Sudoku
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I have never been a fan of crossword puzzles though I have used them as a means to escape boredom during long train journeys across Siberia or Australia. Now, I have found a perfect replacement and I use it even during the daily commute: Sudoku. Even though Sudoku has been around for a while and extremely popular in Japan, it gained worldwide appeal only this year and suddenly, you cannot go to a bookstore without seeing tons of books on it.
The puzzle consists of a 9×9 grid with nine 3×3 subgrids - three per row and column. The puzzle comes with a few of the 81 cells filled in with some numbers. The goal is to fill out the remaining provided each number appears only once per row, column or subgrid. This is based on logic reasoning alone and does not require any mathematical prowess. The numbers could well be replaced with symbols or alphabets. The puzzles are of varying difficulties.
For an online version, click on the image. Be warned - it’s very addictive.
Like Sudoku? Check out http://www.sudokuprime.com and play sudoku with your friends in a multi-player session. It is challenging and fun! Enjoy!
This is way too cool. I am already obsessed.
Great brain food. Thanks for the post.
Yeah, I’m obsessed too. I didn’t know about the multi-player version, but I think it’s a great idea.
Funny - sometimes the lesser the grid is filled with “givens”, the easier the puzzle seems to be according to some of the sites linked above. I have never been a crossword puzzle fan myself but I can see myself getting a book or two of this for a long journey somewhere. Thanks for the tip, Renee.
I’m a Sudoku fan, doing the daily puzzle ever since the Metro paper started publishing them over a month ago here in Boston. After doing it for a while, there are a few logical techniques you naturally pick up to solve these things.
The difficulty is not only in the number of “givens” but in their symmetry. I’m another addict.
if you like sudoku go to http://www.sudokusuccess.com
Solving up to “difficult” on the Times pages is not that hard but I am stuck at “fiendish” and haven’t been able to solve it yet. Am quitting for now before it takes over my life - at least for a while. Phew!
But as Papi says, great brain food…
[...] Fastr is a Flickr based “Productivity Enhancer” (as Dave Barry calls ‘em). Images appear on your screen from Flickr and they have some tags in common. Your objective, Mr Hunt, is to take a guess at what these tags are. You get points if you guess correctly and if you type in your name, it will appear on the side ranking you among the active players. You thought Sudoku was addictive? Wait till you try this one out. [...]
It sure is addictive!
Here’s a sudoku online site to play at home or at the office:
http://sudoku.blubbie.com/index.html
Just try it.
If you hadn’t heard, the world Sudoku championships held in Lucca Italy have just concluded. The winner was Jana Tylova, an accountant from the Czech republic. Her most repeated comment appears to be:
She came from behind to beat out the favorites; Americans Thomas Snyder and Wei-Ha Huang.
[...] with an address book (as most of these are empty) to save space for something more useful such as a Sudoku game or a wallpaper. The device will serve as an advertising platform for Google’s formidable [...]