Technique 3 of 5 · Medium boards
Squeeze
Before you place a crown, ask what it would destroy. If a crown in some cell would cross out every open cell of another row, column or color, that cell can't hold a crown.
The idea
A crown rules out a lot: its row, its column, its color and the eight cells around it. That is usually what you want. But if a crown would leave some other color with no open cell at all, that color could never get its crown, and the board would be broken. So the cell is ruled out.
already ruled outthe cells the step looks atruled out by this stepa crown this step places
The example
On this 8×8 board, the teal region has only two open cells left: row 4, column 6 and row 5, column 7. Now look at the blue cell at row 5, column 5.
- A crown there would rule out the rest of row 5, which includes row 5, column 7.
- It would also touch row 4, column 6 diagonally, which rules that cell out too.
Teal would be left with no open cell. So row 5, column 5 can't hold a crown: cross it out. Nothing else was tried or assumed; the cell simply can't work.
How to spot it
- Start from colors and lines with two or three open cells. Look for a cell outside them that sees all of those cells at once: in the same row or column, or right next to them.
- Check the cells between a color's last cells. A cell that sits diagonally between two of them often touches both.
- Rows and columns count too. A cell can squeeze a line as well as a color, for example by touching the last two open cells of the row above it.
Why it works
Every color needs a crown, and a crown can only go in an open cell. A crown that leaves a color with no open cell breaks that rule, so it can't be part of the answer.
In Logic Legends
The hint calls this step Squeeze and outlines both the cell and the color it would block. A board that needs Squeeze is graded Medium. In the story sagas, Medium boards start from the second level.