Sudoku

Sudoku (/suːˈdoʊkuː, -ˈdɒk-, sə-/;

Japanese: 数独, romanized: sūdoku,
lit. 'digit-single'; originally called
Number Place)[1] is a logic-
based,[2][3] combinatorial[4] number-
placement puzzle. In classic
Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9
grid with digits so that each column,
each row, and each of the nine 3 × 3
subgrids that compose the grid
(also called "boxes", "blocks", or
"regions") contain all of the digits
from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter
provides a partially completed grid,
which for a well-posed puzzle has a
single solution.

A typical Sudoku puzzle

 The solution to the puzzle above

French newspapers featured

variations of the Sudoku puzzles in
the 19th century, and the puzzle has
appeared since 1979 in puzzle
books under the name Number
Place.[5] However, the modern
Sudoku only began to gain
widespread popularity in 1986 when
it was published by the Japanese
puzzle company Nikoli under the
name Sudoku, meaning "single
number".[6] It first appeared in a U.S.
newspaper, and then The Times
(London), in 2004, thanks to the
efforts of Wayne Gould, who
devised a computer program to
rapidly produce unique puzzles.
History

From La France newspaper,

July 6, 1895: The puzzle
instructions read, "Use the
numbers 1 to 9 nine times
each to complete the grid in
such a way that the
horizontal, vertical, and two
main diagonal lines all add
up to the same total."

Predecessors

Number puzzles appeared in

newspapers in the late 19th century,
when French puzzle setters began
experimenting with removing
numbers from magic squares. Le
Siècle, a Paris daily, published a
partially completed 9×9 magic
square with 3×3 subsquares on
November 19, 1892.[7] It was not a
Sudoku because it contained
double-digit numbers and required
arithmetic rather than logic to solve,
but it shared key characteristics:
each row, column, and subsquare
added up to the same number.

On July 6, 1895, Le Siècle's rival, La

France, refined the puzzle so that it
was almost a modern Sudoku and
named it carré magique diabolique
('diabolical magic square'). It
simplified the 9×9 magic square
puzzle so that each row, column,
and broken diagonals contained
only the numbers 1–9, but did not
mark the subsquares. Although they
were unmarked, each 3×3
subsquare did indeed comprise the
numbers 1–9, and the additional
constraint on the broken diagonals
led to only one solution.[8]

These weekly puzzles were a

feature of French newspapers such
as L'Écho de Paris for about a
decade, but disappeared about the
time of World War I.[9]
Modern Sudoku

The modern Sudoku was most likely

designed anonymously by Howard
Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect
and freelance puzzle constructor
from Connersville, Indiana, and first
published in 1979 by Dell
Magazines as Number Place (the
earliest known examples of modern
Sudoku).[1] Garns' name was always
present on the list of contributors in
issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and
Word Games that included Number
Place and was always absent from
issues that did not.[10] He died in
1989 before getting a chance to see
his creation as a worldwide
phenomenon.[10] Whether or not
Garns was familiar with any of the
French newspapers listed above is
unclear.

The puzzle was introduced in Japan

by Maki Kaji ( 鍜治 真起, Kaji Maki),
president of the Nikoli puzzle
company, in the paper Monthly
Nikolist in April 1984[10] as Sūji wa
dokushin ni kagiru ( 数字は独身に限
る), which can be translated as "the
digits must be single", or as "the
digits are limited to one occurrence"
(In Japanese, dokushin means an
"unmarried person"). The name was
later abbreviated to Sudoku ( 数独),
taking only the first kanji of
compound words to form a shorter
version.[10] "Sudoku" is a registered
trademark in Japan[11] and the
puzzle is generally referred to as
Number Place ( ナンバープレース,
Nanbāpurēsu) or, more informally, a
shortening of the two words,
Num(ber) Pla(ce) ( ナンプレ,
Nanpure). In 1986, Nikoli introduced
two innovations: the number of
givens was restricted to no more
than 32, and puzzles became
"symmetrical" (meaning the givens
were distributed in rotationally
symmetric cells). It is now published
in mainstream Japanese
periodicals, such as the Asahi
Shimbun.

