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By Gabriel Adams
Sudoku is a logic based puzzle, somewhat similar to a
crossword
puzzle, except it uses digits instead of words. The name
Sudoku
is an abbreviation of a Japanese phrase which means “the
digits
must remain single”. It is also sometimes called Number Place
or
Nampure.
The history of Sudoku
You can find predecessors of Sudoku as early as 1895, when an
early version or variant of Sudoku appeared in a French
newspaper.
The game now known as Sudoku was not invented until 1979,
however, and was actually invented in Indianapolis, not Japan.
Sudoku became widely popular in 1986, when the Japanese puzzle
publisher Nikoli found and published the puzzle.
The game of Sudoku
Sudoku is based on a graph of squares, nine squares by nine
squares. This graph is sub-divided into 9 3x3 squares or
regions. The board looks much like 9 tic tac toe games all
together.
The game is played by placing digits (1-9) in the squares on
the game. Easy enough. The tough part is that each region (3x3
square, each diagonal row, each horizontal row, and each
vertical row of squares must contain one of each of the nine
digits, but may not have duplicates.
Each Sudoku game has some of the fields pre populated with
numerals, called givens or clues. The difficulty is not
necessarily related to how many fields are populated, though.
Difficulty
Sudoku is a very simple game in it's construction, but it can
require some serious brain effort and skill to solve.
Publishers often rank games according to difficulty, using 4-5
levels to organize games by their difficulty.
Accessibility
Sudoku puzzles are published in many newspapers and magazines
around the world. They are also available in print form, and
as
computer games. Probably the easiest way to get them, though,
is
from a website that features free Sudoku puzzles. Many
websites
can also generate custom puzzles for free.
About The Author: Visit www.sudoku-puzzles.net for free
sudoku games and more.
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