Remote Pairs
Short answer: find four or more cells that all hold exactly the same two candidates, linked so each sees the next. Along that chain the two shapes must alternate. If the chain has an even number of cells, its two ends are opposites — so any cell seeing both ends cannot hold either shape.
What remote pairs look like
This is the first proper chain on the site. Everything before it fits in a fixed shape — a rectangle, a pivot with wings — but a remote-pair chain can wander anywhere on the grid, as long as each cell sees the next and every cell carries the same two candidates.
Because the ends are opposites, one of them is the triangle and the other is the star — you just do not know which way round. That is enough: a cell seeing both ends is seeing both shapes, whichever way it falls.
How to use remote pairs
- Group the identical pairs. Find every cell holding exactly the same two shapes — not merely two candidates, but the same two. Three or four such cells on a grid is common; you need at least four to build a usable chain.
- Link them into a chain. Connect cells that see each other. The chain does not have to be straight or tidy; it just has to be connected, with each step sharing a row, column or box.
- Count the cells. You need an even number — four, six, eight. With an even count the two ends are forced to opposite shapes. An odd-length chain makes the ends the same shape, which proves nothing here.
- Strike both shapes at any cell seeing both ends. Remove both candidates from every cell that shares a unit with both ends. This is unusually strong: most techniques remove one shape, this removes two, and often solves the cell outright.
Remote pairs are the gentlest introduction to chain logic, because every cell in the chain looks the same. The next step up is simple colouring, which chains a single shape across cells that need not match at all.
Remote pairs vs naked pairs
A naked pair is two identical two-candidate cells that share a unit, and it clears those two shapes from the rest of that unit. Remote pairs use the same kind of cell but the cells do not all share a unit — they form a path across the grid instead. The elimination is therefore not about a unit at all: it lands on whatever cells happen to see both ends, which may be far from every cell in the chain.
Find Remote Pairs in your own grid
Paste a puzzle and this page will look for Remote Pairs in it — the same pattern shown above, in your grid instead of ours. Nothing is uploaded; it runs in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the chain need an even number of cells?
Because the shapes alternate. With four cells the pattern runs A, B, A, B — the ends differ. With five it runs A, B, A, B, A and the ends match, which tells you nothing useful about a cell seeing both. Count the cells, not the links, and check for an even number before you strike anything.
Do all the cells really need identical candidates?
For a remote pair, yes — exactly the same two shapes in every cell. If a cell has a third candidate the alternation breaks, because that cell might be neither shape. Chains that tolerate mismatched cells exist, but they are a different and more general technique.
Can the chain branch?
Keep it as a single path when you are learning. Branching is where colouring takes over: it handles an entire connected network at once rather than one route through it, which is more powerful but needs the two-colour bookkeeping to stay straight.
Why is this stronger than most techniques?
Because it removes two candidates at once from every cell it hits, rather than one. A cell seeing both ends of the chain is seeing both shapes, so both go — which frequently reduces a three-candidate cell to a single and cascades from there.