Spread outside Japan

In 1997, Hong Kong judge Wayne

Gould saw a partly completed
puzzle in a Japanese bookshop.
Over six years, he developed a
computer program to produce
unique puzzles rapidly.[5] Knowing
that British newspapers have a long
history of publishing crosswords
and other puzzles, he promoted
Sudoku to The Times in Britain,
which launched it on November 12,
2004 (calling it Su Doku). The first
letter to The Times regarding Su
Doku was published the following
day on November 13 from Ian Payn
of Brentford, complaining that the
puzzle had caused him to miss his
stop on the tube.[12] Sudoku puzzles
rapidly spread to other newspapers
as a regular feature.[5][13]

The rapid rise of Sudoku in Britain

from relative obscurity to a front-
page feature in national newspapers
attracted commentary in the media
and parody (such as when The
Guardian 's G2 section advertised
itself as the first newspaper
supplement with a Sudoku grid on
every page).[14] Recognizing the
different psychological appeals of
easy and difficult puzzles, The Times
introduced both, side by side, on
June 20, 2005. From July 2005,
Channel 4 included a daily Sudoku
game in their teletext service. On
August 2, the BBC's program guide
Radio Times featured a weekly
Super Sudoku with a 16×16 grid.
In the United States, the first
newspaper to publish a Sudoku
puzzle by Wayne Gould was The
Conway Daily Sun (New Hampshire),
in 2004.[15]

The world's first live TV Sudoku show,

held on July 1, 2005, Sky One

The world's first live TV Sudoku

show, Sudoku Live, was a puzzle
contest first broadcast on July 1,
2005, on Sky One. It was presented
by Carol Vorderman. Nine teams of
nine players (with one celebrity in
each team) representing
geographical regions competed to
solve a puzzle. Each player had a
hand-held device for entering
numbers corresponding to answers
for four cells. Phil Kollin of
Winchelsea, England, was the series
grand prize winner, taking home
over £23,000 over a series of
games. The audience at home was
in a separate interactive
competition, which was won by
Hannah Withey of Cheshire.

Later in 2005, the BBC launched

SUDO-Q, a game show that
combined Sudoku with general
knowledge. However, it used only
4×4 and 6×6 puzzles. Four seasons
were produced before the show
ended in 2007.

In 2006, a Sudoku website

published songwriter Peter Levy's
Sudoku tribute song,[16] but quickly
had to take down the MP3 file due
to heavy traffic. British and
Australian radio picked up the song,
which is to feature in a British-made
Sudoku documentary. The Japanese
Embassy also nominated the song
for an award, with Levy doing talks
with Sony in Japan to release the
song as a single.[17]

Sudoku software is very popular on

PCs, websites, and mobile phones.
It comes with many distributions of
Linux. The software has also been
released on video game consoles,
such as the Nintendo DS,
PlayStation Portable, the Game Boy
Advance, Xbox Live Arcade, the
Nook e-book reader, Kindle Fire
tablet, several iPod models, and the
iPhone. Many Nokia phones also
had Sudoku. In fact, just two weeks
after Apple Inc. debuted the online
App Store within its iTunes Store on
July 11, 2008, nearly 30 different
Sudoku games were already in it,
created by various software
developers, specifically for the
iPhone and iPod Touch. One of the
most popular video games featuring
Sudoku is Brain Age: Train Your Brain
in Minutes a Day!. Critically and
commercially well-received, it
generated particular praise for its
Sudoku implementation[18][19][20]
and sold more than 8 million copies
worldwide.[21] Due to its popularity,
Nintendo made a second Brain Age
game titled Brain Age2, which has
over 100 new Sudoku puzzles and
other activities.

In June 2008, an Australian drugs-

related jury trial costing over A$ 1
million was aborted when it was
discovered that four or five of the
twelve jurors had been playing
Sudoku instead of listening to the
evidence.[22]

Variants

A nonomino or jigsaw And its solution (red

Sudoku, as seen in The numbers)
 Sunday Telegraph

Variations of grid sizes or

region shapes

Although the 9×9 grid with 3×3

regions is by far the most common,
many other variations exist. Sample
puzzles can be 4×4 grids with 2×2
regions; 5×5 grids with pentomino
regions have been published under
the name Logi-5; the World Puzzle
Championship has featured a 6×6
grid with 2×3 regions and a 7×7 grid
with six heptomino regions and a
disjoint region. Larger grids are also
possible, or different irregular
shapes (under various names such
as Suguru, Tectonic, Jigsaw Sudoku
etc.). The Times offers a 12×12-grid
"Dodeka Sudoku" with 12 regions of
4×3 squares. Dell Magazines
regularly publishes 16×16 "Number
Place Challenger" puzzles (using the
numbers 1–16 or the letters A-P).
Nikoli offers 25×25 "Sudoku the
Giant" behemoths. A 100×100-grid
puzzle dubbed Sudoku-zilla was
published in 2010.[23]
Mini Sudoku

