Masyu - A new puzzle claims the BBC read »The BBC posted an interesting 'human interest' story on their web site about Masyu and the Father of Sudoku, Maki Kaji. We wanted to point out that Masyu has been in our portfolio of puzzles for 18 months ;-)
Sudoku The Song, by Peter Levy
You've seen sudoku in newspapers, books, calendars and even on popcorn cans, so it was the next logical step to set it to music. That's what Aussie singer/songwriter Pete Levy has managed to achieve with his recording of Sudoku. In a Down-Under country style reminiscent of Johnny Cash, Pete's new song has one of those lyrics and a tune that just gets stuck in your head. But if you feel you can take the risk and don't mind humming the chorus of Sudoku for the rest of the day, check Pete's site at www.peterlevy.com.au where you'll find an audio sampler.
Try your hand at the new Killer Sudokus read »It may be rash to release a new tough variant of Sudoku on April Fool's Day, but its real enough, not a hoax. You might have seen this puzzle in some newspapers, especially here in the UK. So we're very pleased to bring this version to you on a daily basis. Do let us know how you get on. We've opened a new forum discussion area for this puzzle.
David McCrea Crowned Asahi Pure Logic Sudoku Champion read »
David McCrea, a maths graduate from Beckenham, has beaten more than 100 contestants to become the Asahi Pure Logic Sudoku Champion.
On Saturday 18 February, Asahi, the premium Japanese lager, gathered Sudoku fans from across the UK at The Freemason's Arms pub in Covent Garden for the Asahi Pure Logic Sudoku Championship.
"Sudoku" is 7th most popular
web search in 2005 read »
It will come as no surprise to readers just how popular sudoku has become on the web. And this week the proof of the phenomenon hit UK television screens when Channel 4 broadcast a 5-day series of The 100 Hottest Web Searches 2005. Sudoku.org.uk founder Michael Mepham was the expert among a collection of celebrities asked for their thoughts on the success of sudoku in the UK.
Now our Daily Sudoku is
You vs. The Rest of the World read »So you think you have a winning way with sudoku? Never been known to fail to solve even the most difficult puzzles?
Well know you have the opportunity to prove your superior skill in our Hall of Fame. The Daily Sudoku gives you the chance of a small daily prize of a best-selling book of sudoku by Michael Mepham, and now displays your solving record in a list that is updated each day.
Entries come from every part of the globe each day and you have the opportunity to pit your skills against the best in the USA, United Kingdom, Poland, Malaysia, Canada, India, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Germany. These are just some of the countries where sudoku solvers have dispatched their winning entries from.
Want to see how your record is for solutions? Now you can check your personal record and see where you went wrong if you failed. Just a click of the mouse and you can see how you fared day by day.
If you missed a puzzle or its solution, there's a 30-day calendar-style archive. And another recent innovation for the competition is changing grades of difficulty - as the week progresses, so too does the level of difficulty. But if you still want your Gentle puzzle it's still there for non-competitors.
For solvers who love a challenge, we present a Daily Jigsaw Sudoku. These puzzles are tough as unlike Killer sudoku there's no extra help from sums and known combinations - just good ol' sudoku rules!
Sudoku for PC sets the standard read »
 The Sudokulist for PC has set a standard for all other sudoku game programs to aim for. The software provides a superb way of solving sudoku by your own logic skills, and includes 2,000 of Michael Mepham puzzles and just about every conceivable method of solving logic. It's superb value. See the extensive list of features and try it free, before you buy it or purchase for £9.87 ($17.80) at Sudoku FREE trial.
Farewell to Ariadne's thread? read »SUDOKU PUZZLES that may have required trial and error are no longer included among the Diabolical grades produced by Michael Mepham.
In an article that lays out the reason why they were produced, despite some criticism from so-called sudoku "purists", Mepham also explains why they can now be included among the sudoku curiosities of history.
Read his article here.
