Sudoku
Sudoku is a logical puzzle game, originally created in puzzle
books and then made available in countless newspapers worldwide.
Many people are put off by seeing a grid with numbers in it, but
in fact the puzzle doesn't require any arithmetic at all - just deduction and
logic.
What is a Sudoku?
There's plenty of discussion about what consitutes a Sudoku
puzzle, but many Sudoku fans agree:
- A Sudoku should have 30 or less
initial values filled in out of the 81 total
- Sudoku should be solvable by
entirely logical deduction - no guesses should be needed. (That doesn't
mean that you can't use guesswork, just that you shouldn't have to.
- For aesthetic reasons, a Sudoku
should have rotational symmetry - the positions of the initially filled in
cells should be the same if you were to turn your page round.
- The Sudoku must only have one
solution!
Of course, for beginner puzzles, often there are more than 30
values filled in - this is just to give you a head start while you're learning!
Many people think that harder Sudoku puzzles are the ones with
less values filled in to begin with. While this is often the case, there are
plenty of frustratingly difficult puzzles available with 28 or more cells
filled in - difficult because they really require you to use lots of different solving techniques to complete them.
How to Play
Sudoku?
Sudoku requires no calculation or arithmetic skills. It is
essentially a game of placing numbers in squares, using very simple rules of
logic and deduction. It can be played by children and adults and the rules are
simple to learn.
Sudoku
Objective
The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares
in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to
follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game:
- Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order
- Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order
- Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9
Similarly, smaller Sudoku puzzles, such as the 4x4 puzzle,
must have the numerals 1 through 4 in each row, column and subsection. Larger
Sudoku games (16 by 16) must have numerals 1 through 16 in each row, column and
region. The principles are the same whatever the size of the game.
Every Sudoku games begins with a number of squares already
filled in, and the difficulty of each game is largely a function of how many
squares are filled in. The more squares that are known, the easier it is to
figure out which numbers go in the open squares. As you fill in squares
correctly, options for the remaining squares are narrowed and it becomes easier
to fill them in. The Sudoku games on SudokuDaily.net let you check your
progress as you go, to help prevent going down a wrong path.
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