Under the name "Mini Sudoku", a

6×6 variant with 3×2 regions
appears in the American newspaper
USA Today and elsewhere. The
object is the same as that of
standard Sudoku, but the puzzle
only uses the numbers 1 through 6.
A similar form, for younger solvers
of puzzles, called "The Junior
Sudoku", has appeared in some
newspapers, such as some editions
of The Daily Mail.
Imposing additional constraints

Another common variant is to add

limits on the placement of numbers
beyond the usual row, column, and
box requirements. Often, the limit
takes the form of an extra
"dimension"; the most common is to
require the numbers in the main
diagonals of the grid to also be
unique. The aforementioned
"Number Place Challenger" puzzles
are all of this variant, as are the
Sudoku X puzzles in The Daily Mail,
which use 6×6 grids.
Killer Sudoku

A Killer Sudoku puzzle And its solution

The Killer Sudoku variant combines

elements of Sudoku and Kakuro.

Different symbols
 A Wordoku puzzle And its solution (red
characters)

Since standard Sudoku does not

involve arithmetic, the digits 1 to 9
can be replaced with nine arbitrary
symbols, such as geometric shapes,
Roman numerals (e.g. Quadratum
latinum, published in the Latin
puzzle magazine Hebdomada
aenigmatum) or letters, and there is
no functional difference.

When letters are used, the puzzle is

sometimes known as Wordoku.
Some variants, such as in the TV
Guide Magazine, include a word
reading along a main diagonal, row,
or column once solved; determining
the word in advance can be viewed
as a solving aid. A Wordoku might
contain words other than the main
word.

Hyper Sudoku / Windoku

Hypersudoku puzzle And its solution

Hyper Sudoku or Windoku uses the
classic 9×9 grid with 3×3 regions,
but defines four additional interior
3×3 regions in which the numbers
1–9 must appear exactly once. It
was invented by Peter Ritmeester
and first published by him in Dutch
Newspaper NRC Handelsblad in
October 2005, and since April 2007
on a daily basis in The International
New York Times (International
Herald Tribune). The first time it was
called Hyper Sudoku was in Will
Shortz's Favorite Sudoku Variations
(February 2006). It is also known as
Windoku because with the grid's
four interior regions shaded, it
resembles a window with glazing
bars.[24]

Twin Sudoku

In Twin Sudoku two regular grids

share a 3×3 box. This is one of
many possible types of overlapping
grids. The rules for each individual
grid are the same as in normal
Sudoku, but the digits in the
overlapping section are shared by
each half. In some compositions
neither individual grid can be solved
alone – the complete solution is
only possible after each individual
grid has at least been partially
solved.

Other variants

Puzzles constructed from more

than two grids are also common.
Five 9×9 grids that overlap at the
corner regions in the shape of a
quincunx is known in Japan as
Gattai 5 (five merged) Sudoku. In
The Times, The Age, and The Sydney
Morning Herald, this form of puzzle
is known as Samurai Sudoku. The
Baltimore Sun and the Toronto Star
publish a puzzle of this variant
(titled High Five) in their Sunday
edition. Often, no givens are placed
in the overlapping regions.
Sequential grids, as opposed to
overlapping, are also published, with
values in specific locations in grids
needing to be transferred to others.

An example of Greater Than Sudoku

A tabletop version of Sudoku can be

played with a standard 81-card Set
deck (see Set game). A three-
dimensional Sudoku puzzle was
published in The Daily Telegraph in
May 2005. The Times also publishes
a three-dimensional version under
the name Tredoku. Also, a Sudoku
version of the Rubik's Cube is
named Sudoku Cube.

