Please
go to Appendix C to download your FREE computer print versions of
the
Win At Sudoku Puzzle Book
Win At Sudoku Blank Layout
Win
At Sudoku Book Images
WIN AT SUDOKU
Caro Eardley
Smashwords
Edition
Copyright 2012 Caro Eardley
Copyright
is also asserted over all illustrations in
the book and the
Win At Sudoku Blank Layout
Visit
my page: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/winatsudoku
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with other people, please purchase additional copies for each of them. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.
ISBN 978-0-620-49805-0
1ST
Edition published 2011
2ND Edition published 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLUTION OF THE WIN AT SUDOKU METHOD
JOYFUL OPTIONS: TWINS, TRIPLETS & QUADS
BIGGEST THREATS TO YOUR SUCCESS
LEAPING TO UNWARRANTED CONCLUSIONS
EXAMPLE 9 LEVEL: WORLD’S HARDEST
AREAS - THE PUZZLE GRID ELEMENTS
AREAS - RELATED AREAS and SCANNING
RULE OF THREE (Ro3) - TRIPLETS
APPENDIX C - WIN AT SUDOKU PUZZLE BOOK, BLANK LAYOUT & BOOK IMAGES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REFERENCES
Worked
Example 9 – World’s Hardest Sudoku – reproduced by kind
permission of Dr Arto Inkala
Worked
Example 8 – reproduced by kind permission of Sterling Publishing
from the Mensa Absolutely Nasty Series, Level 2, by Frank Longo,
puzzle number 105 (page 59)
Worked
Example 7 – reproduced by kind permission of Sterling Publishing
from the Mensa Absolutely Nasty Series, Level 1, by Frank Longo,
puzzle number 168 (page 90)
Worked
Examples 1 to 6 – reproduced by kind permission of Puzzler Media
and Nikoli Co Ltd – Sudoku – The Original Hand Made puzzles –
Issue 55
"It
is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties
for
the pleasure of resolving them."
~ Joseph de Maistre ~
18th
Century European philosopher, writer, lawyer and diplomat
"Puzzles
are like songs.
A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of
being duped that a mystery story can.
It has surface innocence,
surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning,
and the catharsis
of solution."
~ Stephen Sondheim ~
Famous American
composer and lyricist for stage and film
This
book is dedicated to this girl’s best friend:
Niki Neave
U
Rock Girlfriend!
She always keeps me and my book
on the
straight
on the narrow
and online!
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Dr Arto Inkala, creator of World’s Hardest Sudoku says:
“Win At Sudoku offers a new approach to playing Sudoku that shows a comprehensive way to play during all phases of solving any level of Sudoku puzzle. Ms Eardley's original puzzle layout will also enhance any player's enjoyment of the game.”
5-Star Amazon Customer Reviews say:
“As an experienced solver, I think the template is fantastic...Win at Sudoku is a terrific book...a very solid piece of work…
“I have no doubt that were the complete novice to follow Eardley's method to the letter, he/she would achieve Sudoku mastery.
“Eardley's is a book that will reward patient reading, dog-earing, and re-reading again.”
Librum “6nomad9” (CA, USA)
“Any Sudoku enthusiast can expect to learn useful information from the book.”
A.J. Cornish Bowden (Marseilles, France)
Reader Comments:
“Your book is FANTASTIC” Morgan Knowles
“Absolutely admirable...professional and very, very attractive...language is clear, enjoyable and friendly” Gus Coyote
“I love the layout and the style is cool. Really impressive...” Annee Irwin
“Accessible even to a non-Sudoku type such as myself!” Charlie Stuart
INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLUTION OF THE WIN AT SUDOKU METHOD
Notes on the 2012 Edition
We have made some improvements with regard to the Illustrations in the book.
The
most important, for e-reader fans, is that you can now download a
complete set of ALL the illustrations in this book. This gives you
the opportunity to print any or all of these images as there are
places in the book (particularly the Worked Examples) where it could
be convenient to have a hard copy to hand. We hope this new facility
will enhance your Win At Sudoku experience.
All illustrations
have been upgraded to the best possible quality, given the
restrictions of current technology and a tight production schedule.
The Holding Option illustration has been changed to use a better example.
There are four major changes to the Text in this edition.
Firstly, I have changed the name of Deduced Options to Fluid Options as it more accurately describes their behaviour. I’d like to thank Dr Don D. Roberts for this excellent idea. I thought long and hard before making such a fundamental change to the text but I could not resist the perfect logic of Dr Roberts’ suggestion: it enhances the clarity of the theory and therefore the book.
Secondly, in response to reader requests, I have further reduced the use of acronyms.
Thirdly, two Worked Examples have been updated. Worked Example 6 is now more straightforward, as I found a much more elegant way to play this game. Worked Example 9 has also been tightened up and more explanatory comments have been added.
Fourthly, I have re-edited all the text (with a special focus on Options) to remove some typographical errors (Thank you, Kind Readers!) and to improve clarity.
And finally, my thanks are due to two people in particular:
As ever, my dear friend Niki Neave deserves an endless round of applause for her invaluable assistance and ongoing support in our mutual pursuit of perfection.
And one other person, a mysterious individual known to me only as Librum “6nomad9” (CA, USA) deserves my profound, if belated, thanks. Without the valuable insight I gained from this person’s constructive criticism prior to publication, I very much doubt that you would be reading this book today!
We hope you will enjoy the results of our efforts to show you how to Win At Sudoku!
Caro
Eardley
January 2012
When I discovered Sudoku in 2007 it was love at first sight. I just couldn’t get enough game-time playing newspaper and magazine puzzles so I rapidly moved on to buying Sudoku puzzle books.
