A Playable History of Sudoku
18 hours ago
- Sudoku evolved from Latin squares, which require each symbol to appear once per row and column, but Sudoku adds the 3×3 box constraint.
- The modern puzzle first appeared as 'Number Place' in a 1979 Dell magazine, likely created by retired architect Howard Garns, though no signed proof exists.
- The puzzle gained its name 'Sudoku' in Japan after Nikoli introduced it in 1984; Nikoli later limited starting clues to 32 and required symmetrical arrangements.
- Wayne Gould developed a program to generate Sudoku puzzles and offered them to newspapers; The Times published the first daily grid in November 2004.
- Sudoku spread globally due to its language-free rules; the first World Sudoku Championship was held in 2006 with 22 countries and 18 puzzle variants.