Sudoku is quite an addictive puzzle game and probably, one of the very few good addictions to have. However, there are a lot of lesser-known facts about it. So, let’s look at the most surprising ones about Sudoku puzzles.
- It’s American invented
Howard Garns is credited for the creation of Number Place in 1979. He was a freelance puzzle constructor and also a retired architect from Connersville, Indiana. Unfortunately, at the age of 74 and in 1989, Howard passed away even before the game gained popularity. Japanese publisher Nikoli later got a hold of the game and named it Sudoku.
- The name has a Japanese origin
Nikoli introduced the game to the Japanese audience in 1984 as “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru” implying, “The digits are limited to one occurrence.” Thankfully, it was shortened to just Sudoku (数独), where Su means number and Doku means single.
- It went viral in the west in 2004
Wayne Gould, a retired Hong Kong judge, was the man who introduced Sudoku to the Western world. He devoted six years to develop a computer program that rapidly produced unique Sudoku puzzles. Because of this effort, Sudoku first appeared in The Conway Daily Sun, and then in The Times newspapers in 2004, paving the way for the popularity of these puzzles in the States.
- The first-ever championship was in 2006
Once the game gained traction in several parts of the words, the very first World Sudoku Championship was held in Italy. This was hosted by the World Puzzle Federation, where Jana Tylová from the Czech Republic was the winner.
- It’s not a math game; there are no calculations involved
The best part of Sudoku is that it sometimes doesn’t even come in numbers, but in letters, pictures, or symbols. Sudoku is certainly based on a 1782 mathematical concept, but it’s a pure logic game. A Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler, developed the idea of organizing numbers in a way that they’d occur only once in a row or column. However, it was not until Howard Garns slightly modified this concept, that the Number Place became famous in 1979.
Final Words…
Sudoku is a great time-pass and also quite a challenging game to play. From being just a pen-and-paper game, it has evolved to capture the smart device market and, in fact, also counts for championships.
Quite possibly, these exciting facts might spark your interest in trying out a Sudoku puzzle. If they do – try this Sudoku free mobile app by Easybrain, one of the top-rated mobile game developers on the Google Play Store. The app comes with 10,000+ different Sudoku puzzles to keep you engrossed in finding the missing numbers. It’s a marvelous app that also offers customizable themes, four different difficulty levels, exciting rewards, and the chance to hone your logical skills. You just need practice, patience, and dedication to complete each level. With time, you’ll master all the techniques and start enjoying this game of numbers.
Wait no more, install the Sudoku free puzzle app right away!
