Johannes from PuzLogical.com pointed me to a puzzle called MinuPlu which is the same like KenKen (another Sudoku variant).

The rules for Minuplu are almost as simple as Sudoku or KenKen. All cells of a MinuPlu have to be filled in with numbers. The possible numbers range from 1 to the size of the MinuPlu. For example, in a 4×4 MinuPlu there are the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each number must appear exactly once in each row and each column.

However, in contrast to Sudoku, there are no blocks where this must be [Read More...]

Oh noes! The puzzle craze of 2006 is ruined. It’s fiendish, it may even be diabolical, and it’s the solution to Sudoku. To the outrage of the puzzle fans, an American computer scientist will tomorrow reveal a formula for solving any Sudoku problem, no matter how difficult.

The Crook algorithm is the first mathematical proof of how to solve the puzzle. Not even Howard Garns, the Indianapolis architect who devised Sudoku in 1979, could promise that.

For better or worse, reports of the the death of Sudoku through the works of James Crook are greatly exaggerated.

If you’re not familiar [Read More...]

How to kill a hobby and create another one, just put LEGO Mindstorms NXT and Sudoku together.

This Lego robot solves 200 Sudoku’s puzzles in 30 minutes with just Lego, a webcam and some code. That’s just 9 seconds per Sudoku puzzle. Although the iPhone application Sudoku Grab seems to be much more efficient, this Lego Robot is just another great invention. You can watch a video of the Lego Sudoku Killer solving Sudoku puzzles at YouTube. Happy Puzzling!

Tags: Lego | Sudoku

Math has helped place a man on the moon and has counted the genes in our DNA.

But never mind all that. A mathematician says he has finally produced something that people really care about: a foolproof way to beat Sudoku puzzles.

“Sudoku has become the passion of many people the world over,” says computer scientist J. F. Crook of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., in the current Notices of the American Mathematical Society. “The interesting fact about Sudoku is that it is a trivial puzzle to solve.”

Not everyone would agree. Since the introduction of the numerical puzzle [Read More...]

Sudoku Grab is a brilliant application for Sudoku lovers with an iPhone.

With Grab Sudoku you can take a photo from any Sudoku puzzle (e.g. news paper, Sudoku puzzle book etc.). Grab Sudoku will automatically make a copy of the Sudoku grid that fits perfectly on your iPhone screen and also recognize all the numbers. Now you’ll have the option to solve the Sudoku yourself on your iPhone or let you can let your iPhone solve the Sudoku in a split second for you.

This is the perfect application to store Sudoku’s on [Read More...]

MathDoku is yet another interesting Sudoku variant.

The games at MathDoku are is loosely similar to killer Sudoku and based on the same rules of Kenken, an educational puzzle invented by Tetsuya Miyamoto in Japan. MathDoku games go by a number of names including KenKen, KenDoKu, kenduko, cancan, square wisdom, minuplu, calcudoku, Math Sudoku and latincalc. It is also slightly similar to a crossword or jigsaw puzzle since it requires trial and error to solve.

MathDoku features games in 4×4, 6×6, and 8×8 tables and each have difficulties ranging from easy, medium, hard, and no-op [Read More...]

Strip Sudoku is yet another Sudoku variant by ThePhoenix and has nothing to do with the Poker version with the same name.

Just fill each square in this grid with a digit from 1 to 9 so that, as in a standard Sudoku, no digit is repeated in any row, column, or 3×3 box (as marked off by shading in the grid). Each three-square strip (marked by heavy black lines) contains an S, M, and L-marked square, which stand for small, medium, and large. The S will be the smallest of the three digits in its strip, [Read More...]