Many other variants have been

developed.[25][26][27] Some are
different shapes in the arrangement
of overlapping 9×9 grids, such as
butterfly, windmill, or flower.[28]
Others vary the logic for solving the
grid. One of these is "Greater Than
Sudoku". In this, a 3×3 grid of the
Sudoku is given with 12 symbols of
Greater Than (>) or Less Than (<) on
the common line of the two
adjacent numbers.[10] Another
variant on the logic of the solution is
"Clueless Sudoku", in which nine 9×9
Sudoku grids are each placed in a
3×3 array. The center cell in each
3×3 grid of all nine puzzles is left
blank and forms a tenth Sudoku
puzzle without any cell completed;
hence, "clueless".[28] A new variant
mixes Sudoku with the sliding tile
puzzle in Sudoku Slide Extreme. In
this variant, all of the positions are
filled in. Tiles are moved to the
proper position to solve the puzzle.
This variant contains power-ups and
a campaign mode. Examples and
other variants can be found in the
Glossary of Sudoku.

Mathematics of Sudoku

An automorphic Sudoku with 18 clues

and two-way diagonal symmetry

This section refers to classic

Sudoku, disregarding jigsaw, hyper,
and other variants.
A completed Sudoku grid is a
special type of Latin square with the
additional property of no repeated
values in any of the nine blocks (or
boxes of 3×3 cells). The relationship
between the two theories is known,
after it was proven that a first-order
formula that does not mention
blocks is valid for Sudoku if and
only if it is valid for Latin squares.[29]

The general problem of solving

Sudoku puzzles on n2×n2 grids of
n×n blocks is known to be NP-
complete.[30] Many computer
algorithms, such as backtracking
and dancing links can solve most
9×9 puzzles efficiently, but
combinatorial explosion occurs as n
increases, creating limits to the
properties of Sudokus that can be
constructed, analyzed, and solved
as n increases. A Sudoku puzzle can
be expressed as a graph coloring
problem.[31] The aim is to construct
a 9-coloring of a particular graph,
given a partial 9-coloring.

The fewest clues possible for a

proper Sudoku is 17 (proven
January 2012, and confirmed
September 2013).[32][33] A total of
49,158 Sudokus with 17 clues have
been found, many by Japanese
enthusiasts.[34][35] Sudokus with 18
clues and rotational symmetry have
been found, and there is at least one
Sudoku that has 18 clues, exhibits
two-way diagonal symmetry and is
automorphic. The maximum
number of clues that can be
provided while still not rendering a
unique solution is four short of a full
grid (77); if two instances of two
numbers each are missing from
cells that occupy the corners of an
orthogonal rectangle, and exactly
two of these cells are within one
region, the numbers can be
assigned two ways. Since this
applies to Latin squares in general,
most variants of Sudoku have the
same maximum.

The number of classic 9×9 Sudoku

solution grids is
6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960
(sequence A107739 in the OEIS), or
around 6.67 × 1021. This is roughly
1.2 × 10−6 times the number of 9×9
Latin squares.[36] Various other grid
sizes have also been enumerated—
see the main article for details. The
number of essentially different
solutions, when symmetries such as
rotation, reflection, permutation, and
relabelling are taken into account,
was shown to be just
5,472,730,538[37] (sequence
A109741 in the OEIS).

Unlike the number of complete

Sudoku grids, the number of
minimal 9×9 Sudoku puzzles is not
precisely known. (A minimal puzzle
is one in which no clue can be
deleted without losing the
uniqueness of the solution.)
However, statistical techniques
combined with a puzzle
generator[38] show that about (with
0.065% relative error) 3.10 × 1037
minimal puzzles and 2.55 × 1025
nonessentially equivalent minimal
puzzles exist.