Win a trip to Japan in UK sudoku championship read »
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In February 2006 someone will be crowned the first UK Sudoku Champion in the Asahi Pure Logic Sudoku Championship.
Japan's leading beer producer is looking for Great Britain's top Sudokulist in a UK-wide competition. However, it is not just the inaugural UK championship title that is up for grabs, there is also a star prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan. |
| Application forms will be available from your pub landlord | | |
Now win books with sudoku read »Solvers now have a new daily sudoku puzzle competition that offers prizes of the new best-selling Daily Telegraph Sudoku 2 books published by Macmillan.
Each day a prizewinner from anywhere in the world will receive a copy of the the book in this free-to-enter competition sponsored jointly by Macmillan Publishers and sudoku.org.uk.
The competitition is open to everyone and a new puzzle is published each day, changing at midnight GMT. Large, printable grids make the job easy for solvers. And for those who may find the competition puzzle too daunting a second, gentle sudoku is available on the same page, but is not part of the competition.
Big sudoku problem read »
A publicity stunt to announce Sky TV's new sudoku game show resulted in red faces all round, when it was discovered that a giant sudoku carved into a hillside is invalid and has 1,905.
Hand-held sudoku devices fail to come up to consumer expectations read »Hand-held electronic sudoku games are disappointing purchasers who write to sudoku.org.uk. While we are not a consumer organisation, the number of emails we receive that warn or complain about these electronic devices has reached disturbing levels.
New official body for sudokuThe seeds for an official Sudoku organisation have been sown with the setting up of the International Sudoku Organisation (InSO). The growing need for a governing body to preside over sudoku competitions and tournaments has been recognised as sudoku has rapidly turned into a competitive game. There are already speed-solving challenges around the UK, but as the game has developed so has the need for a regulating body to set game rules and to adjudicate at competitions, especially where prizes are at stake. The aim of the organisation will be to regulate, organise, promote, administer and foster the game of sudoku in the UK and internationally.
As a first step towards the aim of having a single governing body for the game, Michael Mepham has made www.sudoku.org.uk available as the official organ of InSO. The organisation will eventually be funded by subscription from its membership and administered by a democratically elected board of directors.
A sponsored national league tournament is in the process of being organised and this competition will be regulated and adjudicated by InSO. Details of this competition will be announced on www.sudoku.org.uk in the near future.
Membership will be primarily required for entrance into InSO regulated tournaments and competitions, but other benefits, such as free puzzles and discounted sudoku merchandise will also be available. Individuals and organisations interested in becoming members or forming InSO chapters should contact Michael Mepham at inso@sudoku.org.uk.
"Unsolvable" sudoku makes a comeback read »While all Michael Mepham's diabolical puzzles are now guaranteed to be solvable by known logic techniques (see Goodbye Ariadne's Thread)), the so-called "unsolvable" diabolical grade puzzles have found a place on sodoku.org.uk. These puzzles are presented as a challenge to the sudoku experts and at the request of many fans. Find them at The unsolvable sudoku.
*** New puzzles posted November 14, 2005.
Your feedback is appreciatedA new "Feedback" form has been added to the site as a measure to help organise the growing amount of email received by sudoku.org.uk staff. The link appears in the Menu on each page. Keep the feedback coming: it all helps to improve the website.
Los Angeles Times first on West Coast with sudoku read » Sudoku rack cards announced the arrival of sudoku in Los Angeles
When approximately 2.5m daily readers of the Los Angeles Times opened the pages of their favourite newspaper and discovered Sudoku the last thing on their minds would have been obsession. However, within days of the little logic puzzle appearing, Californian solvers were reporting on the sudoku.org.uk forum that they'd been hooked.
LA Times reader Steve Marks told us "Well, I guess all it took was one day... because now I am hooked on sudoku. I've been solving puzzles non-stop for the last 5 hours, starting with the one in the LA Times this morning."
That wasn't enough for this solver: "I quickly proceeded to the website for more archived puzzles and I just finished my first diabolical puzzle. I've got to say I'm feeling pretty good right now," said Steve.
