Sudoku

[nrgbeat]

Anyone Sudoku enthusiasts on this board?

[Videoskooter]

NO! But it's a hype in Belgium. Newspapers have daily Sudoku's, books about it are bestsellers and almost everybody is doing them.

But I'm not a fan, no crosswords, no Sudokus :oops: The fact is I don't have the patience to resolve 'em :oops:

http://www.sudoku.com/

http://www.hln.be/hln/art/cache/funsudoku1.html

[Nano]

Guilty as charged... I confess I like this game. It's on the local papers every day, and I like to do them over the weekend.

That said, I stopped doing crosswords many years ago... In fact I kinda laugh when I see my aunt still doing them. But this Sudoku thing is really interesting.

At first I could only resolve the "beginner" ones (I think that improved my will to do them). Then I found the way to resolve them all and went on a crazy "look at all the old papers" phase... That was like two months ago. Now I'm starting to feel tired of the whole thing, like with those arcade games when you start to win.

Basically, my method consists in using three methods simultaneously:

1. Look at the numbers repeated in the horizontal and vertical "big" rows (three squares of nine numbers each), then try to spot all the third missing ones you can. Example: on the game featured above, in the first horizontal "big" row, the third "1" can only fit in the third big square, on the first blank just left of the "8".

2. Then look row by row. Up until 5 numbers missing you can complete (start with 2 or 3 numbers missing rows, and so on). Think of the missing numbers and look, one by one, if there's more than one blank where they can fit.

3. Look again at the row, now calculating what missing numbers can fit in each blank square. If there's only two of them, write them in small font (or pencil, if you're that polish-obsessed) over the blank.
If you have a series of two possible numbers repeated in the same row (or big square), then you have two blanks less on that row. For example: let's say you have numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and four blanks. If you conclude two of those blanks can only be numbers 6 and 7, then it's like you already filled them (if one it's a 6, then the other is a 7, and viceversa). So now you have only two blanks left (8 and 9). When you try perpendicular rows or "big" squares, the right number will fall on its own.

One of this methods can solve the beginner's boards, but you will need to use at least two to solve the more advanced ones.

A bit complicated, but believe me it works! 8)