Su Doku is, on the face of it, a simple number square puzzle with a premise which makes many just pass it off as too simple to bother with.
How wrong they are - boffins spend hours trying to solve the complexity of putting the numbers 1 - 9 in a grid of squares 9 x 9.
The name Sudoku is said to originate in Japan and roughly translated it means, the number that is alone or single number- the puzzle consists of a grid of nine rows of nine boxes, each of which must be filled so that the numbers one to nine appear just once in each column, row and once in each three-by-three square.
Most people who try the fiendish puzzle become completely hooked, and spend hours of mental anguish trying to solve them. There are now many newspapers around the world syndicating the puzzle, and in the UK it has attained almost cult status. The latest craze seems to have been sparked by the publishing of the puzzle in 2004 by The Times daily newspaper, and now being run by several national daily papers.
The level of the games difficulty, is decreed by the creator of any particular puzzle who will have filled in several of the squares to start you off, 32 filled-in squares is said to be a medium level of difficulty.
Whatever your thoughts may be about Su Doku - if you havent experienced it - then be careful before you start - once hooked it could be worse than trying to give up cigarettes!!
About the author:-
Jim Montgomery is a freelance writer and photographer who has written hundreds of articles for dozens of magazines over the years. Currently you can find more about Su Doku and download a free trial puzzle for the PC on his website at
http://www.sudokunews.com