The Art of Playing Sudoku

Are you thinking of something new that will tickle your mind apart from the usual TV watching or daydreaming activities? Why not try Sudoku or known as Number Place in America? It is actually the latest craze in town.

Research said that it was based on Latin squares invented by a blind mathematician from Basle, Switzerland, Leonhard Euler in 1780 and was only noticed when it was published in the United States in 1980.

Nobuhiko Kanamoto, who was then a product manager of a Japanese puzzle company, Nikoli, after coming across with that article thought that with few changes, this game would be perfect. He added new layers of symmetry to the grid pattern and as he has expected, it turned out to be a huge success. In 2005, it gained popularity not only in Japan but in international scene as well.

It seems that you are now very excited to learn the game. It is actually very easy to look at but sometimes be very difficult to handle. Don't you worry because it is compose of several stages from easy to difficult and be careful because everybody who tried playing it said it would be very addictive.

Sudoku is usually a 9×9 grid, composed of 3×3 subgrids called "regions" or may also be called "boxes" or "blocks" or even "quadrants". Some cells already contain numbers, known as "givens" or "clues".

You have to fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1–9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of three "directions" or "scopes", hence the "single numbers" which the Japanese word Sudoku means.

Of course there are methods to solve the mystery in Sudoku which you have to master wherein you may also learn from the websites that offers this game but obviously playing the game often will let you master everything.

Anyway, sharing to you the techniques being practiced by most players today is not really a burden. Strategies for solving Sudoku puzzles vary. However, the basic method involves three major steps, scanning, marking and analyzing.

Scanning is done at the beginning by crosshatching wherein you have to go through all the rows columns and boxes and determine any easy fill-ins through the process of elimination. Easy stage Sudoku may usually be solved by using this technique alone.

There is also the so called marking strategy. This is done by using subscript to write the possible numbers in each square. Sometimes players may use the dot method, placing a dot at intervals in the square wherein upper-left being one and lower-right being nine.

Analysis of the most promising region, column or row comes next. You have to find the logical number to appear in a particular square by the process of eliminating some numbers. When one number is found, it will affect possibilities in other squares within the row, column or region in which it resides. Return to step two and mark all of the affected squares. You may cross out the numbers that may no longer fill the square or adjust the dots. Repeat this process until the puzzle is completely solved.

Still, practice makes perfect and since you are already tired of your daily routine, why not try playing this mind tickling game called Sudoku. Who knows this might help you in the future. Remember what is important in this game is your logic or common sense in which all of us have.