Monster Sudoku

Announcing the Monster FirstScience.com Sudoku Challenge!

You think filling the numbers 1 to 9 into a 9 x 9 grid is not enough? Well, check out the Monster Sudoku Challenge at FirstScience.com. This beauty is a 25 x 25 grid, and instead of using numbers it uses almost every letter of the alphabet (a - y... No Zzzzzz's allowed because this column is too much fun to be sleeping through it!).

Enjoy, Tim

Puzzler offers addicts seven different challenges on new website

Puzzle publisher, Puzzler Media, has launched an interactive site to cater for fans of seven different puzzle types.

The site boasts more than 12 new posers each day and fans who register for a Puzzle Pass can access content on a subscription basis from £1 for one day to £14.99 for a year.

The site features puzzles from crazes like Sudoku and Hanjie as well as traditional language-based challenges, such as crosswords, word searches, kriss kross, logic puzzles and code crackers.

Neil O'Brien, Puzzler Media's business development director, said: "Puzzler.co.uk is a crucial element in our overall strategy to deliver puzzle content for all key interactive formats. Whether it's on mobiles, on interactive TV, in print or on the web, we want to make sure that puzzlers can access content in the way they find most convenient."

More from Digital Bulletin...

Too good for Fiendish? Then try Killer Su Doku

The latest twist on Sudoku has come out Japan, called Killer Sudoku.

While it has the same rules (numbers 1 to 9 in each row, column and square), you don't get any numbers to start with. And this one requires math!

Instead, what you get are dotted lines with numbers in the top left hand corner - the idea is that all of the cells within the dotted line must add up to the number in the top left hand corner.



Hint: Try to identify the groups of cells where you need to either start from the lowest numbers or from the highest numbers to add up to the correct number.

For example, if two cells are joined with the number '3' in the corner, then they must consist of '1' and '2'. Or if three cells are joined with the number '6', then they must contain '1', '2' and '3'. Or at the 'high' end of the scale, if two cells are joined with the number '17', then they must contain '9' and '8', and so on.

Of course, exactly where the numbers go within the dotted lines is up to you to figure out!

The creator of Killer Sudoku (or Killer Su Doku) is Tetsuya Nishio, the undisputed grand "puzzle master" of Su Doku: a bespectacled fiend from the darkest suburbs of Tokyo who spends his every waking hour devising abominable new ways to torture our brain cells.

"Of course I have recently read in the Japanese press about the extraordinary Su Doku boom in the UK and I was very happy to see it happening," says the puzzle master, "but Britain has not had the puzzles for long enough to become fully used to their complexities. This new variation will be a dreadful challenge for you."

See how you go with the puzzles in the Times Online.

Then get your daily fix at DJApe.net.

Enjoy,
Tim

GadgetryBlog: Carol Vorderman's Touch Screen Sudoku

Check out this review of Carol Vorderman's Touch Screen Sudoku.

It is a handheld electronic game where you 'tap' on the screen with the supplied stylus (like a pen that doesn't work on paper!).

More from GadgetryBlog

Welsh student crowned British Sudoku champion

An 18-year-old Welsh maths student who has been crowned Britain's finest exponent of Sudoku.

Nina Pell, from Monmouth, who is a first-year student at Sheffield University, solved what was thought to be the hardest version of the puzzle ever published in the UK in just 13 minutes and 48 seconds.

More from icWales...

Burlington Puzzle Museum caters to Sudoku nuts

Check out the Burlington Beat for details about Burlington's Logic Puzzle Museum.

Judith Schulz runs the museum and is offering the one-hour workshops. There are still spaces available for the 6 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Saturday sessions. To register, call (262) 763-3946. There is a $5 charge for the class.

Sudoku fans say there is no mystery to their addiction

No one even knew what Sudoku was a few months ago, let alone how to pronounce it.

Now, more than a few people are addicted to figuring out these number puzzles.

Just ask Mary Jane Jones of Tuscola about her husband's Sudoku addiction.

