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This past year a combination of five Sudoku puzzle books combined to out sell one ofthe big best selling books in the book marketplace. More puzzle books are beingplublished on a regular basis. Almost every daily newspaper now features a Sudukopuzzle right next to it's customary crossword puzzle. Often times, the Sudokupuzzle gets attention before the traditional crossword puzzle. One can even byelectronic pocket sized Sudoku games.
Sudoku is a puzzle made up of nine cubes featuring nine squares in each cube. Thesenine cubes combine to make nine rows and nine columns. The puzzle game is sometimesreferred to as nine x nine. The goal to complete the puzzle is quite simple. Youmust use the numbers 1-9 only once in each cube, once in each row, and once in eachcolumn.
Each Sudoku puzzle starts with some of the numbers already entered into the puzzle. Depending on how many numbers are pre-entered and the placement of these numbersdetermine the difficult level of the Sudoko puzzle. Ratings of difficulty are oftenrated from 1 star (easy) to 6 stars (very difficult). Some puzzle creators justcall them light, easy, hard, very difficult etc. Other puzzle creators have appliedmartial art terms such as white, brown, green and black belt.
If you have never tried a Sudoko puzzle be sure to start with an easy level. If youbuy a puzzle book they are clearly labeled. If you look in a daily newspaper youwould normally find the easiest puzzles at the beginning of the week. Startingwith an easy level will help you to develop your puzzle strategy as well asminimizing your frustration level in the beginning.
The basic strategy that many people use is to go through each number and try to fillin as many of these as the puzzle allows by looking up and down the rows and columnsto see where a number has to be placed. If you work your way up from number onethrough nine, be sure to consider going through this process again and the firsttime through may have determined some numbers not identifiable the first timethrough. Next look at the cubes to see which number in a cube may prevent thatnumber from being used in a particular row or column you are trying to solve. Finally try to train your mind to see all nine squares in a row, column or cube. Bydoing so you will quickly be able to identify the missing number needed in each ofthese areas. Look here for more information http://sudoku.informationvalet .com. Get started now!
