Sudoku AI Coach

What is Finned X-Wing? How to Solve Sudoku

What it is

An almost-X-Wing. Near one corner, inside the same box, a few extra candidates stick out. That's the fin.

• If the fin is the answer: the other cells in the fin's box can't be the digit.

• If it isn't: it's a normal X-Wing.

Either way, cells in the fin's box that line up with the X-Wing's column can't be the digit.

How to spot it

When something looks almost like an X-Wing, check whether the extra candidates are all in one box.

Example

81246739512427464646524673682346823482789191246124671246812482835145912415871286183156312615681268941877168413613529134147814713813486952134614652971314682146891381348513746

Yellow cells are where to look, orange cells are the reason, red digits are candidates you can remove, and the blue digit is the answer.

Think about 6 only. column 4 and column 3 almost form an X-Wing (R2C4, R5C4, R2C3, and R5C3), but extra candidates stick out at R3C3 (the fin). If the fin is 6, the other cells of box 1 aren't 6. If it isn't, it's a normal X-Wing on row 2 and row 5. Either way, R2C1 can't be 6.

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