Sudoku has been with us for many years, it was first devised in the 18th century by a mathematician called Leonhard Euhler but is often thought of as a game that was invented in Japan, this is probably due to its immense popularity over there. Its name is often found spelt incorrectly but it is the same game, I have seen it spelt as "soduko" or "sudoko" and this is usually accepted by most people as a part of life.
The name “Sudoku” does have a meaning, the prefix Su is the Japanese word for number and the Doku is a single puzzle area that the number can fit into on the whole of the puzzle board.
Dell magazine began printing the puzzle in its pages in the 1970’s and in the 1980’s it was produced as a game by the Japanese firm Nikoli. It soon spread across Japan and is still a firm favourite over there.
It wasn’t until the new millenium that the daily newspapers realised the potential of adding this puzzle to their pages but nowadays it appears in nearly every newspaper sold to the general public.
Sudoku is a very simple game that can be played by all age groups, you do not need to be a genius to complete the puzzle but it is worked out by logical thinking.
The puzzle is contained in a squared grid, this comprises of 9 sections and each section is then also divided into 9 smaller sections.
This may seem to be very simple but believe me they can take some working out as to where each of the digits need to be placed to arrive at the correct solution.
At the start of the game there will be some of the numbers already placed into the grid. Depending on how many numbers are placed in the grid initially determines the skill level of the game you are playing, less numbers added means a higher degree of skill required, more numbers added means an easier game and these should be tackled by people new to the game.
The best tactic to use is to study the board carefully and place some numbers into the grid in your head only, try placing them in 2-3 different squares to try to work out the easiest solution. As you work out the combinations make sure that numbers are not repeated in the rows or columns, as you place more numbers this task will get easier as there will be less spaces available that certain numbers can use.
Add your initial moves in the grid with pencil, this allows you to erase any numbers that are not placed in the correct place or even allows you to move numbers around without them being permanently inked into position.
As mentioned above this puzzle does get easier the more numbers that are placed into the grid, try to work out each subsection one at a time, these should then flow onto the next subsection with the correct placements.
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