'You can tell he is retired,' she said and laughed about how her husband does the Sudoku puzzles every day.

Stephanie Idle, a special education teacher at Mount Zion Intermediate School, likes new challenges.

"I love the game. It is addicting," said Idle, who often works the puzzle with her daughters, ages 14 and 16. They often compete with each other to see who can finish it the fastest.

The puzzle is basically troubleshooting, problem solving and doesn't require a vocabulary like crossword puzzles do, Idle said. She admits her strategy is going down each column and row, checking what numbers are the same and filling in the blank boxes without repeating the same numbers.

"Sounds easy, but it does become a process of elimination," she said.

But now Idle has introduced the puzzle to her fourth- and fifth-grade students who have learning disabilities.

She went to www.edhelper.com on the Internet to find easier Sudoku puzzles to pass out to them.

"It doesn't require reading, it doesn't require any math. And I'm so proud of my students for being able to get the puzzle done," she said excitedly and is even planning to make the puzzles part of her classroom curriculum.

More from Herald & Review...

Mastiff Announces Sudoku for Game Boy Advance

Video game publisher Mastiff announced today that they will publish Sudoku for the Game Boy Advance handheld video game system, the first of a series of Sudoku products that Mastiff will be bringing to game systems.

The Sudoku video game features hundreds of puzzle problems, a tutorial mode, help for those moments when you really are stuck, the ability to 'pencil in' possible solutions, and a puzzle problem creation mode. The game is expected to be available February 10, 2006.

More...

Women leave men trailing at the inaugural British championship

For the archetypal puzzle-solving, pen-sucking, mildly obsessive but essentially minding-his-own business British male (pipe optional, nerdish streak compulsory), it was an arresting moment. Women not only triumphed at the weekend's first Times National Su Doku Championship, they ruled the roost.

It has long been one of the quiet little (guilty?) secrets of the Su Doku phenomenon that there are as many women addicts and dabblers as men. What was not clear, until the weekend, though, was the clear superiority of women over men.

More from The Times Online...

Note - Subscribers to The Sudoku Daily Challenge (scroll to the top right hand corner to sign up) are fairly well represented between males and females, with just a few more being female than male.

Enjoy - Tim

Su Doku children make light work of 'fiendish' grids

Geographical remoteness proved no obstacle for child competitors at the first Times National Su Doku Championships on Sunday.

One contestant cut short a school trip to Venice to travel to Cheltenham, while another undertook an eight-hour journey from his home in Aberdeen.

Many of the 85 children, aged 6 to 16, who took part in the competition at Cheltenham Ladies' College also accused the judges of setting puzzles that were too easy.

The 12-16 age group sat a difficult grid, while the younger children were given a moderate one. Most were disappointed at not being faced with the challenge of a fiendish grid.

Francesca Nichol, 15, from Glastonbury, Somerset, who came second in the 12-16 age group, spoke for them all when she said: "It was too easy, far too easy. You must make it harder next time."

More in The Times Online...

Experience The Mind Challenge Of The Year With PC Sudoku

GamesIndustry.biz - Experience The Mind Challenge Of The Year With PC Sudoku: "On Games and Sherwood Media are finalizing the European release of PC Sudoku, the ultimate PC port of the successful Puzzle Game, at 9.95 euro."

More...

Resco Sudoku for Pocket PC

Check out this review of Resco Sudoku by Dave's iPAQ.

"A new game has been released by Resco and it is very cool! RESCO Sudoku has several levels of play, skinable and has a Puzzle solver....but what is even better is that there are FREE lifetime upgrades. "

Enjoy, Tim

Six-letter Word for $$$? Sudoku!

People the world over are furrowing their brows over Sudoku. The game that has had Britain in its grip for the past year now appears in most major American newspapers and has spawned bestselling books, a TV show, computer programs, tournaments, and countless addictions. Not since the Rubik's Cube pandemic of 1980 or the crossword craze of 1924-25 has a puzzle generated this much madness - and unbridled commerce.

