A good sudoku week can begin with the dated edition and continue wherever your pencil takes you. Fourteen solvers completed 150 puzzles across the last two weeks. The part I keep returning to is their choice of boards. They solved 46 dated editions and 104 practice boards. A daily puzzle gave them a place to begin. Practice gave them room to stay with the grid.
Two squares, two digits
A naked pair appears when two squares in one row, column, or box have the same two candidates. Those two digits must occupy those two squares, in either order. This reserves both digits for the pair. You may remove them from every other square in that same group.
Here is a real position from the school board. In row 5, r5c1 has candidates 3 and 8. The candidates at r5c2 are also 3 and 8. We do not yet know which square holds 3 and which holds 8. We do know that row 5 must place both digits in those two squares.
Now look along the rest of row 5. The candidates at r5c7 are 3, 5, 8, and 9. Remove 3 and 8, leaving 5 and 9. The candidates at r5c9 are 5, 8, and 9. Remove 8, leaving 5 and 9. The pair has made two useful eliminations even though it has not placed a digit.
The usual mistake is to find two squares with two candidates each and call them a pair. Their candidate sets must match. A square with 3 and 8 beside a square with 3 and 9 does not reserve anything. The second check is the group. Remove the pair's digits only from other squares that share the row, column, or box where you found it. Once those two conditions are proven, the eliminations are certain.
From Claire's desk
The World Puzzle Federation has completed all eight online Sudoku Grand Prix rounds for 2026. Its official archive includes the practice and competition puzzles from every round. These sets are a useful way to meet unfamiliar constructions and variants. Work through one without the clock first. The structure is easier to study when speed is out of the question.
This week's editions
The week began with Easy editions No. 49 and No. 50. No. 51 and No. 52 were Medium, followed by Hard No. 53, Master No. 54, and Expert No. 55.
Three solvers finished Monday's Easy No. 49 in 2:30, 2:48, and 7:13. Each completed the grid without a wrong entry or a hint. The times were different. The result was the same: every entry was proven. That is the standard worth keeping as the editions become harder.
In Claire's Sudoku
Practice boards accounted for 104 of the 150 completed puzzles recorded over the last two weeks. Dated editions accounted for 46. The front page will give practice the attention those choices have earned. You can begin with the edition and then choose another board at the level that suits the time you have. Easy, Hard, and Expert practice all have a place in the same week.
Choose one practice board in Claire's Sudoku this week, and use the naked pair check when two matching candidate sets appear.