What is sudoku?

Sudoku is a tactical and logical numbers game, where a player's objective is to complete a 9x9 square grid by filling in the digits 1 to 9. The following conditions and rules apply to completing the puzzle successfully:

* the 9x9 grid is sub-divided into 9x9 cells and the numbers 1 to 9 should be entered such that each horizontal row contains each digit only once

* each digit appears only once in each vertical column

* every sub-divided 9x9 cell contains only one instance of each number

The rules above may seem complicated at first glance but once you get started it is very easy to pick up, and you will surely be addicted like thousands others. You do not need to be a mathematics genius to solve sudoku as simple logic will do. To get you started some of the digits are provided but the numbers pre-filled may vary depending on the difficulty of the particular puzzle.

Sudoku has changed names over the years but one fact remains, it is highly addictive. A good sudoku puzzle should have only one unique solution.

Sudokuns history

Just by looking at its name you might be convinced to mistakenly assume that it originated in Japan. Although it is the Japanese who developed an affinity for Sudoku and named it thus, its origins are closer to home. The origins of modern sudoku is often credited to the 18th Century Swiss Mathematician Leonhard Euler whose game “Latin Squares” inspired sudoku as we know it today. Over the years the puzzle evolved, from the 1895 newspaper publications in French papers to the 1979 format (modern day sudoku) invented by Howard Garns. Known as “Number Place” then the puzzle was shipped off to Japan in 1986 where it got christened “sudoku” loosely translated to “single number”. It proved quite a hit to the Japanese people and they have helped drive worldwide uptake of sudoku.

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