"The craze, judging by history, will last four, five, six months, and then it will taper off," says Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword and high priest of puzzling. "But I think the underlying appeal of Sudoku will make it last forever. It's not just hype. If you do the puzzle, it's very easy to get hooked."

More from Fortune...

Sudoku craze 'could revive interest in mathematics'

The Sudoku craze could spur renewed interest among young people in mathematics, according to the nation's top mathematician.

Poor numeracy, the parlous state of mathematics education and lack of suitably-qualified teachers have concerned many great minds including that of Sir Michael Atiyah, the winner of the Abel Prize, mathematics' equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Although Sudoku is a far cry from Sir Michael's work on the 'Atiyah-Singer index theorem', one of the great landmarks of 20th century mathematics, he believes that the puzzle could kindle more interest in the subject among young people.

'All kinds of mathematical games are a good thing,' said Sir Michael, who was speaking to mark his appointment today as the new President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

From The Telegraph

Sudoku Puzzle Trend Sweeping Chicago

From trains and planes to coffee shops, people are playing Sudoku. It's a logic puzzle that took Asia and Europe by storm.

Now, Chicagoans are asking, 'Can you Sudoku?'

Take a nine-by-nine grid, throw in several given numbers -- and you've got Sudoku.

'I got hooked on it cause my mom got hooked on it,' one loyal player said.

The rules are each column, row and three-by-three box must contain the numbers one to nine only once.

'It's not a math puzzle, it's a logic puzzle,' another player explained.

It's a kind of logic that drives some to distraction.

More at NBC5.com.

Sudoku named word of the year

Sudoku, the name of the Japanese logic puzzle that has taken Britain by storm -- has been named 'word of the year' by the Language Report published Wednesday.
Author Susie Dent said sudoku 'burst onto the scene' in a fraction of the time it would have taken a new word to establish itself even 10 years ago, indicating a shift in the now multicultural English language.

Dent said language gives insight into popular social preoccupations of the time -- including sudoku -- and allows for historical comparisons to be made in leisurely pursuits by studying linguistic novelties.

From The Japan Times Online

Popular Sudoku Grids for your Mobile

If your mobile phone can surf the web, then you can get puzzles for FREE from the good folks at sudokusolver.co.uk.

Enjoy, Tim

Word to the wise: pencils.

On Monday, a Google search for "sudoku" turned up 10 million hits. On Tuesday, the number jumped to 10.3 million. Sudoku, it appears, is an honest-to-gosh phenomenon. And its days do not appear to be numbered.

In September the puzzles made publishing history, cracking national bestseller lists with three sound-alike titles: 'The Book of Sudoku' (Overlook Press, $9.95), 'Sudoku Easy to Hard' (St. Martin's Press $6.95) and the inevitable 'Su Doku for Dummies' (Wiley, $9.99).

This is no mean feat in the publishing world, especially since two of those books consist of pages with nothing on them but boxes and numbers. But such is the appeal of sudoku, a wildly popular pastime that may singlehandedly bring back the pencil.

Sudoku also may bring back something called logic, because it requires players to think in two directions at once and make Sherlock Holmesian deductions based on the process of elimination.

Word to the wise: pencils.

More from the North Jersey Media Group

Sudoku ku-ku

I guess it's fair to say that not everyone shares our love of Sudoku.

Check out these comments by Chris Harris from the Los Angeles Times...

"The word 'Sudoku' comes from the Japanese words 'sudo,' meaning 'a 9-by-9 grid,' and 'ku,' meaning 'one must complete so that each row, column and subgroup of 3-by-3 squares contains exactly one of each digit from 1 through 9 in it.'

If you succeed in this task, you are rewarded with a hollow, vaguely dissatisfied feeling about the way you've just spent your time."

Ah well, each to their own! Now gimme another puzzle.... :-)

Tim

Teen's Su Ready

Like all New Yorkers, Jennifer Drenzyk loves a good challenge and plays to win. That's why the plucky Hunter College freshman is totally psyched to be playing for cash and prizes worth a whopping $10,000 in our Post Su Doku Championships this weekend.

