| Walk along the streets of most major cities worldwide | | | | Puzzles and Word Games". But instead of labeling the |
| and you'll be hard-pressed not to see at least a single | | | | puzzles as sudokus, Dell put the puzzles under the |
| person bent over sudoku puzzles. The puzzles are | | | | heading, Number Place. Though the puzzles have an |
| instant hits especially in Britain and the United States. | | | | audience, they are not as popular nor widespread as |
| Usually misconstrued as a Japanese creation, sudoku | | | | today because of limited circulation. Recent |
| puzzles actually trace their origins from the Western | | | | investigation identified the author to be Howard Garns, |
| world. | | | | a retired architect. Though the puzzles did not bear his |
| Sudoku puzzles are commonly associated with | | | | name, a puzzle history investigator noted that |
| Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematical genius of the | | | | publications that listed Garns's name as contributor |
| 18th century. He is credited to be the inventor of the | | | | always had a sudoku inside; meanwhile, issues without |
| magic squares, an atrocious 81-cell grid that can be | | | | sudoku did not list Garns's name. The puzzle of the |
| filled with almost infinite varieties so that every column | | | | author's identity was finally solved. |
| and every row contain the digits one to nine. Though | | | | From the West, the development of sudokus shifted |
| the more popular and recent sudokus sport the same | | | | to the East when Nikoli first brought the puzzles to |
| 1-9 rule and the 81-cell grid, the magic squares are not | | | | Japan in 1984. The tag sudoku actually stands for the |
| presented as puzzles. They are merely expressions of | | | | basic puzzle rule: single digits only. Innovations were |
| Euler's mathematical genius. | | | | introduced to Garns's invention such as 32-digit clue |
| In the late 19th century, the French daily, Le Siecle, | | | | restriction, and the rotational symmetry of the clues' |
| came up with something almost like sudokus. But, | | | | positions. Sudoku puzzles received wide circulation in |
| rather than using the single digits 1-9, the puzzle uses | | | | Japan with a number of dailies and magazines |
| double-digit numbers to complete the puzzles. Following | | | | producing the puzzles. However, these puzzles were |
| Le Siecle's footsteps, another French daily, La France, | | | | under a different name since the sudoku monicker |
| came up with its own puzzle version which uses the | | | | was trademarked by Nikoli. |
| numbers 1-9. But despite the same rules, La France's | | | | After extensive rounds among the world's leading |
| puzzles did not divide the 81 cells into grids of nine | | | | dailies and magazines, the sudoku puzzles jumped |
| boxes each. Notably, much like the sudoku puzzles, the | | | | onboard the computer ship. Programmers such as |
| solutions to La France's puzzles always had the | | | | Loadstar Publishing published the first computer based |
| numbers 1-9 in the areas where the sub-grids were | | | | sudoku game named DigiHunt. Soon, other |
| supposed to be. However, unlike the daily sudokus, | | | | programmers and devoted sudoku puzzle enthusiasts |
| these puzzles were printed on a weekly basis until the | | | | developed other programs such as sudoku puzzle |
| strat of World War I. | | | | generators, sudoku solvers, and now, in the era of |
| Following the thread of its development, the | | | | cyberspace, online sudoku games. Truly, nothing can |
| present-day sudoku puzzles first gained audience in | | | | stop sudoku puzzles when it comes to expanding its |
| 1979. They were printed anonymously in Dell | | | | audience. |
| Magazines as puzzles in the collection "Dell Pencil | | | | |