Competitions

Sudoku competition at SM
City Baliuag

The first World Sudoku

Championship was held in Lucca,
Italy, from March 10 to 11, 2006.
The winner was Jana Tylová of the
Czech Republic.[39] The competition
included numerous variants.[40]
The second World Sudoku
Championship was held in Prague,
Czech Republic, from March 28 to
April 1, 2007.[41] The individual
champion was Thomas Snyder of
the US. The team champion was
Japan.[42]
The third World Sudoku
Championship was held in Goa,
India, from April 14 to 16, 2008.
Thomas Snyder repeated as the
individual overall champion and also
won the first-ever Classic Trophy (a
subset of the competition counting
only classic Sudoku). The Czech
Republic won the team
competition.[43]
The fourth World Sudoku
Championship was held in Žilina,
Slovakia, from April 24 to 27, 2009.
After past champion Thomas
Snyder of the US won the general
qualification, Jan Mrozowski of
Poland emerged from a 36-
competitor playoff to become the
new World Sudoku Champion. Host
nation Slovakia emerged as the top
team in a separate competition of
three-membered squads.[44]
The fifth World Sudoku
Championship was held in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from
April 29 to May 2, 2010. Jan
Mrozowski of Poland successfully
defended his world title in the
individual competition, while
Germany won a separate team
event. The puzzles were written by
Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa
Huang, both past U.S. Sudoku
champions.[45]
The 12th World Sudoku
Championship (WSC) was held in
Bangalore, India, from October 15 to
22, 2017. Kota Morinishi of Japan
won the Individual WSC and China
won the team event.[46]
The 13th World Sudoku
Championship took place in the
Czech Republic.[47]
In the United States, The
Philadelphia Inquirer Sudoku
National Championship has been
held three times, each time offering
a $10,000 prize to the advanced
division winner and a spot on the
U.S. National Sudoku Team traveling
to the world championships. The
winners of the event were Thomas
Snyder (2007),[48] Wei-Hwa Huang
(2008), and Tammy McLeod
(2009).[49] In the 2009 event, the
third-place finalist in the advanced
division, Eugene Varshavsky,
performed quite poorly onstage
after setting a very fast qualifying
time on paper, which caught the
attention of organizers and
competitors including past
champion Thomas Snyder, who
requested organizers reconsider his
results due to a suspicion of
 cheating.[50] Following an
investigation and a retest of
Varshavsky, the organizers
disqualified him and awarded the
third-place to Chris Narrikkattu.[51]

See also
36 Cube
Blendoku
Constraint satisfaction problem
Cracking the Cryptic
Futoshiki
Glossary of Sudoku
Hashiwokakero
Hidato
 KenKen
List of Nikoli puzzle types
Logic puzzle
Nonogram
Str8ts
Sudoku solving algorithms

