The History of Sudoku

Sudoku is a popular Japanese math puzzle that actually had its beginnings in America. It was invented in 1979 by an American named Howard Garns. The puzzles were published by Dell Magazines under the name "Number Place." The math logic puzzle of Sudoku became popular in 1986 in Japan and subsequently became an international phenomenon in 2005.

The name "Sudoku" is actually an abbreviation of a Japanese phrase that means "the digits must occur only once." The original publisher of the game in Japan is Nikoli Co. Ltd. Nikoli holds the trademark for the name Sudoku. Other publishers of the math logic puzzles refer to the game by its original U.S. name of Number Place.

In reality, Sudoku has its origins as far back as twelve hundred years. Records show that the idea of the mathematical squares made its way to the Arab world from China, probably through India in about the eighth century. Islamic literature of the late 9^th or early 10^th centuries shows the appearance of what was called the "Magic Square." Islamic medical literature suggests that these magic squares possessed charms for easing childbirth. These so called magic squares were made of nine cells. The numbers one through nine were arranged in the squares with five in the center. In this way the contents of each row, column and diagonal added up to 15. Subsequent constructions became so popular that they were eventually assigned talismanic properties.

What was to become Sudoku eventually made its way to Europe through Spain. A Hispano-Jewish philosopher and astrologer by the name of Ben Meir ibn Ezra is generally credited for introducing the squares to Europe. Ben Meir ibn Ezra was an Arabic to Hebrew translator who had an interest in numerology and traveled widely. Therefore, it appears likely that he was at least partly responsible for bringing knowledge of the mathematical squares to European awareness.

Arabic magic squares took a twist in medieval Europe with the creation of the Latin square. A Latin square is a square containing cells. Each cell contains rows and columns that have the same set of symbols. This differs from the Arabic magic square that has no repetition of symbols.

This ultimately leads us to Sudoku puzzles which are basically Latin squares. Sudoku puzzles add an additional restriction to the game. In Sudoku, each 3x3 subgroup within the puzzle must contain the digits one through nine. This is the standard type of puzzle that was published in the late 1970's in the United States. Japan's leading puzzle company, Nikoli, discovered the American puzzles in 1984 and began publishing them in Japan. By 1986, Nikoli added improvements by making symmetrical patterns and reducing the number of clues. They soon became the most popular puzzles in Japan.

The New York Post began making Sudoku puzzles a regular feature in April of 2005. By July of that year, Sudoku had spread to the rest of the United States. This has led to everything from Sudoku clubs to competitions to a game show. No wonder Sudoku is often called " the Rubik's cube of the 21^st Century."