Sudoku: The world's new love affair

The last time the world had a love affair with a grid was whenthe Rubik Cube came on the scene in the 1970s. Not since has a simple grid orsquare diced up into nine smaller squares and filled up with single digitsenthralled so many people across ages, continents and IQs. Sudoku,the Japanese abbreviation for Single Digit (su is single, doku is digit), likemany good things, was around long before the marketing machine hit on it andsold it as the Pasha of Popular Puzzling. The appeal of Sudoku lies in itssimplicity - the easy levels are simple enough even for someone with wobblylogic, the tougher levels give real puzzle solvers something to sink their teethinto. Secondly, it is language neutral, unlike the crossword which presupposes acertain vocabulary and cultural background. And finally, the glow of achievementat getting a square full of numbers not only makes one think of oneself as asupremely intelligent being but is a mental exercise the brain gets rather fondof. It’s like gym practice for the mind.The origins of thismindsport remain unclear, though its history is traced back centuries ago to theLatin Square, associated with the Swiss mathematician Euler. But the fascinationwith arranging digits and letters goes even farther back - for instance, themuch-loved magical flourish 'Abracadabra' was first written as a sort of puzzlein pyramid form. Sudoku is only a new name for a very old game. Somewhere in the1970s, in the USA, puzzles called Number Place, were being created and publishedin a magazine by an American architect and they caught the eye of a publisherfrom Japan. He introduced it in his home country under the nameSudoku. Soon it was all the rage, its following in Japan far outstripping therather modest following it enjoyed in the West. It hadn't really captured thepopular imagination in Europe or the USA. Until, of course, a Hong Kong judgechanced upon it and was captivated. Judge Wayne Gould developed his own softwareto generate Sudoku puzzles and, in 2004, tied up with The Times in London. Whenthe London tube became full of furrowed brows, the competition got into the act.The global media picked it up and Sudoku is now virtually playedeverywhere.The Sudoku that you see in your newspaper every morningis called Classic Sudoku. Its rules are very simple: fill in the grid so thatevery row, column and 3x3box contains the digits from 1 to 9 without repeatingany digit. There are many variations, which notch up the challenge, likediagonal, sum, irregular, consecutive and extra region Sudoku.One ofthe biggest myths associated with Sudoku is that one has to be proficient inmaths. Sudoku and maths are mutually exclusive. It's all about logic andperseverance. Instead of the numbers, you can even play with letters or colours,using nine different colours for the nine squares. Fluency in mental arithmeticis not a requirement though it does help in Kakuro, a number puzzle whichinvolves very basic arithmetic — only addition, actually.