Naked Triple
Three cells in a house whose candidates together use only three digits. Those digits lock to the trio and clear from the rest of the house.
Three cells in this column have candidates using only 2, 5, and 9 between them.
How to spot it
- 1Find three cells whose combined candidates total exactly three digits.
- 2Each cell needs only two or three of them, not all.
- 3Remove those three digits from the rest of the house.
When to use
On hard puzzles where pairs alone don't break the deadlock.
Common mistake
Requiring every cell to show all three digits. {2,5}, {5,9}, {2,9} is a valid triple.
Worked Example
A naked triple is the naked pair's bigger sibling: three cells in a house whose candidates, combined, use only three digits — say {2,5}, {5,9}, and {2,9}. No single cell needs to show all three; between the three cells, only 2, 5, and 9 appear at all.
Since those three digits have to be distributed across exactly those three cells, none of them can appear anywhere else in the house. Every other cell in that row, column, or box can have 2, 5, and 9 struck from its candidates. It's a pattern worth hunting for on hard puzzles once naked and hidden pairs alone aren't enough.