Techniques · Not Easy
Pointing
Pointing is a digit trapped on one line inside a box. Every cell that can still hold the digit in that box sits in the same row, or the same column. The box has to contain the digit, so those cells are the only homes it has. The rest of that row or column, outside the box, loses the digit.
It is also called a pointing pair, or locked candidates. Two cells are the common case. Three cells lined up in the box work the same way.
When it shows up
Not Easy is the pointing grade. The solver needs a pointing or a claiming step, one to three of them, and it stops before any pair. The narrowness of that path is kept in the same range as NYT Medium.
Every one of the 494 NYT Medium puzzles needs pointing or claiming, and none of them needs a pair. About 24% of NYT Hard never goes past pointing either.
See it on a real puzzle
The marks are the candidates left when this is the next step in the solve. Step through it: the pattern, what leaves, and what that forces.
See the pattern
Look at the 2s in this box.