Pair Clues in Logic Grid Puzzles

Part 4 of 6 of How to Solve Logic Grid Puzzles.

A pair clue names two pairs and tells you they match up, without saying which goes with which. It looks like the hardest kind of clue, but it usually gives away more X's than any other. You may also see these called unaligned pair clues.

Clue 3. Of the butterfly that sold for $260 and the butterfly that was auctioned 4th, one was won by Harry and the other was won by Wallace.

Read it as two pairs. The first pair is the $260 butterfly and the 4th lot. The second pair is Harry and Wallace.

The first pair are two different butterflies

One of the first pair went to Harry and the other went to Wallace. So the $260 butterfly and the 4th lot are not the same butterfly, and you can put an X where $260 meets 4th.

The second pair works the same way. Here it tells you nothing new, because Harry and Wallace are both winners and could never have matched each other. When the second pair comes from two different categories, it gets an X as well.

Nothing else fits

The $260 butterfly went to Harry or Wallace, so it didn't go to Joel, Kelly or Marco. The 4th lot also went to Harry or Wallace, so it didn't go to Joel, Kelly or Marco either. That is six more X's.

Find one half and you have the other

The clue still hasn't said which is which, but as soon as you learn one half you get the other for free. If the $260 butterfly turns out to be Wallace's, then the 4th lot was Harry's. If the $260 butterfly turns out to be Harry's, the 4th lot was Wallace's.

Nothing on the grid settles it yet, so leave the clue for now. It comes back in the last part.

Next: All-different clues
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