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Playing the
Game: Sudoku
by: Tom Takihi
Modern Sudoku was anonymously revived by a
retired Hong Kong Judge Wayne Gould, as a logical game disguised as
a numbers game. Most people do look at it as a numbers game but if
you would see the way the solutions are derived, logic would surely
be the key. It has caught on like wildfire and transcends the
boundaries of countries with challenging puzzles in every form and
style. Sudoku is not restricted to numbers for one can use colors or
objects to represent the grid contents that work on the same basic
principle without need of modification of the basic rules.
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It is unique among the games currently published in either print or
on the internet in the sense that it is different and unusual from
other usually boring puzzles that we are attracted to when we are
waiting in queue or waiting for our number to be called to be
served. Most puzzles found in newspapers are simply word games in
disguise that have lost appeal with most readers. Sudoku on the
other hand needs not translation from language to language and can
be understood by people from all ages. It is a rage in Japan, and is
fast getting the attention of Americans and Europeans as the puzzle
of choice for the present times to come.
Some people have been so challenged by these puzzles that a new form
of depression is evolving out of the problem solving process.
“Compulsive Sudoku Syndrome”, as the addiction is called is fast
spreading and tickling the brain cells of most people who start out
perplexed at the seeming simplicity but end up challenged so much
that they cannot stop trying to solve a stubborn puzzle. This has
been evident with some people who end up in a trance-like state
wherein they are so captivated by the drive to solve a Sudoku
puzzle. Others have claimed to have fallen into depression when they
fail to solve a quite perplexing puzzle that eludes completion.
Popularity of the game has grown and grown to proportions that have
had world contests like the one held in 2006 and again in 2007. Many
variants of the game have also arisen as a result of its popularity
that have the standard 3X3 grids expanded from 4X4 up to a claimed
100X100 sized grid. A 3D variant Roxdoku further challenged players
that eventually led to a multiplayer game variant named Juxtapono.
Many more variants have evolved from the basic forms that they are
now commonplace in newsprint media and other publications that
simply can’t resist having them to give readers a breather from
their regular articles. It’s simplicity and the challenge created by
these puzzles have offered relief from the already too common word
puzzles such as cross words.
The basic games can usually be obtained as a small program from many
sites on the internet that generate the uncompleted grids in any
combinations that would be desired. Some forms have even revived
interest in the hit Rubik’s Cube game named Sudokube that has
numbers on the cubes instead of the previously used colors. Whatever
form and shape they may take, they still follow the basic rule that
no number should occur more than once in the 3X3 grid. That may be
the key to it’s success, simplicity or rather the lack of it. The
very simple rule if applied can become very complicated for the ones
categorized as difficult.
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