Over the last few years Online Sudoku has soared in popularity. They are often referred to as wordless crosswords, and enjoyed by many lateral thinkers all across the world. While many people of all skill and IQ levels enjoy sudoku, Lateral Thinking is recognised as being a key skill required to get the puzzles completed.
Sudoku has been a favorite puzzle choice for printed publications for many years, it has been in newspapers as far back as the 1890s when a French Newspaper printed a 9x9 number puzzle the same as sudoku we play today, and it is undoubtedly much older than that. The popularised game has spawned many spinoffs, especially in the online arena where casual game developers have based a lot of puzzles on the original sudoku game. The Object of standard Sudoku is to fill a 9x9 grid with the numbers 1 to 9 in every cell. Each 9x9 grid is split into individual 3x3 subgrids and several numbers will be in place already to start the player off. The rule is that 1-9 can not be repeated in any row or column or any 3x3 subgrid. It may sound easy, but patience and logical forward thinking is required to master this great game.
The modern interest in Sudoku can probably be traced back to when a Japanese publishing company started selling puzzle games featuring Sudoku, in fact they can even be thanked for the name. It took off in the early 80s and soon became the nations favorite puzzle. There are serious players all over the world now, and still remains one of Japans leading past times, with National Championships taken very seriously.
The first known Computer Sudoku game was in 1989, a game called Digihunt on the good old Commodore 64. Since then, it has appeared under many different titles on many different platforms from the Spectrum through to the modern Smart Phones. These days, people know the name Sudoku and there are literally hundreds of places you can get your daily fix of number puzzle fun, either in print or online they are both just as fun.
Taking a look online into the world of sudoku reveals just how popular the game actually is. You'll be cronfronted with hundreds of thousands of pages to find the game ready to either play online or print and play later. People have shared all levels of guides and strategies for sudoku first times and seasoned players alike, and if that is not enough there are a number of very accurate sudoku solvers that allow you to fill out the numbers from your puzzle grid and retrieve the completed board in return. Of course, not everyone enjoys cheating like that, but for moments when the answer eludes you there is an option just in case.
If Sudoku is a game you have never tried before, take a minute on your next break time, type Online Sudoku into your favorite search engine and have a go. Who knows you may find your new best past time.