'I'm very excited about it. I love Su Doku!' said Drenzyk, 18, an elementary-education student and one of 100 lucky Post readers who qualified and were then selected to compete Saturday at New York University.

Drenzyk got hooked on our exciting puzzle when it debuted in April in The Post.

More in the New York Post...

The Sudoku workout

Research has shown that keeping the mind agile is just as important as keeping fit in the battle to stay young. In fact, by stretching the brain with regular crossword and Sudoku puzzles, you can make your brain appear up to 14 years younger.

Professor Ian Robertson, of the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College, Dublin, who carried out the study of 3,000 men and women, reveals his top 10 tips for keeping the brain sharp and the years at bay.

Enjoy, Tim

Would you like a Sudoku with your Beer?

Japanese beer Asahi is aiming to help licensees make the game a little more sociable by putting sudokus on beer mats and announcing Britain's first national sudoku tournament, the 2006 Asahi Pure Logic Championship.

According to the brilliantly named Moto Suzuki, sales and marketing general manager for Asahi Beer Europe: "The sudoku challenge presents an excellent opportunity for licensees to add value and boost their business by tapping into a current craze."

More...

Interactive TV Sudoku Launches on Sky Gamestar

Puzzler Sudoku, an interactive TV version of the popular puzzle game, has launched on Sky Gamestar.

Players can purchase three complete puzzles at any one level for 60p or purchase unlimited access to all four levels of puzzles for £1.00 per session.

Enjoy - Tim

Knowledge Base: SuDoKu

André Normandin has kindly provided us with an in-depth review of Mastersoft's SuDoku for Pocket PC. Complete with a discussion on installation issues, and many screen shots, André has given us a very balanced review of a great product.

"The hardest part of doing this review was putting the game down.."

(You may recall a review of this software from George a little while ago.)

Enjoy, Tim

Four Sudoku books in the USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS Top 50 list

Four Sudoku books feature in the USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS Top 50 list.

And the books are ... (drum roll please)...

24. "The Book of Sudoku" by Michael Mepham (Overlook)

26. "Su Doku for Dummies" by Andrew Heron & Edmund James (Wiley)

42. "Sudoku Easy, Volume 1" by Will Shortz (St. Martin's Griffin)

47. "New York Post Su Doku 1" by Wayne Gould (Collins)

Much ado about Sudoku

"Sudoku, or Su Doku, is the name for a maddeningly addictive Japanese number logic puzzle which has become a bona fide craze in the United States during the past few months."

According to the most recent list of best-selling books tracked by USA Today, seven of the top 100 were compilations of Sudoku puzzles.

The rapid rise in popularity of the game has reminded some of the Rubik's cube phenomenon in the 1980s. So who stands to make money from Sudoku?

Wayne Gould, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur who has written a computer program that generates Sudoku puzzles, said that his firm, Pappocom, has received "well over $1 million" in revenue in less than a year from the game.

Considering how fast the game has become a pop-culture phenomenon, Gould is a bit worried that the craze could cool just as rapidly. "The glut does concern me. But it's a free market," Gould said.

Kathie Kerr, a spokesperson for Universal Press Syndicate, which began offering a version of Sudoku to newspapers in May and already has 250 clients, believes that Sudoku won't be a fad. "This has been a fantastic launch for any new feature. It's unprecedented," she said.

"Crossword puzzles are the love of many people. There is a hope that newspapers can build the same kind of loyalty with Sudoku fans," she said.

More from CNN.

Enjoy, Tim

Parker Pens cashes in on Sudoku

Parker Pens has become the first advertiser to cash in on the Sudoku craze, sponsoring the puzzle in The Independent.

The deal, brokered by Starcom on behalf of Sanford Fine, promotes Parker Pens' new three-in-one product, which incorporates a pencil, pen and a PDA pointer.