My logic skills, honed during 20 years as a computer systems designer, helped me to rise quickly through the Easy, Medium and Hard levels of the game.
So it came as a shock, when I opened the first book of the Mensa Absolutely Nasty Sudoku series, to find myself boggled, flummoxed and utterly discombobulated. I'd do a bit, and then...I simply didn't know what to do next. The Horror! Moi? Beaten? Never!
As I am allergic to Maths (I insert a brief but fervent plea here: do anything to ensure the children you know get Good Math Teachers) I just wasn't interested in studying X-wings and so on...
My belief in the power of logic was sufficient to convince me I could consistently win at Sudoku – if I could just figure out the underlying rules of how the game works...
So for the next three years - and countless hours when I should have been doing other ‘more important’ things - I persevered in applying logic and organisational principles to the game whilst intensely observing the behaviour of the numbers throughout hundreds of games.
Finally the day dawned when I could truly say that I knew how to Win At Sudoku, and now I’d like to share this knowledge with you.
One thing I’d like to say right here: There is no rocket science in the Win At Sudoku method. You will (I bet myself a million dollars!) want to complain that everything I offer you is...well... Simple and actually... Easy.
I will be very happy if you do feel this way because that is exactly what I set out to do and also why I truly believe that anyone can Win At Sudoku – even very tough Sudoku.
But please take note: Win At Sudoku is a method not a ‘solver’ or a collection of ‘hints and tips’: The Tools, the Rules and the Worked Examples will show you the way to win, but you will still have to travel the road to reach the correct solution.
Which is why you will still experience the thrills and spills of playing the game: the thinking will be yours, the work will be yours, and the reward of arriving at the desired destination of winning will also be yours.
Following me through the Worked Examples is like using training wheels when learning to ride a bike. They show you the Win At Sudoku method in action but you must follow my moves to get the benefit. An hour spent playing a Worked Example will do more to raise your game than any amount of reading!
Once you’ve got the hang of the Win At Sudoku method, the training wheels will fall off by themselves and you’ll be playing like a champ without the need for any further assistance.
Though don’t get me wrong here: I am not suggesting that every bike rider wants to win the Tour de France: a game of the order of Worked Example 9 – the World’s Hardest Sudoku – is included only to show what is possible. Even I cannot solve it entirely to my satisfaction...but outside of crazy games like that, there is lots of fun to be had just cruising through exciting Sudoku terrain!
This book is designed to help any player at any level…but even experienced players should read the whole book once to make sure of picking up all of the good stuff that will help you learn to Win (more!) At Sudoku!
A small, but important, point of order: many examples in the text feature a Box but the same principles apply to a Row or a Column!
A summary of the major elements of the Win At Sudoku method is provided in the Appendices (at the end of the book) for convenient reference.
Happy
Sudoku’ing
The team at Win At Sudoku
www.winatsudoku.com
THE RULES OF SUDOKU
The goal is simple: fill the 9×9 Puzzle Grid (81 Cells) with the numbers 1 to 9 so that each Box (the grid is subdivided into nine 3×3 Boxes), each Row and each Column contain the numbers 1 to 9.
The numbers 1 to 9 may only appear once in each Box, Row, and Column.
The puzzle setter provides some numbers as clues. These clues are called Given Numbers (GNs). Puzzles usually have only one correct solution.
THE PUZZLE GRID ELEMENTS
Columns and Rows are numbered from 1 to 9 to make it easy to refer to individual Cells as, for example (in pink), C5:R6.
The
nine Boxes are:
(LT) Left Top - - - - (CT) Centre
Top - - - - (RT) Right Top
(LC) Left Centre - - (C)
Centre - - - - - - - (RC) Right Centre
(LB) Left
Bottom - -(CB) Centre Bottom - (RB) Right Bottom
The
six Sections (three adjacent Boxes) are:
(L) Left - - - -
(VC) Vertical Centre - - - (R) Right
(T) Top
- - - - (HC) Horizontal Centre - (B) Bottom
SCANNING THE PUZZLE HORIZONS
Scanning skills are critical to your ability to Win at Sudoku because you need to use the clues (GNs) to turn all the Missing Numbers (MNs) into Found Numbers (FNs).
[Scanning the Puzzle Horizons - Fig 1] Row and Column Relationships are simple: they relate where they intersect.
[Scanning the Puzzle Horizons - Fig 2] Boxes are another story. Say you think that a specific Cell (say C6:R5) might be a 7. You need to scan the related Boxes, Rows and Columns for information about 7s and other available data such as positions before you make a decision - and in this example, you can see you are correct!
What you have done here is scan Left Centre, Centre, Right Centre, Centre Top and Centre Bottom Boxes – probably without realising it!
[Scanning the Puzzle Horizons – Fig 3] These are the other Box relationships.
GETTING TO KNOW THE NUMBERS
[Getting to Know the Numbers - Fig 1] The numbers given as clues to help you find the solution to the puzzle are called Given Numbers (GNs). The quantity and positioning of GNs dictates how easy or hard the puzzle will be to solve. All other numbers are, at this time, Missing Numbers (MNs).
[Getting to Know the Numbers - Fig 2] Whenever you know (as opposed to merely think or believe) that a specific Cell has to be a specific number, that number becomes a Found Number (FN). You can see here that the Cell C7:R3 has to be a 4. All MNs turn into FNs when you have finished a game.
[Getting to Know the Numbers - Fig 3] Most MNs have an intermediary stage on their way to becoming FNs. In Right Centre Box, there are now only two possible Cells that could contain the number 4: C8:R4 or C8:R5. The MN 4 has now progressed to having an Option established in Right Centre Box. We’ll explore Options in depth later.