Sudoku has a fascinating history. "Su" means number in Japanese, and "Doku" refers to the single place on the puzzle board that each number can fit into. It also connotes someone who is single—indeed, one way to describe the game is "Solitaire with numbers." Sometimes it is mis-spelled as "soduko" or "sudoko." Although its name is Japanese, its origins are actually European and American, and the game represents the best in cross-cultural fertilization. Unlike many games which spring from one culture and are then absorbed by others, Sudoku's development reveals it to be a true hybrid creation.

Sudoku requires no calculation or arithmetic skills. It is essentially a game of placing numbers in squares, using very simple rules of logic and deduction. It can be played by children and adults and the rules are simple to learn.

Number puzzles and logic puzzles have been around for a very, very long time. Ever since mathematics was discovered/invented, people have been trying to come up with ways to make it less desperately smack-your-head-on-the-wall boring. The first known fill-in-the-grid type puzzle was published in 1892 in Paris.

Most of this type of number puzzle require arithmetic to solve. Seeing as people hate arithmetic, another version, more similar to Sudoku, was first created in Paris in only 1895, in which you did not have to add, subtract, multiply, divide, but simply use all nine digits. You thought Sudoku was Japanese because of the crazy name and that, in theory, Asian cultures value and enjoy mathematics more than contemporary western culture. You were wrong.

The actual, modern-day version of what we would call Sudoku was first published in 1979 in America! It was in Dell Magazine and called Number Place. In 1984, it was introduced in Japan and, shortly thereafter, given the name we know it under today, Sudoku. Sudoku then had to make its way back from Japan around 2004/2005 before becoming the popular semi-sport we know and love today in Britain and America.

Did you know, that there are 6 670 903 752 021 072 936 960 9 × 9 Sudoku grids…