Editing Sudoku (section)

==History==
{{more sources section|date=April 2025}}
[[File:Sudoku.jpg|thumb|upright|From ''La France'' newspaper, July 6, 1895: The puzzle instructions read, "Use the numbers 1 to 9 nine times each to complete the grid in such a way that the horizontal, vertical, and two main diagonal lines all add up to the same total."]]

===Predecessors===
Number puzzles appeared in newspapers in the late 19th century, when French puzzle setters began experimenting with removing numbers from [[magic square]]s. ''[[Le Siècle]]'', a Paris daily, published a partially completed 9×9 magic square with 3×3 subsquares on November 19, 1892.<ref name="Le_Siècle_185672">{{cite journal
|last=Boyer
|first=Christian
|date=May 2006
|title=Supplément de l'article "Les ancêtres français du sudoku"
|journal=Pour la Science
|pages=1–6
|url=http://cboyer.club.fr/multimagie/SupplAncetresSudoku.pdf
|access-date=August 3, 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210103525/http://cboyer.club.fr/multimagie/SupplAncetresSudoku.pdf
|archive-date=December 10, 2006
|language=fr
}}</ref> It was not a Sudoku because it contained double-digit numbers and required arithmetic rather than logic to solve, but it shared key characteristics: each row, column, and subsquare added up to the same number.

On July 6, 1895, ''Le Siècle''{{'s}} rival, ''[[La France (French newspaper)|La France]]'', refined the puzzle so that it was almost a modern Sudoku and named it {{lang|fr|carré magique diabolique}} ('diabolical magic square'). It simplified the 9×9 magic square puzzle so that each row, column, and [[broken diagonal]]s contained only the numbers 1–9, but did not mark the subsquares. Although they were unmarked, each 3×3 subsquare did indeed comprise the numbers 1–9, and the additional constraint on the broken diagonals led to only one solution.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=August 3, 2009|archive-date=October 10, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010081626/http://cboyer.club.fr/multimagie/English/SudokuAncestors.htm|first=Christian|language=fr|last=Boyer|publisher=(personal webpage)|title=Sudoku's French ancestors|url=http://cboyer.club.fr/multimagie//English/SudokuAncestors.htm|year=2007}}</ref>

These weekly puzzles were a feature of French newspapers such as ''[[L'Écho de Paris]]'' for about a decade, but disappeared about the time of [[World War I]].<ref name=L>{{cite news |first=Jack |last=Malvern |title=Les fiendish French beat us to Su Doku |newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=June 3, 2006 |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/les-fiendish-french-beat-us-to-su-doku-mrqqshlsjcg |access-date=2024-10-02}}</ref>

===Modern Sudoku===
The modern Sudoku was most likely designed anonymously by [[Howard Garns]], a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from [[Connersville, Indiana]], and first published in 1979 by [[Dell Magazines]] as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku).<ref name=" time magazine"/> Garns' name was always present on the list of contributors in issues of ''Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games'' that included Number Place and was always absent from issues that did not.<ref name="Garns">{{cite web |url=http://www.mathpuzzle.com/MAA/41-Sudoku%20Variations/mathgames_09_05_05.html |title=Ed Pegg Jr.'s Math Games: Sudoku Variations |access-date=October 3, 2006 |last=Pegg |first=Ed Jr. |date=September 15, 2005 |work=MAA Online |publisher=[[The Mathematical Association of America]]}}</ref> He died in 1989 before getting a chance to see his creation as a worldwide phenomenon.<ref name="Garns"/> Whether or not Garns was familiar with any of the French newspapers listed above is unclear.

The puzzle was introduced in Japan by {{nihongo|[[Maki Kaji]]|鍜治 真起|Kaji Maki}}, president of the [[Nikoli (publisher)|Nikoli]] puzzle company, in the paper ''Monthly Nikolist'' in April 1984<ref name="Garns"/> as {{nihongo|'' Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru''|数字は独身に限る|}}, which can be translated as "the digits must be single", or as "the digits are limited to one occurrence" (In Japanese, ''dokushin'' means an "unmarried person"). The name was later abbreviated to ''Sudoku'' (数独), taking only the first [[kanji]] of compound words to form a shorter version.<ref name="Garns"/> "Sudoku" is a registered trademark in Japan<ref name="jp_trademark_5056856">{{cite web |url=https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/web/TR/JPT_5056856/F9A8AC1B402D5E9F6E7B4E7246A6CE85 |title=Reg. No. 5056856 |work=Japanese Trademark 5056856 |access-date=October 3, 2018 |publisher=Japan Platform for Trademark Information}}</ref> and the puzzle is generally referred to as {{nihongo|Number Place|ナンバープレース|Nanbāpurēsu}} or, more informally, a shortening of the two words, {{nihongo|Num(ber) Pla(ce)|ナンプレ|'' Nanpure''}}. In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 32, and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in [[Rotational symmetry|rotationally symmetric cells]]). It is now published in mainstream Japanese periodicals, such as the ''[[Asahi Shimbun]]''.

=== Spread outside Japan ===

In 1997, Hong Kong judge [[Wayne Gould]] saw a partly completed puzzle in a Japanese bookshop. Over six years, he developed a computer program to produce unique puzzles rapidly.<ref name=Smith />

The first newspaper outside of Japan to publish a Sudoku puzzle was ''[[The Conway Daily Sun]]'' (New Hampshire), which published a puzzle by Gould in September 2004.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/business/worldbusiness/21sudoku.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq&st=cse%22Conway%20Daily%20Sun&scp=1%22%202004%20gould |title=Correction attached to "Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace" |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 21, 2007 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-rise-and-rise-of-sudoku-5336007.html |title=The rise and rise of Sudoku |website=[[The Independent]] |author=<!-- No byline --> |date=April 10, 2006}}</ref>

Gould pitched the idea of publishing Sudoku puzzles to newspapers, offering the puzzles for free in exchange for the newspapers' attributing them to him and linking to his website for solutions and other puzzles.

