Sudoku is a challenging logic-based puzzle that has become a worldwide sensation in recent years. Many Sudoku players want to know the story of this addictive puzzle. This article will describe the origins of the puzzle, how it became so popular, and where we can hope the story of sudoku will take us tomorrow.

Magic squares

The Sudoku story begins here … with the magic square. Magic squares are a group of numbers arranged in a square. Within this square, each row, column, and often the diagonal will equal the same total number … as if by magic.

Magic squares are old enough to be legendary; two separate cultures claim to be its origin.

King Yih (an ancient Chinese book) tells of the legend of Lo Shu. According to the story, the “river god” demanded 15 sacrifices and communicated this demand by spitting out a turtle with a magic square on its back … all the numbers miraculously equal 15 in any order.

The Corpus of Jabirean, Islamic writings compiled in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, is also cited as the earliest recorded appearance of the magic square. The writings say that magic squares (known as wafq in Arabic) can facilitate childbirth.

Magic squares really have little in common with Sudoku puzzles, and their story is more entertaining than important to our study. They may look similar … but that’s it. There is no arithmetic involved when solving sudoku, and the numbers don’t even have to be used (a puzzle maker could use colors, fruits, letters … whatever; the puzzle could still be solved).

I mention magic squares here for a reason; led to the creation of the next step in our journey … the Plaza Latina.

Latin squares

Latin squares are a device used in statistical analysis and also in multiplication tables. The Latin square must have the same set of symbols in each row and each column, and any number can appear only once in each row or column. This makes Latin squares more closely related to modern sudoku.

Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician, is credited with creating the Latin Square in 1782 or 1783. His article, entitled “Investigations into a New Species of Magic Square,” was the first appearance of the Latin Square. The document was based on Euler’s extensive research on the Magic Square, including the document entitled “On Magic Squares” presented to the Saint Petersburg Academy in 1776.

It is important to note that Euler did not view his creation as any kind of puzzle, and many rules that sudoku puzzle creators now follow are not necessary in creating Latin Squares.

“Number Place”: Sudoku is gaining popularity

In 1979, Dell Magazine published the first ‘sudoku’ puzzle (not yet called that) in its Pencil Puzzles and Word Games magazine. They titled it “Place Number.” The Plaza Latina is said to be the inspiration for “Number Place”.

The designer of the puzzle is not registered, but there are two theories. One names Walter Mackey, one of Dell’s puzzle builders.

However, Will Shortz (New York Times puzzle editor) used a rather impressive deduction to name an alternate possibility. Shortz went through the list of contributors in various Dell magazines, noting a single name that was always present when a Number Place puzzle was published, and absent otherwise.

That one name alone is Howard Garnes, a retired architect and freelance puzzle builder.

How sudoku got its name

The Japanese company Nikoli published the puzzle for the first time in Japan. This happened in April 1984 and was published in the “Monthly Nikolist” newspaper. The original title was ‘Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru’. Kaji Maki, the president of Nikoli, later narrowed it down to “Sudoku”, which translates to “number of singles” or “unique number”.

Additionally, Nikoli was the first to add two new rules that make Sudoku what it is today: First, puzzle creators cannot give more than 32 clues in each puzzle. Second, each puzzle must be “symmetrical.”

Another interesting fact to keep in mind: Nikoli has the registered trademark on the Sudoku name in the country of Japan. All competitors in Japan must title their puzzles differently to avoid copyright infringement.

Sudoku and computers

Computers helped in the explosion of the sudoku craze. How? They allowed the ability to create unique puzzles quickly and without much human effort or error.

Loadstar / Softdisk released the first home computer version of Sudoku in 1989 for the Commodore 64. It was titled “Digihunt” and is still available to this day.

But the real insanity began under the tutelage of Wayne Gould.

Wayne Gould, a retired judge and computer programmer from Hong Kong, developed a computer program to create sudoku games quickly. Gould accomplished this feat over a 6-year period of time (1997 to 2003).

Showing a cunning marketing mind, Gould asked The Times, a British newspaper, to include his puzzle for free. The only downside: they had to include his web address on every puzzle he submitted. The Times agreed and published “Su Doku” on November 12, 2004.

The Sudoku blast

The inclusion of Sudoku in the Times set off an international craze. Now, Sudoku is a household name. There are websites, online forums, blogs, articles, and all kinds of products dedicated to Sudoku. It would be difficult to find a major newspaper that does not include the puzzle on a daily basis.

The future of Sudoku

One question remains to be asked. Is madness just a fad?

That is hard to say. If you use Google’s Zeitgeist 2007 year-end review as a bookmark, then the demand for sudoku may be declining. In fact, it ranks eighth on the list of fastest-dropping search terms.

But the newspapers keep printing new puzzles at breakneck speeds, new Sudoku books are published every month, Sudoku tips abound on the Internet, and thousands of people can’t get enough of the challenging puzzle.

So what does this all mean? Nobody knows it for sure. One can only hope that the story of sudoku spreads into the future … keeping all of us focused on the missing numbers, pencils clenched in hand.