Confident Marking: Step-by-Step Guide
Once a line’s clue segments are fully accounted for, the remaining cells are guaranteed blanks. Marking these spaces with crosses keeps your board tidy and prevents accidental fills later.
Prerequisites
How to recognize it
- Clues satisfied: All filled segments for a clue are placed and counted.
- Remaining space: Any leftover cells in that line must be blanks.
- Forced gaps: Two consecutive clues separated by required gaps leave isolated blank cells between them.
Why it works
Clue totals describe exactly how many filled cells belong to the line. When all runs are placed, nothing else can be painted there, so treating the rest as empty is safe and keeps deductions flowing.
Try it now
Interactive example coming soon: complete a line, then tap to mark the remaining tiles with crosses.
Common pitfalls
- Marking too early before every segment is placed—double-check the clue totals.
- Forgetting to mark both sides of a completed run, leaving stray ambiguous cells.
Related: Overlap Scanning