References
1. Grossman, Lev (March 11, 2013). "The
Answer Men" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20130301013815/http://www.time.co
m/time/magazine/article/0,9171,213742
3,00.html) . Time. New York. Archived
from the original (http://www.time.com/ti
me/magazine/article/0,9171,2137423,00.
 html) on March 1, 2013. Retrieved
March 4, 2013.(registration required)
2. Arnoldy, Ben. "Sudoku Strategies". The
Christian Science Monitor.
3. Schaschek, Sarah (March 22, 2006).
"Sudoku champ's surprise victory" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2006081314595
3/http://www.praguepost.com/P03/200
6/Art/0323/news5.php) . The Prague
Post. Archived from the original (http://w
ww.praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/032
3/news5.php) on August 13, 2006.
Retrieved February 18, 2009.
4. Lawler, E. L. (1985). The Traveling
Salesman Problem: A Guided Tour of
Combinatorial Optimization (https://archi
ve.org/details/travelingsalesma00lawl) .
Wiley. ISBN 0-471-90413-9.
OCLC 567460994 (https://www.worldcat.
org/oclc/567460994) .
5. Smith, David (May 15, 2005). "So you
thought Sudoku came from the Land of
the Rising Sun ..." (https://www.theguardi
an.com/media/2005/may/15/pressandp
ublishing.usnews) The Observer.
Retrieved June 13, 2008. "The puzzle
gripping the nation actually began at a
small New York magazine"
6. Hayes, Brian (2006). "Unwed Numbers".
American Scientist. 94 (1): 12–15.
doi:10.1511/2006.57.3475 (https://doi.or
g/10.1511%2F2006.57.3475) .
7. Boyer, Christian (May 2006). "Supplément
de l'article "Les ancêtres français du
sudoku" " (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0061210103525/http://cboyer.club.fr/mu
ltimagie/SupplAncetresSudoku.pdf)
(PDF). Pour la Science (in French): 1–6.
Archived from the original (http://cboyer.c
lub.fr/multimagie/SupplAncetresSudoku.
pdf) (PDF) on December 10, 2006.
Retrieved August 3, 2009.
8. Boyer, Christian (2007). "Sudoku's French
ancestors" (https://web.archive.org/web/
20071010081626/http://cboyer.club.fr/m
ultimagie/English/SudokuAncestors.ht
m) (in French). (personal webpage).
Archived from the original (http://cboyer.c
lub.fr/multimagie//English/SudokuAncest
ors.htm) on October 10, 2007. Retrieved
August 3, 2009.
9. Malvern, Jack (June 3, 2006). "Les
fiendish French beat us to Su Doku" (htt
p://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-22
08881,00.html) . Times Online. London.
Retrieved September 16, 2006.
10. Pegg, Ed Jr. (September 15, 2005). "Ed
Pegg Jr.'s Math Games: Sudoku
Variations" (http://www.mathpuzzle.com/
MAA/41-Sudoku%20Variations/mathgam
es_09_05_05.html) . MAA Online. The
Mathematical Association of America.
Retrieved October 3, 2006.
11. "Reg. No. 5056856" (https://www.j-platpa
t.inpit.go.jp/web/TR/JPT_5056856/F9A8
AC1B402D5E9F6E7B4E7246A6CE85) .
Japanese Trademark 5056856. Japan
Platform for Trademark Information.
Retrieved October 3, 2018.
12. Payn, Ian (November 13, 2004). "Deep in
thought" (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art
icle/deep-in-thought-l2wwrwqqw9k) . The
Times.
13. Devlin, Keith (January 28–29, 2012). "The
Numbers Game (book review of Taking
Sudoku Seriously by Jason Rosenhouse
et al.)". The Wall Street Journal. Weekend
Edition. p. C5.
14. "G2, home of the discerning Sudoku
addict" (https://www.theguardian.com/g
2/story/0,,1482817,00.html) . The
Guardian. London. May 13, 2005.
Retrieved September 16, 2006.
15. "Correction attached to "Inside Japan's
Puzzle Palace" " (https://www.nytimes.co
m/2007/03/21/business/worldbusiness/
21sudoku.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq
&st=cse%22Conway%20Daily%20Sun&sc
p=1%22%202004%20gould) . The New
York Times. March 21, 2007.
16. "Sudoku the song, by Peter Levy" (http://
www.sudoku.org.uk/news.htm) .
Sudoku.org.uk. August 17, 2006.
Retrieved October 5, 2008.
17. "Hit Song Has the Numbers" (http://www.
heraldsun.com.au/news/hit-song-has-the
-numbers/story-e6frf7jo-111111215519
6) . The Herald Sun. August 17, 2006.
Retrieved October 5, 2008.
18. "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a
Day!" (https://www.gamerankings.com/ht
mlpages2/931667.asp) .
Gamerankings.com.
19. "Brain Age: ... Review" (http://www.games
pot.com/ds/puzzle/brainagetrainyourbrai
ninminutesaday/review.html) .
Gamespot.com.
20. Harris, Craig (April 18, 2006). "Brain Age:
Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day" (http
s://www.ign.com/articles/2006/04/18/br
ain-age-train-your-brain-in-minutes-a-da
y) . IGN. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
21. Thorsen, Tor (October 26, 2006).
"Nintendo posts $456.6 million profit" (htt
p://www.gamespot.com/news/6160557.
html) . GameSpot. Retrieved March 29,
2013.
22. Knox, Malcolm (June 11, 2008). "The
game's up: jurors playing Sudoku abort
trial" (http://www.smh.com.au/news/nati
onal/jurors-get-1-million-trial-aborted/200
8/06/10/1212863636766.html) . The
Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved
June 11, 2008.
23. Eisenhauer, William (2010). Sudoku-zilla.
CreateSpace. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-4515-
1049-2.
24. "What is Hyper Sudoku?" (http://www.sud
oku-space.com/hyper-sudoku/hyper-sud
oku.php) . sudoku-space.com. Retrieved
August 27, 2017.
25. Snyder, Thomas; Huang, Wei-Hwa (2009).
Mutant Sudoku. Puzzlewright Press.
ISBN 978-1-402765025.
26. Conceptis, Puzzles (2013). Amazing
Sudoku Variants. Puzzlewright. ISBN 978-
1454906520. OCLC 700343731 (https://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/700343731) .
27. Murali, A V (2014). A Collection of
Fascinating Games and Puzzles.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing.
ISBN 978-1500216429.
OCLC 1152132274 (https://www.worldca
t.org/oclc/1152132274) .
28. "Zahlenraetsel" (http://www.janko.at/Raet
sel/Zahlenraetsel.htm) . janko.at.
29. Berthier, Denis (2007). The Hidden Logic
of Sudoku (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=ME9oJwAACAAJ) . LULU PR.
p. 76 N. ISBN 978-1-84753-472-9.
OCLC 493312950 (https://www.worldcat.
org/oclc/493312950) . "any block-free
resolution rule is already valid in the
theory of Latin Squares extended to
candidates". Restated more explicitly in
the second edition, p. 86, as: "a block-free
formula is valid for Sudoku if and only if it
is valid for Latin squares"
30. "NP complete – Sudoku" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20200303233817/http://w
ww-imai.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yato/data2/S
IGAL87-2.pdf) (PDF). Imai.is.su-
tokyo.ac.jp. Archived from the original (ht
