Play Free Sudoku Online

About Sudoku

This brain-bending puzzle with simple rules, multiple skill levels, and "just one more time" level of addictiveness has achieved global success. First published in a 2004 edition of The Times, Sudoku has gone on to become a popular fixture in newspapers throughout the world. The game itself has even expanded to handheld game systems, pocket books, and the internet, where websites such as BrainDash.com offer their players a chance to play the game for real cash prizes. Sudoku is played using eighty-one squares on a 9x9 grid further divided into nine smaller 3x3 grids. The goal of Sudoku is to then fill each square with the numbers 1-9 not repeating digits in the same row, column, or 3x3 grid. Each game board will begin with several numbers already filled in, the number and location of which dictates the difficulty of the puzzle. A puzzle with thirty squares already filled in would be considered much simpler than a Sudoku puzzle with only fifteen squares completed. In order to solve the puzzle, the player must fill in the remaining squares using the provided clues as a guide. So how does a player begin filling in squares? Some players will simply guess, using their trusty pencil and eraser and a system of trial and error to trudge through the puzzle. While this technique can be effective for lower level puzzles, trusting that guesses will be correct can end with a player having to erase multiple answers or worse yet, restart the puzzle from scratch. Here are some tips for using your wits, and a bit of maths to solve Sudoku. The key is to look at the big and small picture at the same time. For your first few entries, look at which row and columns have the most numbers already filled in. Now cross this with the 3x3 grid with the most existing entries. Using the process of elimination, a player can begin to fill in these blanks. This will serve players well at the beginning and end of their Sudoku game. Throughout game play, another important tip is to be aware of the possibilities for each square. For example, you may find that the possible entries for one of your squares can be three, seven, or nine. Take a moment to see if any of the corresponding squares in the row, column, or grid can have these same numbers. If you find that no other square can be a nine due to conflicts with their own location, you have found yourself another answer. There are several websites which offer free Sudoku puzzles for downloading and printing out. When you're a beginner, it's best to work with a pencil and paper, take plenty of notes, and don't be afraid to take your time. When you finish your first puzzle, you'll feel a great sense of accomplishment, and also a desire to play again and again. When you've mastered the puzzle on paper, move online and test your skills on an almost unending selection of puzzles on BrainDash.com. There you'll not only play the game, you'll be competing against others for prizes and bragging rights.

Sudoku History

Many people are quick to link Sudoku's history to Japan, but the lineage of Sudoku's history can be traced much further back to thousands of years ago and through many different cultures, originating with the discovery of magic squares. A magic square is simply an arrangement of numbers, in a square, such that the sums from all columns, rows and diagonals add up to the same amount. Magic squares have been around for over 4,120 years, and are found in cultures in China, India and Egypt, just to name a few. The belief was that these squares had divine and astrological qualities.

Flash forward to the late 19th century, and a more concrete Sudoku history can be formed. During this time, number puzzle games started appearing in newspapers, and French puzzle creators began experimenting with removing numbers from magic squares. The Sudoku history has strong origins in the year 1892, when a Paris based newspaper published a semi completed 9x9 magic square game, with 3x3 sub-squares. This game featured double digit numbers and required arithmetic, rather then logic, to solve.

Within 3 years, a rival to that Paris newspaper published a game much closer to the Sudoku we know today, as only the numbers 1 to 9 were present. While this game was indeed logic based, there were two key differences that separate it from today's version. Firstly, the 3x3 sub-squares did exist in the terms of the game, but were not marked. Secondly, the game had two solutions, using the diagonals. Today's game only has one solution, and the diagonals are not used.

The Sudoku history of the game we know today can almost certainly be attributed to Howard Garns, an American architect and freelance puzzle designer who lived in Indiana. Several of Garns's colleagues from his architecture firm recall seeing sketches and blackboard drawings of Sudoku before it was ever published. And in 1979, recorded modern Sudoku history began when the game was published by Dell Magazines under the name Number Place, when Howard Garns was 74 years old and retired. Doubt remains as to who actually is responsible for Number Place, but Garns is the most likely candidate as his name was always present on the list of contributors for issues of Dell Pencil Publishers and Word Games that included Number Place, and his name was left off the list in issues where Number Place did not appear.

Popular Sudoku history starts in Japan, as it was introduced by Japanese publisher Nikoli in 1984 under the name Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru. Shortly thereafter, the name was simply changed to Sudoku, and in 1986 Sudoku became popular in Japan. International Sudoku history doesn't begin until late 2004, when Sudoku was published in the The Times in Britain. In 2005 Sudoku became known internationally and was on its way to becoming a household name.

Today, Sudoku can be found in countless newspapers, magazines and internet sites such as www.braindash.com, our puzzle and games site. So when you're spending hours upon hours playing the now classic puzzle game that is Sudoku, remember to thank our ancestors who discovered magic squares over 4,000 years ago, and those who in more recent times have turned it into the game that we know and love today. Now it is time for you to play our version of Sudoku online!