Sudoku

Sudoku is a relatively new puzzle. In its current form it was developed two decades ago by a Japanese publishing house. The word means "number single". The rules of the game are very easy:

There's a 9x9 box consisting of nine 3x3 boxes. You need to fill in the box so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

As the Sudoku webpage says: "That's all there is to it. It's fun. It's challenging. It's addictive!" Here's a sample question. (This is also the May 2005 contest puzzle at http://www.sudoku.com/. You could solve and submit the answer here.) Sudoku is in the news everywhere these days. In the UK, it's become a national craze apparently. Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, and the Sun offer Sudoku puzzles to the readers. "Forget the election, the Royal wedding and Beckham. A puzzle has national newspapers - and readers - in its grasp", wrote the Independent. (Here's a detailed article from the Guardian about Sudoku.)

I do think it's interesting, but I do not understand the hype. Perhaps when one's absolutely bored, and in no mood to blog, one could attempt Sudoku! Anyway try it out once. It might take 5-10 minutes.

If you like to see the answer to the above puzzle, click here.

Update (May 23): Dion Church, a Telegraph sudoku enthusiast, has come up with 'the ultimate Sudoku', a 3-D version of Sudoku. It's called the Dion Cube. All the rules apply but now in three dimensions. Here's the first Telegraph Dion Cube.

Update (May 31): Jerome Turner has a blog -- Sudokusolution -- devoted to Sudoku. Two other interesting sites here and here.