tp://www-imai.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yato/da
ta2/SIGAL87-2.pdf) (PDF) on March 3,
2020. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
31. Lewis, R. (2015). A Guide to Graph
Colouring: Algorithms and Applications.
Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-25730-3
(https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-25
730-3) . ISBN 978-3-319-25728-0.
OCLC 990730995 (https://www.worldcat.
org/oclc/990730995) . S2CID 26468973
(https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:26468973) .
32. McGuire, Gary; Tugemann, Bastian;
Civario, Gilles (January 1, 2012). "There is
no 16-Clue Sudoku: Solving the Sudoku
Minimum Number of Clues Problem".
arXiv:1201.0749v2 (https://arxiv.org/abs/
1201.0749v2) [cs.DS (https://arxiv.org/a
rchive/cs.DS) ].
33. Lin, H.H.; Wu, I-C. (September 2013). "No
16-clue puzzles exist. BOINC was used to
solve it after 2 years and 8 months or so"
(https://sudoku.nctu.edu.tw/~icwu/resea
rch.html) .
34. Royle, Gordon. "Minimum Sudoku" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2006112616271
3/http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~gordon/
sudokumin.php) . Archived from the
original (http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~g
ordon/sudokumin.php) on November 26,
2006. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
35. プログラミングパズルに関心のある人は
雑談しましょう (https://web.archive.org/
web/20161012180015/http://www2.ic-ne
t.or.jp/~takaken/auto/guest/bbs46.htm
l) . プログラミングパズル雑談コーナー
[Programming Puzzle Idle Talk Corner] (in
Japanese). Archived from the original (htt
p://www2.ic-net.or.jp/~takaken/auto/gue
st/bbs46.html) on October 12, 2016.
Retrieved September 16, 2006.
36. Jarvis, Frazer (July 31, 2006). "Sudoku
enumeration problems" (http://www.afjar
vis.staff.shef.ac.uk/sudoku/) . Frazer
Jarvis's home page. Retrieved
September 16, 2006. Detailed calculation
of this figure.
37. Jarvis, Frazer; Russell, Ed (September 7,
2005). "There are 5472730538 essentially
different Sudoku grids ... and the Sudoku
symmetry group" (http://www.afjarvis.sta
ff.shef.ac.uk/sudoku/sudgroup.html) .
Frazer Jarvis's home page. Retrieved
September 16, 2006.
38. Berthier, Denis (December 4, 2009).
"Unbiased Statistics of a CSP – A
Controlled-Bias Generator" (http://hal.arc
hives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00641955) . In
Elleithy, Khaled (ed.). Innovations in
Computing Sciences and Software
Engineering. Springer. pp. 165–70.
Bibcode:2010iics.book.....S (https://ui.ad
sabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010iics.book.....
S) . doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9112-3 (http
s://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-90-481-9112-
3) . ISBN 978-90-481-9111-6. Retrieved
December 4, 2009.
39. "Sudoku title for Czech accountant" (htt
p://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4
797540.stm) . BBC News. March 11,
2006. Retrieved September 11, 2006.
40. "World Sudoku Championship 2006
Instructions Booklet" (http://news.bbc.co.
uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/10_03_06_sudo
ku.pdf) (PDF). BBC News. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2006061013553
4/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/h
i/pdfs/10_03_06_sudoku.pdf) (PDF)
from the original on June 10, 2006.
Retrieved May 24, 2010.
41. "Report on the 8th General Assembly of
the World Puzzle Federation" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20070926231538/htt
p://www.worldpuzzle.org/championship
s/2006/report.html) . World Puzzle
Federation. October 30, 2006. Archived
from the original (http://www.worldpuzzl
e.org/championships/2006/report.html)
on September 26, 2007. Retrieved
November 15, 2006.
42. "Thomas Snyder wins World Sudoku
Championship" (http://wpc.puzzles.com/
press/index.htm#2007-2) . US Puzzle
Team. March 31, 2007. Retrieved April 18,
2008.
43. Harvey, Michael (April 17, 2008). "It's a
puzzle but sun, sea, and beer can't
compete with Sudoku for British team" (ht
tp://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
arts_and_entertainment/games_and_puz
zles/article3761511.ece) . TimesOnline.
London. Retrieved April 18, 2008.
44. Malvern, Jack (April 27, 2009). "Su Doku
battle goes a little off the wall" (http://ent
ertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_an
d_entertainment/games_and_puzzles/su
doku/article6175809.ece) . TimesOnline.
London. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
45. "Pole, 23, repeats as Sudoku world
champ" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
100505145443/http://www.philly.com/ph
illy/news/local/92606119.html) .
PhillyInquirer. May 2, 2009. Archived from
the original (http://www.philly.com/philly/
news/local/92606119.html) on May 5,
2010. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
46. "WSPC 2017 - Logic Masters India" (http
s://wspc2017.logicmastersindia.com/) .
wspc2017.logicmastersindia.com.
47. "World Sudoku Championships | WPF" (ht
tps://www.worldpuzzle.org/championshi
ps/wsc/) . orldpuzzle.org.
48. "Thomas Snyder, World Sudoku
champion" (http://www.philly.com/philly/
comics_games/sudoku/Thomas_Snyder_
_World_Sudoku_champion.html) . The
Philadelphia Inquirer. October 21, 2007.
Retrieved October 21, 2007.
49. Shapiro, Howard (October 25, 2009).
"Going for 2d, she wins 1st" (https://web.
archive.org/web/20091102064249/htt
p://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/65
922787.html) . The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Archived from the original (http://www.ph
illy.com/philly/news/local/65922787.htm
l) on November 2, 2009. Retrieved
August 3, 2013.
50. Timpane, John (October 27, 2009).
"Possible cheating probed at Sudoku
National Championship" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20091101002443/http://w
ww.philly.com/philly/news/local/200910
27_Possible_cheating_probed_at_Sudoku
_tournament.html) . The Philadelphia
Inquirer. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20091
027_Possible_cheating_probed_at_Sudok
u_tournament.html) on November 1,
2009. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
51. "3rd-place winner disqualified in Sudoku
scandal" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
091127061702/http://www.philly.com/ph
illy/news/local/20091124_3d-place_winn
er_disqualified_in_Sudoku_scandal.htm
l) . The Philadelphia Inquirer. November
24, 2009. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20
091124_3d-place_winner_disqualified_in_
Sudoku_scandal.html) on November 27,
2009. Retrieved August 3, 2013.