While the LA Times was not the first newspaper in the US to have rediscovered the puzzle this year, it was the first in California. In the run-up to the sudoku launch, readers were made aware of the puzzle in no uncertain terms with feature articles, advertisements in the newspaper and rack cards for newsagents throughout the city.
See also Comment
Stuck on that sudoku? Now help is at hand...When we first saw it, we knew we had to have it for sudoku.org.uk. MM Multimedia's new Sudoku Assistant is the tool that every solver will try not to use.
The Sudoku Assistant is not something that churns out a solution in milliseconds, but is a software that will allow you to step through your solving process number by number. If you are learning the more difficult strategies, you can see where twins and other logic schemes might get you past a sticking point.
Later versions and more explanations about how this helper works can be found on www.sudoku.org.uk/sudoku.htm
Sudoku goes international
In the past couple of weeks sudoku has spread out from the UK to leading newspapers in most of the major cities around the world. Daily newspapers in Australia, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Canada and the USA have been the first to offer the addictive puzzle to their readers.
As more newspapers and magazines have taken up the sudoku challenge, so the number of visitors to this site has increased. On June 1, our busiest day ever, nearly 600,000 pages were requested. The Solving Sudoku document has been downloaded by over 160,000 visitors from all parts of the world.
While the media hype in the UK may have died down, there has still been huge growth in both UK and international interest in the puzzle from where it matters - sudoku solvers.
As the marketing men would say, this is a consumer-led rather than media-led phenomenon. Solvers across the world are saying "Sudoku, we love you".
New Forum for Solvers read » "Sudoku discussions" is a new forum that will provide a medium for you and other Telegraph sudoku solvers to exchange the views, ideas and opinions that, until now, have been channelled through our e-mail inbox. Topics include the Telegraph's puzzles, Addicted to sudoku, Spreadsheets and applications and Tips and tricks. Join in on this lively discussion board now at Sudoku discussions.
Solvers make their own contribution read »Sudoku solvers have been writing to tell us just how much they are enjoying the new puzzle. Spurred on by our solving strategies, readers are contributing their own advice for finding that elusive solution..
It's official: Sudoku is a phenomenon (it must be - we were on Newsnight)The television world has caught up with news that sudoku is a newspaper phenomenon.
Telegraph puzzle compiler Michael Mepham spent the day rushing from one TV studio to the next, spreading the word
and assisting news reporters in their attempts to solve their puzzles on air. Sky News had a special sort of torture lined up for Michael with an unrehearsed, live, solving.
BBC2's Newsnight's report was a studied piece on the place of the puzzle in the drive for circulation and readership retention. Reporter Greg Neale interviewed a number of national newspaper executives, who were all in accord on one thing: sudoku, like the crossword, is a phenomenon and it looks as though it's here to stay.
Michael was brought in to the programme as the sudoku expert -- the "sudokulist" according to Jeremy Paxman -- to explain the puzzle's finer points.
You can read the report, do their puzzle and see the recorded Newsnight item online here.
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Total Sudoku The sudoku book that solvers have been asking for is now available across the USA.
Total sudoku from Time Inc Home Entertainment is packed with 200 Michael Mepham sudoku puzzles with big grids and quality paper. Total Sudoku has your 9x9 favourites and bonus circular sudoku and 16x16 puzzles. At bookstores and newstands throughout the USA for $10.99 or less.
Sudokulist on NEWSNIGHT Telegraph puzzle compiler Michael Mepham explains a sudoku to Newsnight reporter Greg Neale.This week the television world caught up with news that sudoku has become a newspaper phenomenon. Telegraph puzzle compiler Michael Mepham spent the day rushing from one TV studio to the next, spreading the word.
The DT EXTREME SUDOKU See the solution to the 3-D sudoku puzzle published on May 21, and discover who won the Champagne here. You can download the puzzle as a PDF file now, but be prepared to use up some sudoku worksheets and have a pencil and rubber to hand.
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