No wonder

www.sudoku-of-the-day.com

Sudoku.

I learnt about this game when Republika first introduced it on its Sunday edition about two or three months ago. At first, I don't pay too much interest in it. I am the kind of person who doesn't like to follow fads without really knowing the joy beyond it.

However, curiousity and sense of competitiveness got the better of me. If everyone else can play this game, why can't I? So I gave it a try.

The instruction of the game says:
Fill the grid with digits from 1 to 9 in such a way that all rows, columns, and 3x3 squares have all digits.

Caution:
Repetition of each digit is not allowed in each row, column, and the subsquare.

Hm. Sounds easy. Yet, several first attempts to solve the game printed by Republika and the Jakarta Post did not bring satisfying result (meaning I couldn't finish it). I found the hardest sudoku to play was those on the Jakarta Post. Actually the newspaper has been doing a great job, posting new version of sudoku every day. I was fond of the Republika version of sudoku, nevertheless, because it was easier for me to solve. :P

About two days ago, when I once again tried to work my mind out solving another Republika's sudoku game, my eyes stumbled upon the instruction laid next to the game box: You must fill the cells in a such way so that all rows, columns and every 3-by-3 subsquare contains every digit from 1 to 9, with no repetition of each digit. And my mind was like crying out "Eureka!" All this time I had not read the instruction carefully and miss that particular part of the instruction! No wonder I got stuck when playing sudoku on the Jakarta Post!

Since then, I've been enjoying working on Jakarta Post's version of sudoku games (which are actually derived from this website). And what do you know, when I was browsing the Internet to search for a visual image of sudoku, I found out someone has made some illustrative strategies for solving sudoku. Actually I'd rather solve the game on my own. But hey, who knows one day I need some help to work on a helluva sudoku, a visit to the website might actually not do any harm.