The campaign, which starts on Monday, 3 October and will run every weekday until the end of December, is a departure from traditional advertising for Parker.

The Independent 's solutions department created a bespoke package that includes space around the Quick Sudoku on the back page and also the three puzzles on the games page.

Starcom said the puzzle was ideal for the product because players could use pencil to work out the options and fill in the final number in pen.

The PDA pointer could also come in handy for diehard fans as Starcom and Avantgo are creating a Sudoku Channel for download onto PDAs.

'It is such a perfect fit with Sudoku,' said Starcom's Nadine Kafena, the planner responsible for the deal.

Story from Media Week

Sudoku Phenom Mobile

The number game sweeping the world is en route to handsets via GOSUB 60.

GOSUB 60 is prepping a mobile edition of global puzzle phenom Sudoku, the game that mixes crosswords with numbers.

Sudoku Deluxe will include over 1,000 puzzles stretched across four difficulty levels. GOSUB 60's Sudoku Deluxe adds a community element with Text-A-Friend features that allow players to taunt and challenge each other right from a simple menu.

Sudoku Deluxe will roll out on October 15.

It will be available through IGN Wireless.

Enjoy, Tim

Puzzle solved – we love a brainteaser

Huddersfield puzzle compiler Philip Carter will never reveal his own IQ, but as a member of Mensa, it's over 148, and his talent for logic and ability for lateral thinking puts him in the top two per cent of the population.

When the recent craze for sudoku took hold earlier this year, it brought with it a wave of experts espousing the health benefits of sitting in an armchair solving puzzles.

It's something Philip has perhaps unsurprisingly been saying for years.

"It's something you've got to do," he says.

"The brain is the most important part of the body, but it's the part we most take for granted. People go to the gym, they put moisturiser on their face, but often they forget about their brain.

"I really believe that by doing puzzles you strengthen the connection between the brain cells and the neurons. It's about improving your mental well-being."

While this may explain why people should do crosswords and brain teasers, it doesn't quite shed light on why they do.

"I think it's about taking time out," says Philip. "There is something satisfying about filling in the final grid or solving a puzzle, and people don't like them to be do easy, they want a challenge, but a challenge they can do sitting on the train or listening to the radio.

More in the Yorkshire Post Today

Enjoy

Sudoku Master for MS Smartphone released

In some countries (like UK) Sudoko has become one of the most popular puzzles nowadays! To the point that people don't buy newspapers if they don't have some Sudoku puzzle in them..

Here comes yet another Sudoku for MS Smartphone!

Enjoy, Tim

Number puzzles find fans across the country

'I've got two words for you: eraser pen.'

That's the advice of international flight attendant Debbie Grant of Annapolis for anyone looking to join in on the latest puzzle craze, sudoku.

Gary Amoth, owner of Hard Bean Coffee & BookSellers in Annapolis, which stocks a host of sudoku titles, tells of one customer who bought a puzzle book at 3 p.m. and was still going strong trying to solve them at home four hours later - incinerating the family's dinner.

Mr. Amoth is a sudoku fan himself, and has had the books in stock for about 2½ months. They've been selling well, though he thinks the craze really hasn't even started yet. Christmas will be the time it really takes off, he predicted.

More in HometownAnnapolis.com.

Sudoku sharpens wits without math

Software developer Jeff Grovesner picked up a copy of USA Today, and snagged on a Japanese-sounding game he'd never heard of before. It sucked him into another sphere of consciousness. When the 52-year-old Palm Bay, Fla., resident was finished, nearly six hours of his life were missing.

Grovesner says, 'I managed to solve the problem.'

More in The Enquirer...

Sudoku got your number?

Frustrated? Confused?

Don't worry. Sudoku has a habit of sticking it to newbies. But the more you play our new daily mindteaser, the better you get. And to provide a little more background -- including a tip from a Sudoku master -- The News Observer came up with a list of FAQs.

The All New Sudoku Daily Challenge!

If you haven't yet subscribed to The Sudoku Daily Challenge, now is a great time to do so!

