An Introduction To Sudoku
Sudoku has gained extreme popularity in recent years. The game has found favor because it can be designed for many different skill levels and comes in so many different formats. You can find easy puzzles, hard puzzles, paper puzzles, or electronic puzzles. Sudoku is one game that will likely never go out of style.
It’s interesting to examine the history of Sudoku and what is now a worldwide phenomenon.
No one is quite sure about its exact origins. The closest puzzles can actually be traced back to some French newspapers from the 1800’s. Even so, they were not exactly like the puzzles we have today.
Experts speculate that it was a man named Howard Garns who developed Sudoku, though it was called “Number Place” at that time. He had his work published by Dell Magazines in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
As we now know, the game ended up with a Japanese name. The idea was transferred to a Japanese newspaper in the early 1980’s and was called Suugi wa dokushin ni kagiru. It was later shortened to “Sudoku”.
It had some relative success, but largely flew under the radar at that time. It wasn’t until the year 2005 when it really took off. British and United States newspapers both began to publish Sudoku games in their editions. Many others soon followed suit.
The reason for its popularity is simple.
It can take a little while to get used to playing Sudoku, but once you understand the rules, you’ll be able to play with no problem. Of course, some of the more advanced puzzles can be quite challenging and take hours If not days to solve.
The puzzle has a total of 81 tiny squares going 9 down and 9 across. There are smaller sections of boxes going 3 down and 3 across. It is your mission to fill these 3X3 areas with the numbers 1-9 with each number appearing at least once and only once in each row or column. That means for example, that the number “8″ couldn’t be in the same row or more than once.
A Sudoku puzzle will be partially filled out when you receive it. You will have to consider what numbers are already there and which ones are left. The easiest puzzles might seem like a breeze to complete, but the more challenging ones could take you days!
The Sudoku phenomenon doesn’t show any signs of slowing down either.
As previously mentioned, Sudoku puzzles can be found in newspapers worldwide. There are even entire magazines devoted to these puzzles.
If you’d rather play electronically, that is an option as well. There are handheld versions as well as versions made to go along with several popular gaming consoles.
Of course, there are even Websites where you can play Sudoku online. Doing a simple Google search turns up sites like WebSudoku.com and Bin-Co.com, which are both great online destinations for playing a game of Sudoku. That means you can have Sudoku with you wherever you go!
Sudoku has a long and fascinating history, spanning different decades and countries and Its popularity shows no sings of waning as more people become addicted to this deceptively simple game!
No Comments »