gaps puzzles online.

The main method in solving gaps puzzles is to first look for cells that should definitely be WHITE!

START WITH THE HIGH NUMBERS

The numbers at the top and left outside the grid indicate how many white squares are between the 2 black squares.

If a number + 1 is greater than half the length of the grid, you can certainly make one or more cells white. Brrr, this sounds complicated, but it fairly simple with an example.

The Gappy puzzles on our site are always 10x10. This means that with digit 5 or higher ​​one or more cells may turn white. After all, the number 5 + 1 = 6 and therefore more than half of 10.

So you soon learn the following when solving gappy grids of 10x10:

• With number 5 as clue you can make the 2 middle cells WHITE.
• With digit 6 as clue you can make the 4 middle cells WHITE.
• With number 7 as clue you can make the 6 middle cells WHITE.
• With digit 8 as clue you can make the 8 middle cells WHITE.






ONLY 3 CELLS FOR DIGIT 1

If you look at row 6 of the example below, you will see 3 cells next to the white cell. If there are only 3 spaces left for number 1, then we know for sure that the middle cell must always be white. If you would blacken this box, then there is no possibility for a second black cell with only 1 cell between the two black cells.






ONLY 2 PLACES FOR A BLACK CELL

Remember the rule that black cells must not touch each other, not even diagonally. If there are only 2 places for a black cell like in row 5 of our example, then you can make 2 cells of adjacent rows or columns white.






IS THERE A PLACE FOR A 2ND BLACK CELL?

We start from a white cell (= A in the example) and apply the GAP. We are now investigating whether we can blacken this new cell (=? In example) by making the GAP with another cell. If this is not possible, then the box with ? must be white.






AN AREA OF 2x3 WITH 2 BLACK CELLS

In rows 2 and 3 we have a 2x3 area in the front and at the end. In each area 2 cells must be black. To prevent black cells from touching each other, you must make the middle 2 cells white.






GREAT! YOU HAVE FOUND A BLACK CELL

The last cell in row 3 must be black. What are the consequences of finding a black cell?

• The chance is big that you now also know where the 2nd black cekk should be. This applies to both the row and the column.
• All the cells around the black cell can become white.
• More clarity can now also find other black and white cells. In the example we have indicated a number of cells with B for BLACK and W for WHITE.