Our software is fully updated, and the puzzles and bigger and badder than ever!

Just fill in your name and email address in the box at the top right of this page, and click on the Subscribe button.

You will get a daily email with not one but two graded puzzles to keep you challenged. Don't miss out! Sign up right now - you are just seconds away from your first Sudoku Daily Challenge email!

Sudoku in the Best Seller lists

The Sudoku craze is filling the best seller lists with Sudoku-related books.

'I can't think of a puzzle book that has sold like this,' said Ethan Friedman, who edits The New York Times crossword puzzle books for St Martin's/Griffin Press, including two volumes of sudoku with introductions by Times crossword guru Will Shortz.
'This is a publishing phenomenon,' said Friedman. In all, nine sudoku books are planned.

Nielsen BookScan, which lists 10 sudoku titles, estimates that they sold a combined 40 000 copies in the US last week. The only books that sold more were JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About.

Three weeks ago, no sudoku books were on USA Today's top 150 list. Now, there are six. "

"It could flame out, but based on everything I've been able to discern so far, sudoku is a keeper," Barnes and Noble company president Esther Margolis said. "It's the kind of puzzle that seems to be so intriguing and satisfies such a wide age range."

More from News24.com...

Number of Possible Sudoku Grids

Further to my previous post that gave an idea on how many combinations of Sudoku puzzles we can have, Alex Rothenberg has come up with another answer.

Check out The Number of Possible Sudoku Grids.

I have a funny idea that this is just an academic question that will keep those who are so inclined busy for a long time. I mean, how will us mere mortals ever know when someone has got the "right" answer? Whatever, it's interesting to follow along...

Enjoy, Tim

Sensei Vorderman

"With hard work and study, young novice, you may become a Sudoku Master when you are ready. But first you will have to defeat me in battle."

"Carol Vorderman really should be commended for her ability to jump on every bandwagon that's going at the speed of sound. It's a living, I guess."

Hamster Sudoku

This one's a bit of fun...

Think of Sudoku with pictures instead of numbers.

You can use the existing pictures, or upload your own.

A bit tricky if the pictures are similar, but a bit of fun, too.

Enjoy,
Tim

Just can't kick that puzzling habit

Danny Katz, well known to The Age readers in Melbourne, Australia, has just announced his Sudoku addiction.

"Just this month I've stumbled across a new addiction, perhaps the most addictive of them all... I'm talking about the big S. The Japanese Junk. The Brain-Boiler itself, also known on the streets as... Soduko."

"For some reason Soduko makes sense to me: there's no maths involved or word-knowledge or even intelligence - you just need to be able to count from one to nine, AND I CAN DO THAT, I CAN DO THAT."

Enjoy, Tim

Media Week - Future joins Su Doku craze

Bath-based magazine group Future is to jump on the Su Doku bandwagon at the end of August and launch its own monthly magazine for fans of the Japanese number game.

The group will publish the 68-page Total Su Doku from 25 August and the first edition will have a print run of 38,000 copies.

"Total Su Doku will do its bit to satisfy the needs of puzzle junkies each month."

Enjoy - Tim

TealPoint Brings the Sudoku Craze to Your Palm

TealPoint Software, the leading developer of business and consumer applications for Palm connected organizers, announced today the release of Sudoku Addict version 1.00 for Palm OS handhelds.

Sudoku Addict comes complete with 3000 different puzzles, three challenging levels of difficulty, intuitive controls, a manual puzzle editor, a pencil annotation mode, and a puzzle-solver capable of completing any valid Sudoku. Sudoku Addict retails for $14.95.

Enjoy,
Tim

Chicago Sun-Times Publishes Sudoku

In an article entitled "Sudoku: This game's not for the weak of mind -- or patience", The Chicago Sun-Times announces that it will now publish Sudoku puzzles Monday through Saturday on the second comics page.

They also had this to say:

"Aside from stimulating the intellect, Sudoku also has proved quite addictive -- along the lines of Tetris, chocolate and some HBO original programming. British papers have carried ominous accounts of 'Compulsive Sudoku Syndrome.'

