Medium Anti-King Sudoku

Ready to sharpen your skills? Medium Anti-King Sudoku puzzles introduce interactions between the variant constraint and classic Sudoku techniques. You'll need to combine both skill sets to progress.

▶ Play Medium Anti-King Sudoku All Anti-King Sudoku Difficulties

What to expect at Medium level

Medium Anti-King Sudoku puzzles require you to combine the variant constraint with standard Sudoku deduction - Naked pairs, hidden singles, and unit scans. The constraint is more tightly woven into the grid, so you'll need to think a few steps ahead.

Best suited for players comfortable with Easy Anti-King Sudoku who want to build their pattern recognition.

Difficulty overview

LevelCluesTechniques neededAvg. time
Easy ManyBasic elimination5–10 min
Medium ModerateSingles, pairs10–20 min
Hard FewAdvanced logic20–40 min
Expert MinimalFull mastery40+ min

About Anti-King Sudoku

Difficulty
★★★☆☆
3/5
Constraint Type
Anti-Constraints
Typical Givens
22–28
Avg. Solve (Medium)
13 min

Anti-King Sudoku adds a chess-inspired constraint: cells that would be reachable in a single king move (orthogonally or diagonally adjacent) cannot share the same digit. This extends the non-repeat rule beyond rows, columns, and boxes to include diagonal neighbours, significantly tightening the constraint space throughout the grid.

Solving Techniques for Medium Level

Technique Description Level
Diagonal Exclusion The king constraint extends the exclusion zone to all 8 neighbours including diagonals. Apply diagonal exclusions before standard row/col/box logic. Beginner
Corner Restriction Corner cells (e.g., r1c1) only have 3 king-move neighbours. Start with corners and edges to build initial placements. Intermediate
King-Chain Elimination When a digit is placed, eliminate it simultaneously from all 8 surrounding cells. Intermediate

Master these, then take on Hard Killer Sudoku to learn Advanced techniques.

Average Solve Time by Difficulty

Easy
5 min
Medium
13 min
Hard
26 min
Expert
48 min

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a king's move?
A king's move covers all 8 adjacent cells: horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. No two king-move neighbours can contain the same digit.
How does Anti-King differ from Anti-Knight?
Anti-King forbids same digits within one step in any direction; Anti-Knight forbids same digits at L-shaped knight distances.