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Game in a Box
September & October 2006
Learn how to play Sudoku
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Have you tried Sudoku—that game of numbers and boxes that has
addicted millions on buses, in airports, coffee shops and other places where
people have time to kill?
Or are you among the intimidated ("I'm terrible with numbers")
or confused ("My eyes glaze over")? Here's the good news: Sudoku
is not as complicated as it looks. No arithmetic is required—just logic
and patience.
Despite its name, Sudoku did not originate in Japan. It appeared as
"Number Place" in a small New York magazine in 1979, then caught on
big in Japan in the mid-'80s. There it got the name that stuck which,
roughly speaking, means "single number."
After the Times and other British newspapers started running Sudoku in 2004,
it became popular worldwide, with U.S. papers jumping on the bandwagon. Today,
Sudoku is published by more than half of all American papers. Nearly every
major paper runs one daily, from easy to devilishly hard.
Try the puzzle below. We've given the rules, a few tips—and a head
start.
If you'd like, you can print this page. Click on the "Print" button at the top or bottom of the page.
The Rules
Fill in the grid so that the numbers 1 through 9 appear only once in every
horizontal row, every vertical column, and every 3x3 mini-box.
The Tips
- Use a pencil with a good eraser.
- Start by scanning rows, columns and boxes to see what numbers you need to
fill in.
- Focus first on rows, columns or mini-boxes that are missing the fewest
numbers.
- Jot all the numbers that can possibly go in one square, then erase them as
they are used elsewhere. Enlarging the puzzle on a copy machine will help.
The Head Start
- Scan the vertical columns above and find the pair of 3's (highlighted
yellow) in the top and bottom miniboxes on the left. The middle box lacks a 3;
so does column two. Therefore, a 3 must go in the middle box, column two.
There's only one available square (highlighted). Write in a 3.
- Now scan the boxes in the center section horizontally. Find the pair of
1's (highlighted blue). Note that the center box lacks a 1. Two squares on
the bottom row are available. To figure out which is correct, scan the vertical
columns that contain those squares. One of the columns already contains a 1.
There is only one available square (highlighted). Write in a 1.
- From now on, you're on your own.
From Sudoku to Exercise Your Mind by Frank Longo (AARP/Sterling,
2006).
Check out AARP's series of puzzle books
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