Overview
- Tier 4
- Fish, wings, chains & uniqueness
- Typical difficulty
- Peak Score 60–75
- Also known as
- Turbot Fish Type 2, Kite Pattern
A 2-String Kite connects a conjugate pair in a row and a conjugate pair in a column whose inner ends share a 3×3 box. The outer ends force an elimination at their intersection.
The 2-String Kite is another elegant member of the Turbot Fish family. It uses two 'strings' of a single digit: one string in a row and one string in a column, each having exactly two candidate cells. One cell from the row and one cell from the column meet inside the same 3×3 box. Because that 3×3 box can hold that digit at most once, at least one of the outer 'kite tails' must be true, eliminating the digit from the cell where the two tails cross.
Worked examples
1 / 5
Reading the exampleCells forming the patternCells losing candidatesEliminated candidates
2
1
6
7
8
5
49
3
49
4
35
35
69
269
26
8
1
7
8
9
7
3
4
1
2
5
6
9
57
8
156
3
67
147
47
2
137
6
4
159
129
27
1379
8
159
137
2
35
8
19
4
1379
6
159
37
347
1
2
5
9
6
47
8
5
8
2
46
67
3
147
9
14
6
47
9
14
17
8
5
2
3
In row 6, the digit 7 can only go in R6C1 and R6C7; in column 8, only in R4C8 and R7C8. R4C8 and R6C7 share the middle-right box, so at most one of them is 7. So R6C1 or R7C8 must be 7, and 7 can be removed from any cell that sees both.
Removes: 7 from R7C1
How to apply it
Spotting the pattern and making the deduction, in order.
- Find a row and a column that each have only two candidate positions for a target digit.
- Check that one cell from the row and one cell from the column meet inside the same 3×3 box.
- Because that box can only hold the digit once, those two inner cells cannot both be true.
- Whichever inner cell is false forces the outer cell (the tail) of that line to be true.
- Therefore, at least one of the two outer tails must contain the digit.
- Eliminate the candidate from the cell where the row and column of the two tails intersect.
Common mistakes
- The two inner cells must be in the same 3×3 box; if they are in different boxes, the constraint breaks.
- The row and column must each have exactly two candidates for that digit.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is it called a 2-String Kite?
- Imagine the row as one string and the column as another string, tied together in the 3x3 box like the corner of a kite.
Related techniques
Put 2-String Kite into practice
Try a puzzle from the Tough tier (Peak Score 61–70).