How to play Sudoku? Check out tips and tricks for easy, medium and hard levels

Sudoku Puzzle Tips: Sudoku is one of the most popular puzzle games in the world that is both challenging and rewarding. We’ve all seen the printed version of Sudoku in newspapers and magazines.

Sudoku is published by a French newspaper called Number Place. It became popular in 1986 after it was published by the Japanese company Nikoli under the name Sudoku, which means a number. In 2004, Sudoku was published in The Times (London).

What is Sudoku?

Sudoku is a puzzle based on logic, the combinatorial arrangement of numbers. In Classic Sudoku, the goal is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits such that each row, each column, and each of the nine 3×3 subgrids make up the grid (also known as “boxes”, “blocks”) or “region”) contains all the digits from 1 to 9.

Sudoku puzzle difficulty level can be easy, medium, hard or very hard. The easier the puzzle, the more numbers are pre-filled in the grid. The more difficult the puzzle, the fewer numbers that are pre-filled in the grid.

Sudoku is a game of logic and reasoning and requires you to think carefully about the placement of each number. No math or math is required, but you must be able to see patterns and draw conclusions. Sudoku is a great way to improve your brain. It can help improve your memory, concentration, and problem-solving skills. It can also be very enjoyable and a great way to relax and de-stress.

How to play Sudoku?

The goal of Sudoku is to fill in the missing numbers in a 9×9 grid such that each row, column, and cell of the 3×3 section contains all the digits from 1 to 9 without repeating. Logic should be applied and some rules should be kept in mind:

(i) No row may contain more than the same number from 1 to 9

(ii) A column cannot contain more than one identical number from 1 to 9

(iii) No 3×3 grid can contain more than the same number from 1 to 9

Tips and tricks for beginners

1. Scan rows and columns

Start by scanning the rows and columns. Search for rows and columns with pre-populated numbers. For example, rows with close to 5 out of 9 numbers, or a 3×3 grid with 6 out of 9 pre-filled numbers is a good place to start. This helps you quickly and easily spot the missing numbers. Filling in these numbers will give you prompts and hints to find the missing numbers in the respective rows, columns, and grids.

2. Mark Sudoku with a pencil

Another systematic Sudoku solving strategy is pencil marking, which means you pencil in the possible numbers inside the cells after scanning the rows, columns, and grid. This helps you to recognize the combinations and then remove the numbers that don’t match the solution. Always use a pencil to solve Sudoku.

3. Mark each candidate

Where 8 out of 9 numbers are used in the surrounding rows, columns and grid, it is necessary to look closely and discover the unique missing number. Assume that 4 numbers have been filled in the 3×3 grid while two are used in the same row and two in the same column. This gives us an indication to conclude that only one candidate (digit) is the correct and remaining solution.

4. Removal method

The elimination process is another reasonable strategy for solving Sudoku where you analyze rows, columns, and grids and discover remaining candidates by eliminating numeric possibilities as they may already be filled. or not capabilities due to their placement in rows, columns, and grid environments.

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Let’s solve Sudoku

We will solve rows, columns and grids from a1 to i1, a2 to i2 and a3 to i3 to explain how to solve Sudoku puzzles.

  • We start with grid a1 to i3. After scanning through the rows and columns we have 1 in i2 and 2 in f3. So we will endure and move forward. Now we see that g2 has 3 and e3 has 3, so we conclude that c3, c2, b2 and a2 cannot have 3. So we put 3 in cell b1.
  • Moving on, we notice that a3 has 4 and 31 has 4. So, g1, i1, g3, h3, i3 can’t have 4. So we put 4 in h2.
  • Moving on, we notice that we have 5 in cell c1. However, we don’t see anything more than that. So we continue on. Then we see 6 in a1 and another 6 in cell f2. So, using the same logic as before, we conclude that g1, i1 and h2 cannot have 6 of them. Thus, the possibility of 6 remains in cells g3, h3, and i3. However, we don’t have a 6 in the surrounding columns, so we keep that possibility and move on.
  • Next, we only have 8 in cell h1. Moving on, we have 9 in b3 and another 9 in d2. So we play on this. This tells us that 9 cannot be placed in cells g3, h3, i3, and h2. We are left with the possibility of 9 in cells g1 or i1. Looking further down the columns, we see 9 in cells g4 and h7. So we further know that 9 cannot be placed in cell g1. So we will put 9 in cell i1.
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Currently, our Sudoku looks like this:

Solve Sudoku

  • Moving on, we revisit the numbers 1 through 9. Now we see that there is 2 in cell f3. Now, we rescan the rows and columns and see that there is a possibility that there are 2 other possible cells in cells a2, b2, c2 because there are already 2 in the 3×3 grid of cells d to f and cells g2, h2, i2 is filled.
  • Therefore, after horizontal scanning, we see that there is a 2 in cell b8, so we think that the number 2 can only be placed in cell a2 or c2. Moving on, we conclude that there is 1 in i2. After further scanning, we observed 1 in cells a4 and d6. So we’ve removed cells a1, d3, and e2 to put 1. We’ll put 1 in cell f1.
  • Then we notice that there is 5 in cell c1 so d1,f1,g1 can’t have 5. After removing we are left with e2 so we put 5 in cell e2 and keep the possibility of having 5 in cells g3, h3, and i3 .

Now our Sudoku looks like this:

Solve Sudoku

  • In cells a1 to i1, we are missing only one candidate in d1, which is 7. Next, 7 goes to cell g3 because looking at we see 7 in cells h6 and i7. Moving on, we conclude that 8 cannot go into g3 because there are 8 in cell h1 while cells a3, b3, c3 are already filled. So we put 8 in cell d3.
  • Now we have concluded that 7 is in d1 and 7 is in g3 so we can find the remaining 7. After scanning, we see that there is a 7 in cell b4 and another 7 in cell c9. Therefore, using the elimination method, we can put the remaining 7 in cell a2.
  • Now we go back to the other 2 cells, we see that cell b8 has 2 so we are left with cell c2. We put 2 in cell c2. Now we can fill in the only candidate left in cell b2 as 8. Now we are left with cells h3 and i3. These two cells can only be imagined after solving the remaining rows, columns and grids.
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Here we will share a solved Sudoku puzzle for you to learn and practice.

Solve Sudoku

See more quizzes to test your IQ

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Categories: Trends
Source: vcmp.edu.vn

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