Why Playing Sudoku Is Similar To Throwing Darts

The Sudoku enigma has hit wests society and newsprints with such a solid impact, that it has to be the puzzle game introduction of the century. But what is it that give rise to typing numbers into little squares so extraordinarily addictive?

One part of the equation has definitely to be obvious simplicity of the brainteaser. The directions of Sudoku are so easy to figure out that anyone can start gaming almost without delay.Yet mastering the game entail huge extent of playing and patience. A Sudoku mystery can also be made so tough that even a genius would probably have a hard time playing it.

Contrary to what many might think when they originally see a Sudoku riddle, this brain-teasing exercise doesn't require markedly high understanding of math. It is more a matter of logic and the digits could, in fact, be swapped with any other symbol.

Throwing darts and Sudoku

Most people have fond memories from their childhood, a time where we often manage to enjoy the simple things in life on a whole other level.

I have a memory of when I was a kid and we spent the summer months at our cottage in the country. One day my sibling and I found an old darts game - not like the elaborate ones they use in official dart competitions, but more of a rugged "outdoors" (or whatever the official term is) type of dartboard with numeral characters from one on the outside to ten in the bulls eye, and rather hefty and solid darts.

Neither of us where very good at throwing darts, so it was a good plan we hung the dart target on the outside wall of an old shed. After a while of throwing, I was able to to get quite a good score - 42 with five darts.

Luck had much to do with it of course, but now something very interesting happened. My sister could not quit before she had gotten at least the same score as me!

I think she fired away at that dart board for a matter of hours in a row, and had she been a person in a comic she would unquestionably have been portrayed with a thunder bank of clouds over her head, so to speak. It began to get dark before she finally had beaten my record and could allow herself to quit.

It is genuinely incredible to observe such determination.

Although having almost none to do with Sudoku puzzles per se, I think the same kind of driving energy is also in part responsible for the addictiveness of the Sudoku puzzle.

Most people love a competitive encounter, providing that there is in fact a to a certain degree credible chance to crop up "winning" in the end. When tackling a fittingly complex Sudoku enigma a participant can sometimes enter almost a meditative like state where he or she basically can't put down the pen before they have flattened the Sudoku challenge. Much in the same way as it developed in that dart game many years ago.

So as you see, the simple goal of breaking a record or solving a puzzle - although very basic things - can have a profound effect on a persons reactions.

This is all good, as Sudoku is a very low-cost hobby that definitely bestows a good work out for the brain.However, should something catch fire in the house or if someone is drowning - by all means put that Sudoku riddle aside for just a few minutes.

Charles Hawkins did actually not think Sudoku was anything for him. Once he tried it though, he was hooked and he now spreads the word and offers Sudoku hints on his web site http://www.sudokuhints.info