What is International Sudoku Day?
International Sudoku Day, September 9th, honors the logic-based number-placement puzzle called Sudoku. It's also a day to learn how to play this fun number game.
Sudoku is made up of a grid of little boxes labeled cells, stacked nine high and nine wide, totaling 81 cells. Players fill each row, column, and square with the numbers 1 through 9. The numbers cannot repeat within the row, column, or square. In addition,, a Sudoku grid already has some of the numbers filled in. The more spaces that are full, the more spaces are available, the more the game will be played.
Sudoku is based on a number puzzle called Latin Squares, which is based on a number puzzle. This game was created by an 18th-century mathematician from Switzerland. These puzzles were published in French newspapers in 1895. Sudoku's version today, on the other hand, is much more modern. The game we play today is by Howard Garns of Connersville, Indiana. Garns, a freelance puzzle designer, created Number Place, and he created the game Number Place. Number Place first appeared in the magazine "Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games" in 1979.
The game was first played in Japan in 1984. "The digits are limited to one occurrence," they said. Number games are becoming more popular in Japan since the Japanese language doesn't work well for crossword puzzles. In fact, people in Japan buy over 600,000 Sudoku magazines each month.
While on vacation in Tokyo in 1997, a New Zealand judge named Wayne Gould discovered Sudoku. He is credited with reintroducing the puzzle game to the Western world. Sudoku puzzles were first published in 2004 by The Times of London and The Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire. Sudoku has since then been a global phenomenon.
