Sudoku Strategy

Sudoku is an officially addictive game which is fast becoming a global pastime and phenomenon among puzzle enthusiasts. A Sudoku puzzle has an appeal around the globe, due to its simplicity and challenge. In this article, I discuss Sudoku strategy that will help beginners get a better hang of it and enjoy solving it even more. The simple Sudoku strategies for kids and older puzzle enthusiasts that are shared here will improve your speed of solving these puzzles.

Puzzles are a great way to break the rut that we get into. Our minds crave for challenges, and puzzles like Sudoku satisfy this need. Solving riddles and such puzzles like Sudoku are ways to exercise your brain and practice problem solving. Besides that, puzzles are a good way to cure boredom!

About Sudoku
A standard Sudoku puzzle, consists of a 9 x 9 square grid, which is partially filled with any of the numbers from 1 to 9. The whole grid is sub divided into nine boxes of 3 x 3 each. The objective of solving Sudoku is to fill every line, every row and every box, with all the numbers from 1 to 9 once. Sounds simple, doesn't it? You have to keep filling in numbers in the right positions, by looking at the numbers that have already been filled. That's the deal for solving the Sudoku puzzle, in a nutshell.

Sudoku is a well-known mathematical object and is known as a 'Latin Square' among mathematicians. A Latin square has to be filled with an ordered set of symbols, once in every row and column. A Sudoku puzzle has the extra condition that every box be filled with those symbols once.

Sudoku Solving Strategy For Beginners
Any kind of problem that we face, needs to have a good strategy to solve it. Strategy is a methodology of action, optimized in such a way, that the problem easily yields to a solution. Here are some principles of Sudoku solving strategy that will give you an insight into how you can go about solving it at lightning speed.

Loners Are the Easiest to Lick
Solving a Sudoku puzzle is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Every piece here is a number and it needs to be placed according to the rules, by observing the squares that are filled before. Every square can be filled with any of the numbers from 1 to 9. 'Loners' are unfilled squares which can be filled quite easily as all number choices, except one have been already eliminated! These loners are usually found in boxes, rows or columns that are almost totally filled. At the beginning itself, you'll find some loner squares. Find such squares and fill them up quickly.

Go for One Square At a Time
Once you eliminate the loners, next go after one square at a time. Observe the row, column and box associated with every square. All the numbers that have been filled in that row, column and box, can be safely eliminated. This strategy is the most basic. All you have to do is decide what number to fill into one square at a time. Go for squares in densely number populated regions of the grid first!

Keep a List of Possible Choices
There will be squares for which the number choices are difficult to eliminate. Make a list of these numbers for every square and keep the list in handy. It will help you in eliminating choices later.

Every Filled Square Reduces Uncertainty
Every filled square eliminates choices for other squares and decreases the uncertainty. Check if filling any square reduces the choices from the list you make for every square. These simple strategies will make its easy for you to solve Sudoku. As you keep solving and graduate to tougher grids, you'll develop your own advanced Sudoku strategies from experience.

All it takes is a watchful eye for number patterns and a zest for completing this number jigsaw puzzle!