Warning: This Puzzle May Be Addictive
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-02-17 12:48:00-05:00
**NOTE: There is a .gif file from www.websudoku.com with a Sudoku puzzle shown at beginning of original article (Web site puzzle may be different now. See solution link noted below).
Dubbed the Rubik's Cube of the 21st century, the puzzle known as Su Doku first appeared as "Number Place" in the U.S. in 1979. But Su Doku (from a longer Japanese phrase meaning "the numbers must occur only once") caught on big time in Japan in the mid 80s.
In 1997, New Zealander Wayne Gould, 60, was intrigued by a puzzle he saw in a Japanese bookshop. A retired Hong Kong judge, Gould spent his free time for the next six years developing a computer program to generate Su Doku puzzles. On his way through London in 2004, Gould made an unannounced visit to The Times newspaper, to pitch his puzzle. The paper picked it up, and it wasn't long before the Su Doku craze took off worldwide.
The appeal may be that the rules are simple, and yet the completion is challenging. No math is required—just logic and patience. The instructions are simple: fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3 X 3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. See the solution to the above puzzle (there's only one).
More Su Doku:
Try to solve a Su Doku puzzle (PDF)
See the solution to the puzzle (PDF)
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