'Our experience is people can be immediately hooked,' Spike Figgett, publishing director of Sudoku Selection magazine, told the Orlando Sentinel. 'It is especially compelling to those of a compulsive nature and people who just won't give up or give in. It's caused many a commuter to miss their train stop.' "

More...

Sudoku firm may add up to £100m

Bid speculation is surrounding Puzzler Media, the magazine publisher that has capitalised on the sudoku boom.

Puzzler was bought for £36.7m in April 2002 but its recent success has led to speculation that it will be sold for as much as £100m.

The company has a turnover of £17.6m and a deal anywhere near the mooted price tag will provide a windfall for Puzzler's management team, led by Mel Lewis, the managing director, and Peter Nugent, the finance director.

The company also publishes magazines such as Woman's Weekly, Kriss Kross and The Puzzler.

More...

News & Star

Cumbria is rising to the challenge of the new craze sweeping the country.

With the help of the News & Star you can try out the crossword of the 21st century with our daily Sudoku puzzles.

Every day the News & Star will be printing a puzzle.

If you consider yourself a Sudoku master, then you might be interested to know that News & Star are arranging a Cumbrian Sudoku championship. If you would like to compete leave your details on 01228 612300.

It's not an ad, it's cinema sudoku

OK, so it's not really Sudoku, but a series of magazine advertisements by Stella Artois has recently been putting people into the same kind of glazed-eyed, mental-challenging trance-like states that have become so familiar with Sudoku.

For three weeks a series of adverts has been appearing in national magazines, each depicting a familiar scene of the English outdoors: a park, a town, a beach. But many readers stop their idle flicking when they realise those birds, or that car, or that shark's fin look strangely familiar.

The Stella Artois adverts are a feast of cunning references to characters, props and scenarios from famous films. Anyone who has ever been inside a cinema is likely to recognise a few of the visual puns instantly; the challenge, which many find addictive, is then to crack the rest.

More...

Tribune Media Services To Syndicate 'Sudoku' Puzzles

Starting Monday 18th July, Tribune Media Services will become at least the third major 'Sudoku' distributor. TMS follows the self-syndicated Wayne Gould (who began doing the puzzles for newspapers last fall) and Universal Press Syndicate (which announced in May that it was offering 'Sudoku' puzzles by David Bodycombe).

TMS will syndicate 'Sudoku' puzzles by Michael Mepham, who has been doing a version of the grid-based logic game for the Los Angeles Times. The feature will be daily, and increase in difficulty as the week goes on. Mepham has produced several books of 'Sudoku' puzzles, including those that appeared in The Daily Telegraph of London.

More from Editor and Publisher...
More from Yahoo Business News...

Cayman Net News to introduce latest puzzle craze

Cayman Net News is about to introduce the latest craze that is literally sweeping the globe.

On Friday 14 July Net News will publish its first Su Doku (or sudoku) puzzle grid on the "Comics" page.

Enjoy...

Simple Sudoku explanations

Thanks to Jon Allen for the heads-up on this site.

Chandru Arni gives some very interesting explanations on how to play Sudoku, using shapes and symbols to assist those numerically-challenged amongst us, and smaller grids than 9 x 9 to help simplify things for the purposes of the lesson.

He also proposes a two player version of the game.

Check it out.

Simple Sudoku

Simple Sudoku generates high quality puzzles that are symmetrical, with a single solution, and do not require trial & error to solve. The user can also choose between five levels of complexity - from Easy to Extreme. Each puzzle is generated randomly so there is an almost limitless selection.

Not only does Simple Sudoku make challenging puzzles, it also provides tools to help solve them - removing the drudgery but not the fun. Keeping track of possible values for blank cells (candidates), providing filters and color markers are just some of the tools available to make solving even those really tricky puzzles possible. Also, if you ever get really stuck, Simple Sudoku can get you started again with a discrete hint (without giving everything away).

Check it out...

