The Sudoku game has the world in it's hand

If follow any kind of media I guess you must have heard about the Sudoku game by now? After all, it is something loved and played by old and young people alike. The game of Sudoku is taking the world by storm - and for good reason.

One of the best things about the Sudoku game is that it gives a fair playing ground for everybody. Regardless if you are a young kid, a blue collar worker or a college professor of mathematics, you can play this game at a suitable level, feel great by solving the puzzle and progressing to harder levels. Almost everyone, regardless of their level, seems to be on a continuous hunt for Sudoku tips. 

Compared to crossword puzzle, the Sudoku game does not require you to know every word found in the dictionary. Part of what makes it so addicting is the continuous challenge it give to the players. The pre-planned trial and error matched techniques which depends mainly on the clues you have been given by the games designer make it easier for anyone to win. 

Generally speaking, a single Sudoku game can be completed in five minutes- or it can take several hours. It all depends on the level you have chosen to play at. If you chose a very difficult level it will definitely take you hours to solve it. However, you may of course choose to solve it little by little instead of all in one sitting - if you can put the game down, that is!.

Once you begin with a Sudoku game, you may find it annoyingly difficult to stop. Like cross-words and other puzzles, you may think to yourself that you will just play with it for a few minutes, and the next thing you know you the puzzle couldn't be torn away from you with force.

They're clever - those Japanese

The Sudoku game was invented in Japan, where it became massively popular during the 1980s. It has gone from a totally unknown game to a famous, worldwide pastime with millions who play it in the Internet alone.

The growth of this worldwide trend is further fuelled by various big prizes and rewards that are beginning to surface in the Sudoku events and tournaments around the world. Prizes of several thousand dollars are not uncommon, and as the popularity continues to grow, one can probably expect larger price sums to become more common place.

For those people who do not know the Sudoku game, it is actually quite a basic game of numbers (1 to 9). In the standard game, you start off with a 9 x 9 grid which is divided into 9, 3 x 3 boxes. But there are also varieties that are larger or smaller, such as the 6 x 6 grid with 2 x 3 regions grid used in the World Puzzle Championship.

The first grid should have series of numbers which is scattered in each row and column in random order. Then there are the basic rules for how to complete the game: First, you have to make sure that you have all the numbers from 1 to 9 in every row and/or column. And second, you should not have two numbers of the same value in each 9 x 9 grid.

Since the game of Sudoku is genuinely what one could call "brain gymnastics", we can only hope that it will not become one of those trends (like the yo-yo) that disappear almost completely after a short while.

This is not that likely to happen though. After all, how long have cross-word puzzles been fairly popular. Personally I am sure I will continue solving the occasional Sudoku game until kingdom comes.

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