Further reading
Delahaye, Jean-Paul (June 2006).
"The Science Behind Sudoku" (htt
p://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Th
e_Science_Behind_SudoKu.pdf)
(PDF). Scientific American. 294 (6):
80–87.
Bibcode:2006SciAm.294f..80D (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006
SciAm.294f..80D) .
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0606
-80 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fscie
ntificamerican0606-80) .
JSTOR 26061494 (https://www.jsto
r.org/stable/26061494) .
PMID 16711364 (https://pubmed.nc
bi.nlm.nih.gov/16711364) .
Provan, J. Scott (October 2009).
"Sudoku: Strategy Versus Structure".
American Mathematical Monthly.
116 (8): 702–707.
 doi:10.4169/193009709X460822 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.4169%2F1930097
09X460822) . S2CID 38433481 (htt
ps://api.semanticscholar.org/Corpu
sID:38433481) . Also as
UNC/STOR/08/04 (http://stat-or.un
c.edu/research/Current%20Report
s/techpdf/TR_08_04.pdf) .

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Sudoku.

'Father of Sudoku' puzzles next

move (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/a
sia-pacific/6745433.stm) (BBC)
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Sudoku&oldid=1167176236"

This page was last edited on 26 July 2023,

at 05:08 (UTC). •
Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0
unless otherwise noted.