Solving Sudoku Tutorial

This is by far the best online tutorial that I have come across so far. It takes you right from the very basics, right through to explaining X-Wings and Swordfish.

Enjoy, Tim

Sudoku Master review

I have told you about Mastersoft's SuDoku Master, before, now George has provided us with an indepth review of the program.

nb. Only for Pocket PC's. But very nice!

Sudoku Whiteboard

Here's a great little idea for those times when your eyes have gotten tired of quinting at a little 3" x 3" grid, or worse still, at the computer screen (or even worse still again, at your PDA screen!)...

Simply draw up a Sudoku grid using permanent markers on a whiteboard, then write in numbers to your heart's content with a standard whiteboard marker.

Possibly a good idea to put up in the coffee area at work - a bit of communal Sudoku - although maybe the boss would get a bit concerned about the length of coffee breaks!...

Enjoy, Tim.

Beginners tutorial: 4 x 4 grid Sudoku

If you are just getting started you might want to have a look at this site. It shows (with pictures) how to solve a simple 4 x 4 Sudoku puzzle.

Which is a great way to start, because having only 4 numbers makes it much easier to see what is going on, and all of the principles can be applied to the usual 9 x 9 grid.

Enjoy!

Logic puzzle sudoku piques brains worldwide

In theory, anyone who can count can solve sudoku, which loosely translates as "single number." But the underlying complexity is what has attracted millions worldwide.

For Bob Keegan, 56, a retired businessman in Green Valley, Ariz., sudoku offers a daily challenge that doesn't involve word games or common knowledge.

"Accountants and engineers who like numbers will love this puzzle," Keegan says. Keegan's wife, Susan, discovered sudoku when she noticed a woman working one in a doctor's waiting room.

She downloaded a puzzle that afternoon and shared it with her husband. Hooked, the two started doing at least a game a day.

"She was afraid that I wasn't using my brain enough now that I'm retired," Keegan says. "She wanted me to be sharper."

But it's a puzzle in which skill trumps smarts. "I have met people who you would expect to be brilliant and they have a blind spot for this puzzle," says Wayne Gould, a New Zealander who discovered the game in Japan in 1997 and developed a computer program that generates fresh sudoku puzzles. "And I have met people without as much education who do very well with it."

More...

USATODAY.com - Life Section puzzles Sudoku

Members of a USATODAY.com can now play Sudoku online. You can also try their puzzle service (including daily USA TODAY Crossword, 5 nationally syndicated crosswords daily, 2 jumbo size crosswords weekly, 3 daily updated jigsaws, 8 daily updated word games including the daily Jumble, 2 daily trivia challenges and dozens of other challenging word games, puzzles and card games), absolutely free. Cancel at anytime during the first 7 days and you will not be charged.

SUDOCRITTERS -- The Game

Here's one out of left field from Marginalien.

SUDOCRITTERS -- The Game is an 'on-line' version of the Sudoku puzzle, using little pictures instead of numbers, and including rules for three player games!

You play by posting your move as a comment - the website will then be updated with your move.

Looks like a whole new concept in interactive Sudoku. Definitely brings in a communal aspect to what is otherwise a solitary game.

Enjoy, Tim.

Sudoku Comes to the Irish Examiner

The Irish Examiner has started to publish Sudoku Puzzles on its print edition.

Pack in your job, kiss your spouse farewell, padlock the door and pre-book your post-addiction withdrawal counselling sessions.

The puzzle craze that has swept the world is taking up residency in the print edition of The Irish Examiner and life will never be sane again.

At first a curiosity, it then becomes a challenge and finally a compulsion. Once hooked, there is no going back. Sudoku creeps into the consciousness and installs itself in the intellect until no blank square is safe. Just try to refrain from decorating the bathroom tiles.

Since Sudoku burst onto the scene a few months ago, it has revived coffee breaks, hijacked train journeys and left the latest chicklit and chiller thriller blockbusters on the shelf when it comes to the before-sleep must-do.

More...