How Solving Sudoku Puzzles Will Make You Feel Smart

So what is Sudoku? It is a number placement brainteaser, which calls for you to tap into your logic skills. Patience is also a requirement for you to be able to stand up to the challenge. There are many people nowadays who are enjoying and even obsessing over this sometimes mind-boggling puzzle. The puzzles can be found in newspapers, websites, and books, and even in electronic devices. There are puzzles for adults as well as for children-Sudoku games make great brain exercises for all ages.

So how is it played? It generally consists of a series of grids. There is one big 9x9 grid that shelters nine smaller grids that are 3x3 in size. The main objective of the game is to place a number from 1-9 in each of the grid cells. For you math-phobic types out there, there are no algebraic or even elementary calculations to perform in this game. There are, however, conditions that must be followed: each number from 1-9 must only appear once in every column and in every row and once in each small 3 x 3 grid. Sudoku is probably a derivation of the game Latin Squares. Latin Squares was created by Leonard Euler, a renowned mathematician where there is a NxN table packed with letters, numbers, or symbols. Each symbol can only emerge once in each row and once in each column. It seems as if Sudoku puzzles are a modified version of Latin Squares, but are developed one step further with the smaller grids. It also increases the difficulty of the puzzle with the factor that you have to make sure each small 3x3 grid has each number 1-9 only once. Besides all of that, Sudoku puzzles are found in a wide range of complexity and difficulty. You might think that having more numbers given at the beginning would make the puzzle easier, but in actuality, this is not always true because the positioning of the numbers directly relates to the intricacy of the puzzle game.

Sudoku is a Japanese word meaning "placement puzzle." It became popular in Japan in the 1980's but before that, there was a puzzle maker in the United States by the name of Howard Garnes who created a puzzle similar to Sudoku. It was formerly called, "Number Place," and was an alternative to Sudoku. After that, it was published and featured in logic problems and math puzzles.

In solving Sudoku, you basically begin at any place in the puzzle that you want. According to some solvers, it is better to focus on the top three smaller grids. Then look at the existing numbers and start with the number 1. After that, check if a number 1 appears in the other two smaller grids. Next, locate cells in these minor grids where you can probably place a number 1 while still following the necessary conditions. Additionally, you will also have to take into account 3x3 grids that are connected to the grid you're working on. Sudoku is a very brainy puzzle game that will occasionally make you feel like you are going nowhere; however, it is good that you practice on various puzzles so you can discover techniques and methods to solve the puzzle in no time flat. So how can you become skillful at solving Sudoku games? You must first have patience and logical abilities. Different people have different techniques and strategies to solve these puzzle games. Some create their own methods and share it with other Sudoku players around the world via the web. There are many sites online where you can be active in forums and learn more ways to solve the puzzles. A Sudoku puzzle game solver will always try to improve on their strategies with the high hopes of becoming better with time.

Solving Sudoku puzzles is one way to make yourself feel smart on a regular basis. It's also a great way to help keep your brain in shape. Sudoku puzzles and products are easily found online. Check out http://www.solvingsudokutips.com for a large selection of books, software, hand-held games, magazines, as well as other articles to help you in solving Sudoku puzzles of all degrees of difficulty.