Knowing that British newspapers have a long history of publishing [[crossword]]s and other puzzles, he promoted Sudoku to ''[[The Times]]'' in Britain, which launched it on November 12, 2004 (calling it Su Doku). The first letter to ''The Times'' regarding Su Doku was published the following day on November 13 from Ian Payn of [[Brentford]], complaining that the puzzle had caused him to miss his stop on the [[London Underground|tube]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/deep-in-thought-l2wwrwqqw9k |title=Deep in thought |date=November 13, 2004 |first=Ian |last=Payn |website=[[The Times]]}}</ref> Sudoku puzzles rapidly spread to other newspapers as a regular feature.<ref name=Smith>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/may/15/pressandpublishing.usnews |title=So you thought Sudoku came from the Land of the Rising Sun ...|first=David |last=Smith |newspaper=The Observer |date=May 15, 2005 |access-date=June 13, 2008 |quote=The puzzle gripping the nation actually began at a small New York magazine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Devlin |first=Keith |title=The Numbers Game (book review of ''Taking Sudoku Seriously'' by Jason Rosenhouse et al.) |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |page=C5 |date=January 28–29, 2012}}</ref>

The rapid rise of Sudoku in Britain from relative obscurity to a front-page feature in national newspapers attracted commentary in the media and parody (such as when ''The Guardian''{{'s}} ''G2'' section advertised itself as the first newspaper supplement with a Sudoku grid on every page).<ref name=G2>{{cite news |title=G2, home of the discerning Sudoku addict |url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1482817,00.html |work=The Guardian |date=May 13, 2005 |access-date=September 16, 2006 |location=London}}</ref> Recognizing the different psychological appeals of easy and difficult puzzles, ''The Times'' introduced both, side by side, on June 20, 2005. From July 2005, [[Channel 4]] included a daily Sudoku game in their [[teletext]] service. On August 2, the BBC's program guide ''[[Radio Times]]'' featured a weekly Super Sudoku with a 16×16 grid.

[[File:SudokuLive2.jpg|thumb|The world's first live TV Sudoku show, held on July 1, 2005, ''[[Sky One]]'']]
The world's first live TV Sudoku show, ''Sudoku Live'', was a [[puzzle contest]] first broadcast on July 1, 2005, on the British pay-television channel [[Sky One]]. It was presented by [[Carol Vorderman]]. Nine teams of nine players (with one celebrity in each team) representing geographical regions competed to solve a puzzle. Each player had a hand-held device for entering numbers corresponding to answers for four cells. Phil Kollin of [[Winchelsea|Winchelsea, England]], was the series grand prize winner, taking home over £23,000 over a series of games. The audience at home was in a separate interactive competition, which was won by Hannah Withey of [[Cheshire]].

Later in 2005, the [[BBC]] launched ''[[SUDO-Q]]'', a [[game show]] that combined Sudoku with general knowledge. However, it used only 4×4 and 6×6 puzzles. Four seasons were produced before the show ended in 2007.

[[File:Sudokujf.JPG|thumb|right|175px|A Sudoku competition at [[SM City Baliuag]]]]

An annual [[World Sudoku Championship]] series has been organized by the [[World Puzzle Federation]] since 2006, except in 2020 and 2021 during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].

In 2006, a Sudoku website published a tribute song by Australian songwriter Peter Levy, but the song download was later removed due to heavy traffic. The Japanese Embassy nominated the song for an award, and Levy claimed he was in discussions with [[Sony]] in Japan to release the song as a single.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/hit-song-has-the-numbers/story-e6frf7jo-1111112155196 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121230192938/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/hit-song-has-the-numbers/story-e6frf7jo-1111112155196 |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 30, 2012 |title=Hit Song Has the Numbers |date=August 17, 2006 |work=[[The Herald Sun]] |access-date=October 5, 2008}}</ref>

Sudoku software is very popular on PCs, websites, and mobile phones. It comes with many distributions of [[Linux]]. The software has also been released on video game consoles, such as the [[Nintendo DS]], [[PlayStation Portable]], the [[Game Boy Advance]], [[Xbox Live Arcade]], the [[Nook]] e-book reader, Kindle Fire tablet, several [[iPod]] models, and the [[iPhone]]. Many [[Nokia]] phones also had Sudoku. In fact, just two weeks after [[Apple Inc.]] debuted the online [[App Store (iOS)|App Store]] within its [[iTunes Store]] on July 11, 2008, nearly 30 different Sudoku games were already in it, created by various [[software developers]], specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Sudoku games also rapidly became available for [[web browser]] users and for basically all gaming, cellphone, and computer platforms.

In June 2008, an Australian drugs-related jury trial costing over [[Australian dollar|A$]] 1 million was aborted when it was discovered that four or five of the twelve jurors had been playing Sudoku instead of listening to the evidence.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/jurors-get-1-million-trial-aborted/2008/06/10/1212863636766.html |title=The game's up: jurors playing Sudoku abort trial |last=Knox |first=Malcolm |date=June 11, 2008 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=June 11, 2008}}</ref>