It's International Sudoku Day!
Why not take a break, and give yourself some mental exercise?
Click image for Sudoku's official free online games
Sudoku's origins overview: The game traces back to 18th-century mathematical puzzles and later evolved through American and Japanese puzzle publications before becoming a global phenomenon. While its roots are in Euler's Latin Squares, the modern Sudoku as we know it was developed in the US as "Number Place" and then popularized in Japan as "Sudoku".
Early Influences (18th Century and Beyond):
- Euler's Latin Squares — Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler explored "Latin Squares" in 1783, which involved arranging numbers or symbols in a grid so that each appears only once in each row and column.
- French "Magic Squares" — A localized version of "Magic Squares," related to Euler's work, appeared as newspaper puzzles in France between 1890 and 1920.
- Number Place (USA) — In the late 1970s, Howard Garns, an architect, created "Number Place" for Dell Puzzle Magazines in the US. This version introduced the 9x9 grid divided into 3x3 blocks, where each row, column, and block must contain the numbers 1-9.
Japanese Popularization (1980s):
- Nikoli and Abbreviation — In 1984, Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, led by Maki Kaji, discovered "Number Place" and began publishing it in their magazine, renaming it "Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru" (数字は独身に限る), which translates to "the digits must be single".
- Symmetry and Clues — Nikoli made improvements, including symmetrical patterns and reducing the number of given clues.
- Popularity — The name was shortened to "Sudoku" (数独), and it became one of Japan's best-selling puzzles.
Global Phenomenon (2000s):
- Re-emergence in the West — Wayne Gould, a New Zealander, rediscovered Sudoku in Japan and developed a computer program to generate puzzles.
- The Times of London — The Times started publishing Sudoku puzzles in 2004, leading to widespread popularity in the UK and beyond.
- Global Spread — Newspapers and magazines worldwide adopted Sudoku, leading to books, online platforms, and mobile apps, making it a global phenomenon.
Here's some music specifically for playing Sudoku!