
Like chess, it encourages you to think a few steps ahead to your next move, which is a good exercise for the brain.
#Jigsaw sudoku how to#
> Read “ Fun Handheld and Video Games for Seniors ”įind out more about how to play sudoku for beginners, why it’s a great game for seniors, some tips for playing it, and more you should know. Variations of the puzzle first appeared in the 19th century, then reappeared again in 2004 in The Times of London, where it enjoyed a renaissance as a fun brain game. In the example grid, six of the nine 7s are already given to you.Sudoku, which has gained in popularity in the past dozen or so years, actually originates long before that, and not from where you might expect.Īlthough “sudoku” is a Japanese word (meaning “digit single”), it got that name only around 1986. As with standard sudoku, have a quick look through for the numbers that occur most frequently in the start position and see if you can make any instant progress as a result.This restricts where the 3 can go in column 4 to only two places (its 5th and 6th squares) and so we should pencilmark that accordingly. This in turn means none of the other squares in that light-green region can contain a 3. That restricts the 3 in column 1 to one of the four squares in the green region at the top-left of the grid. This pink region shares fully five of its squares with column one. For instance, in the example grid, there is a given 3 at the bottom-left of the grid in the pink region. You will often need to follow through the implications of what you spot to make progress.
At the start of the puzzle, take a good look at the shape of the jigsaw regions, and see if you can spot any jigsaw regions that share many of their squares with a row or column as this can often bear fruit quickly by reducing possible locations for any of its givens in that shared region. Here are a few strategy tips to help you solve these puzzles: Strategy and Solving Tips for Jigsaw Sudoku Puzzles If you'd like to have a go at solving the sample jigsaw sudoku shown above, then you can! Simply click this link to play it with our Online Jigsaw Sudoku Puzzle Player It is one of the more commonly seen sudoku variants that exist. It is also known as jigsawdoku, irregular sudoku and no doubt has various other names too. The beauty of jigsaw sudoku is that there are a huge range of different grid patterns possible, and many of these have a unique character of their own dictated by their geometry: whereas every sudoku grid is exactly the same, the pattern of a jigsaw sudoku varies from puzzle to puzzle and can have a large impact on how the puzzle solves.īecause of the irregular shaped nature of the regions, it is easy to see how the puzzle got its name jigsaw sudoku. We often miss deductions that we would spot easily if the grid had its more familiar shape as per regular sudoku grids. This is partly because it is harder for the human eye to work with the wiggly, irregular-shaped regions that replace the orderly 3x3 boxes in standard sudoku puzzles. However, jigsaw sudoku are generally trickier to solve than standard sudoku. The rules of jigsaw sudoku are very simple, as with standard sudoku itself. Here is an image of the start position of a jigsaw sudoku puzzle: Place the numbers from 1-9 once in each row, column and bold-lined jigsaw region. The rules of jigsaw sudoku are as follows: