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Sudoku

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Are you a fan of Sudoku? In it, a 9 by 9 grid needs to be completed so that each row, each column and each of the 9 main 3 by 3 sub-grids contains just one of each of the numbers 1 to 9. At outset, the grid is partly filled in. Your task is to complete the rest of the grid.

 

Have you graduated to the Killer Sudoku? It has the same 9 by 9 grid, but (usually) none of the grid is filled in at outset. Instead, the grid contains a further mesh of smaller groups of cells. Within each such group, no number can be repeated and you are also told how much they add up to. So, if the group contains just 2 cells and totals 3 you know that one of its two cells must contain the number 1 and other must contain the number 2, but you don't immediately know which one is which.

 

Or do you prefer the larger scale Samurai Sudoku puzzles? These involve multiple overlapping 9 by 9 grids. There are other variants too.

 

Solving Sudoku puzzles

 

There are several commercially available Sudoku solvers. Some are provided by stand-alone electronic devices or bespoke programs that you can buy, but most of these concentrate just on solving the ‘basic’ type of Sudoku puzzle described above. Sudoku enthusiasts have fewer options (other than, of course, their own brains!) if they want to access solvers for the more complicated variants, such as Killer Sudoku.

 

The Nematrian website provides interactive tools for solving several different types of Sudoku puzzle, including the mathematically more challenging Killer Sudoku puzzles. These all make use of the same generic Nematrian Sudoku Solver web service that computer programs and spreadsheets can access directly via the web.

 

Happy solving!

 

Links to pages containing solvers for:

 

-          Killer Sudoku

-          (Standard) Sudoku

 


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