Sudoku addict

[RTSDaddy2]

So...has anyone else become fascinated with this? A co-worker gave me a copy of a puzzle she printed out from an online site and explained the rules.

That was about a week and a half ago....and I am thoroughly addicted.  Not since the Search-A-Word days of my youth has a pencil and paper puzzle so caught my attention.

It's sad really....but I could play all day given the time (with breaks of course...kind of makes your head hurt after a while!)!

[DrewKaree]

I dunno....I just can't get into 'em.

If you want, I have somewhere lying around a math program that I used to use for my kids to print out worksheets that seems to be similar, although I don't know how large the numbers can be, I think they can go 5 boxes wide/deep.

[missioncontrol]

I just heard of it the other day, I havn't taken a look at it yet.

[xonix_digital]

I  have tried a "medium" difficulty puzzle in the past but once I got about halfway through it i found almost all of my columns/rows to be wrong. I think I would need to read up on some strategies or something.

Maybe Ill check IGN.


-=XD=-

[Setabs]

I try to play these everynight at work.  I had to make my own template because i would erase through the newspaper. 

my strategy is to go by the set of three columns and look for numbers that are given in two then write in the number in really small in each box possible.

[cholin]

I got a sudoku puzzle in an email from GreenZap, solved it via some online solver but couldnt find the fax number... YES I CHEATED OK (kinda obvious when youre done 4 minutes after you receive the email)!!  But it also gave alot of strategy and one was to put small numbers in the corners of the boxes.

[jbox]

There are two basic strategies for solving a sudoku puzzle:
(a) direct elimination; and
(b) the "splat" lines (the # symbol)

Many so-called "advanced" puzzles actually have multiple correct solutions, which means at some point you will simply need to make an (educated) guess, then back track if it is wrong.

Direct elimination is where you pick a blank spot in the puzzle, then see which numbers already appear in conflict in either the same box, the same row, or the same column. This will be enough to solve the "easy" puzzles, which usually have at least one or two rows with only one blank tile.

I call the 'hashing' step (as in the picture #, not the table) where you work off the inverse rule of direct elimination. There can only be (say) one 7 in each row and column. So, pick a box which doesn't have a number 7 in it yet, then work out which squares can't have a 7 in them because that row or column already has one. You will often find only one of the blank tiles is actually suitable for that number in the box. If you imagine each 7 which is in the puzzle as a line crossing out the places where a 7 cannot be, the blank tile which is not crossed out in your box is where the 7 goes.

As a general tactic you should keep alternating between the two. When doing direct elimination only look at tiles which line up with the numbers in other boxes which are currently missing from this box. When doing hash elimination only bother with the numbers which are almost all done, and are only missing from one or two boxes in that area of the puzzle.

And if you are really stuck I can email you a java suduko solver which will print out all of the valid solutions for a puzzle.

[HaRuMaN]

These puzzles have b ecome quite the rage at my university.  I see people doing them everywhere, even during class, lol.