Sudoku is a famous logical puzzle game invented by a Japanese man named Maki Kaji. It consists of a 9 x 9 grid of spaces (equivalent to 81 spaces) and nine squares (3 x 3 spaces). The game’s goal is to fill the grid of numbers ranging from one to nine. Some spaces are already filled with numbers. The more numbers there are in the grid, the easier it is to solve the puzzle. So how do you play Sudoku?
First, you must only use numbers one to nine. Second, you must use different numbers in rows, columns, or squares. Lastly, it’s a logical puzzle game, so think of a strategy. One of the excellent strategies for beginners is the “process of elimination.”
Here are the steps of the process of elimination:
- Find the numbers already in each row, column, and square space.
- Find the missing numbers that still need to be put in the space. Here’s an example:
Note: Each color represents each square (3 x 3 spaces)
As you can see, only three missing numbers are in the left column; 1, 5, and 6. There are 1s in each square (gray square and green square) on the left side except for the bottom left (blue square). 3. Find the space the numbers should be placed.
Let’s try to find the space to put the number 1. Since there are one 1s in each square (gray square and green square), then the space to put the number 1 is at the bottom of the column.
Using the process of elimination, we can narrow down the spaces of where to put a number.
So that’s basically how you play Sudoku. It takes a lot of patience and thinking so you might not finish it quickly. The best way to practice is going for an easier difficulty and increase it if you think you’re ready.