Sudoku

I have had an interest in doing Sudoku Puzzles, for a long time.  A long time being since our local San Jose Mercury News (SJMN) added it to the comics section.  My first attempts at solving these numerical puzzles ended in miserable defeat.  I simply didn't know even the single basic technique of solution, that of the process of elimination.  A new friend shared this solution technique with me and it got me started on the quest to solve Sudoku Puzzles.

Sudoku is just that.  You are given a set of numbers placed in rows, columns, 3x3 cubes and you have to figure out the remaining numbers according to the rules of Sudoku which are: No number one through nine, can be duplicated in any row, column or 3x3 cube and all nine numbers must appear at least once in every row, column or cube.

A Solved Puzzle    An html example of a solved Sudoku Puzzle using steps and explanations.  Use the tabs at the bottom of the page to display various stages of solution.

An Excell Sudoku Template   If you know how to use Excell (or any spreadsheet) this is a template to assist you in solving a Sudoku puzzle.

The SJMN lists the alleged "level" of difficulty of a Sudoku Puzzle from 1 through 4 as an indication of the difficulty you can expect in solving a puzzle.  There is one level which the SJMN wont doesn't  appear to do and I call it the "Evil" level.  I spent three days of frustration solving the following one for instance. 

The Evil One

This puzzle is evil because it is elusive right up until the last digit is placed.  If you get too hasty and make even a simple mistake or placement of an incorrect number in a single location, you will be doomed.  With other puzzles, I have been able to transpose digits to get a final solution.  This method doesn't work with this puzzle.

When I first started doing Sudoku, I worked on various puzzles for about three weeks, non stop.  These puzzles  are a GREAT way for improving short term memory as well as visual acuity.  Now I am on maintenance Sudoku doing an "evil" one, once or twice a week.  If you want your very own "evil" one, flit on over to this page, and select one of your own.  Let me know how you do.

My whole puzzle library in chronological order from the month of March.  Some of these are from a newspaper, some are from a friend and a few are from the net web site.

Update, 11/26/2008
While it is true that you can solve these puzzles using the process of elimination as demonstrated here with these spread sheets, it is also possible to use pure logic.  This method requires a methodical evaluation of what squares can contain unique pairs of numbers or singularitys.  This method is more fun and challenging.  Here is a video tutorial for this method.  This guy is amazing as he is capable of juggling several numbers at once, enabling him to solve puzzles in warp speed time.  I tried this method on two puzzles before endorsing this method.  My first puzzle was in error but was really close to a solution with only two out of nine cubes being wrong.  The second one came out perfect.  Like I said, this method is more fun.  I highly recommend it.

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