Su Doku (數獨/数独)

Husband and I have got hooked on this little puzzle game called Su Doku. It is a puzzle with an apparent Japanese name, yet Western origins tracing back as early as 1970 with the name Number Place.

A Japanese publisher Nikoli took this idea, and enhanced this game and renamed it "Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru" meaning the number is restrained to one (unmarried). Then it was too long a name, so they abbreviated it to the current "Su Doku" (數獨), which simply means single number.

Oxford Dictionary explains the game:

It consists of a square containing nine smaller squares, each subdivided into 9 small boxes (81 boxes in all). These boxes contain some of the numbers from 1 to 9, filled in by the puzzle's creator. The solver has to use logical thinking to complete the grid by ensuring that each of the nine internal squares contains the remaining numbers between 1 and 9, but also - and here's where it starts to get tricky - that each of the nine vertical columns and horizontal rows in the overall grid contains the numbers from 1 to 9, without repetition.

The attractive part of this simple game is that you don't need to be a genius to solve these little puzzles. All you need is a little logical thinking, and you're off to a fun fun session!

There are several online sites where you could check out how to play this game, and gather some tips on the way. You could get some SuDoku puzzles from Timesonline.co.uk. They have a dedicated section for SuDoku games. And for their answers when you've done solving them, you could check them out from Sudoku.com.