The Sudoku Craze

The numbers puzzle Sudoku is quickly becoming one of the most popular puzzle games of all times. The size of Sudoku’s following is simply amazing. Everyone, young and old, male or female seems to be talking about Sudoku now.

So just how popular is Sudoku? Well it seems that you can’t go anywhere nowadays without seeing someone playing Sudoku. Visit you local bookstore and and you might be surprised to find an entire shelf or rack filled with books about Sudoku. These books ranges from tips and tricks kind of books to having actual puzzles. It seems that Sudoku has taken over the Crosswords puzzle in terms of popularity. Most newspapers feature Sudoku puzzles along with the traditional crossword puzzles. And sometimes Sudoku gets more attention than crossword puzzles, especially among the younger set. Some people are calling it the new Rubik’s Cube.

Another proof of the popularity of Sudoku is the way it has invaded the Internet. If you Google Sudoku you will be shown a page filled with thousands of Sudoku-related websites. There you can find Sudoku solvers. There are even blogs and net groups about Sudoku where you can get tons of information about the game. Some of the websites even offer free Sudoku puzzles for everyone to enjoy.

So just what is Sudoku? Well for those who have been living in a cave for the past two years, Sudoku is a puzzle made of a grid of nine subgrids with nine smaller cells in each. Some of the cells are filled with numbers ranging from one to nine. Some of the cells are blank. The object of the game is to fill in all of the cells. But it is not as simple as its sounds. You cannot fill in the cells at random. You must follow the rules when writing a number in a cell: a number must not be repeated in the same row, column or subgrid.

Sudoku puzzles vary in difficulty from novice level to expert. There are puzzle creators who assign belts to the difficult levels (brown belt, black belt) as if the game is a martial art. Anyone can enjoy Sudoku. Even children are getting into the Sudoku craze. If you can’t solve a particlar puzzle there are even Sudoku puzzle solvers available online.

One misconception about Sudoku is that it is only for geniuses or math geeks. This is completely wrong. In fact, Sudoku has little to do with math. The numbers are there simply for convenience. It can even be replaced with colors, symbols, letters, etc. Sudoku is a not a math game it is a logic game which means that it is reasoning that gets employed and tested and not mathematic skills. This is why there really is no reason to be intimidated by Sudoku.

So how do you get started on playing Sudoku? Well it is fairly simple. Just go to your favorite bookstore and buy a book about Sudoku. Or better yet, surf the web and learn everything online. You could also talk to people you know who are already playing the game.

Juts some words of advice though. Sudoku can be very addictive so get involved at your own risk.