su-bleedin-doku

[mindbullets]

im a reasonably intelligent man but for the life of me i cant complete a su-doku ,ive tried on numerous occasions but i can get 6-7 numbers and then i get stuck,

am i alone in this?

am i missing something?

 am i stupid ?

[acw]

I'm worse still - I haven't tried because I know I'm rubbish at number puzzles.  Don't forget that intelligence takes different forms.  My IQ is higher for verbal rather than non-verbal reasoning tests.  I'll bet your "scores" would be similarly ranked.  So no, you're not alone, no, you're not stupid.  We might be missing something, but I'm not worried about it! :-)

[rojash]

I'd never heard of it 'til I read your question.
Having now discovered what it is, I'd say: don't worry about it - I can't think of anything more boring or pointless.

[spudqueen]

What I do is go along each line working out the possibilities of where each number can go, starting from 1 of course. You usually get that each number can fit in more than one place, but then you work out one which can only go in one place. When I've done all the across lines then I start on the down lines. Eventually you end up with just one number missing either from a line or a grid. Keep at it, I'll do 2 out of 3, but it is quite easy to get them wrong!

As an example, if you buy todays Daily Mail and look at the first line across, number 2 can't go in the grid on the left or on the right (no2 is present in both of those), it can't be in the left hand corner of the middle grid because no2 is further down, so it must go in the middle of the middle grid.

[jno]

another tip: suppose in one row, or one box, you get two squares that can only be two numbers - say they can both only be 1 or 9. That means that no other square in that row/box can be 1 or 9, so you can cross off any other 1s and 9s in the row/box. That usually helps whittle the possibilities down.

[jno]

PS acw sudokus aren't really number puzzles. You don't have to count or add anything up. Doing it with the letters A to I or the Greek alphabet or Monopoly tokens would be just the same. It's just a mechanical (but enjoyable, for me) process of crossing things out.

[acw]

Good point jno - I should have said "I'm rubbish at mechanical problems".  I just prefer word games for "intellectual relaxation".  :-)

[landie]

i'm sorry you're having touble. the main thing to decide is where a number can't fit.

Try making a list of numbers at the side of each column and row which shows the outstanding digits required. not to forget the individual cells, which cannot have two similar digits.

[ratbag66]

I'm completely addicted to it!  I can complete one in about 5-10 minutes depending on difficulty, but I have always loved logic problems of any sort.

[Octavius]

Easy peasy, whats all the fuss about??

[jeepster]

A boy (aged 10) in my sons class did one in 5 minutes the other day! I haven't tried one yet so I don't know if I'm any good at it.

[Peter Pedant]

I took a very numerical computational view of this and tabulated all the possibilities for every square - there are never as many as nine possibilites.

then I noticed that there was always a square that had to be one number only - but the trick was to find it! And once that was filled in there was another one somewhere else which was only one possibility. So it was a bit mazy. I never try trial solutions = guess, unless there are only two possibilities and I am stuck but even that usually ends with also coming across a forced solution of only one, whch stands independently.

[lindapinda]

I love sudoku puzzles because they're logical and nothing to do with maths. Have to watch myself though,because once I start one,I won't do anything else until i've finished it,and that includes talking,watching t.v.or even using computer!

[clairelb]

I love sudoku and like lindapinda could probably spend all day doing these puzzles.  However, I think in the same way some people (like myself) just cannot get to grips with cryptic crosswords, there will be those out there who just cannot see the logic behind a sudoku puzzle. 

Octavius have you managed last Saturday’s Independent super sudoku, if you find them all easy.  A clue would be useful as I’m still trying to solve it

[nicolab6]

Try this link

http://www.sudoku.org.uk/PDF/Solving_Sudoku.pdf

It is a great document to explain the basic strategies.  As you do more you will get quicker and develop your own ways of doing them, but this definately gave me the headstart I needed.

[mindbullets]

thanks for all the replies ,very helpful ,i actually completed my first one last night ,now ive done one i think im gonna retire gracefully from the world of sudoku. 

[Lorcan]

Well Mindbullets, they say practice makes perfect so may I suggest www.websudoku.com?

As its keyboard operated you can easily delete any errors you make and there are skill grade categories.

That site links to an explanation (and tips) for sudoku at Wikipedia.

For my part I'd suggest that it's more important to work out where a number CAN'T be, rather than where it can. And I always start with the 'boxes' within the 9x9 grid.