by ailiina

Created on: November 18, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

Most people think that Sudoku requires some special math skills, but when you start playing you find that it is very simple. I was one of those people who thought that you had to be good at math to enjoy the game of Sudoku. Until one day in my ROTC class towards the end of the semester we did not really have anything to do and one of my classmates was doing a Sudoku puzzle and the ROTC teacher was curious and asks so how do you play that game anyways? So my classmate starts teaching how to play it is actually a very simple and fun game of logic and helps you concentrate. There is only one rule that I can think of when playing Sudoku: You must fill up the puzzle with the numbers 1 through 9, it must come up only once in each row, column and each box section. The numbers are all mixed up so it can be a little tricky and no need to worry about diagonal because they do not count. The Sudoku puzzle will start with a few numbers scattered around your board they cannot be changed. The point of the game is to complete the puzzle by filling the empty slots. I find that the simplest way of solving a Sudoku puzzle is what some people would call the scan techniques. With the scan technique all you have to do is count. Select a row, column or box and count the numbers in the cell and find the missing numbers. Although sometimes this method does not work so well due to the fact that sometimes majority of the numbers are missing so it doesn't help that you have no clue where to put the numbers that you just have identified. I usually look around at the rows, columns or boxes that surround the portion of the puzzle that I am working on to help me figure out which number goes where. Make sure you use a pencil because I know I make a few mistakes and if you are using a pen then it makes it messy and hard to work out the puzzle. Try starting with easier Sudoku puzzles so you can get used to the game, while advancing to the more difficult Sudoku puzzles you cannot use the scanning technique. I am not sure which technique you should use because I am still in the easy puzzles because it has not been very long since my classmate taught us in class. The further you are in the puzzle the more the numbers will fall into place. Good luck, have fun and remember to concentrate!

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