By some sort of strange mathematical cosmic entanglement, it appears that François Brunault answered his own question in the other [thread](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/129143/verifying-the-correctness-of-a-sudoku-solution) while I was writing this question. The answer is indeed **yes.** Feel free to click on the original question and vote up his answer! Or vote this answer up (I've made it community wiki).