The History of Sudoku
A Short Review of the Enigmatic Number Game
I’m a writer. Words are in my blood. Numbers, though, well boss, that’s where I turn into a babbling idiot. Thank God for calculators! That being said, I do occasionally indulge in a round or two of Sudoku just for the heck of it. Oftentimes it’s not pretty, but hey, a girl’s gotta try.
Whether you’re a Sudoku fan or not, you may be surprised at just how far back this little game goes, because truly, there is nothing new under the sun, folks.
As modern as we like to think we are, perhaps we are not so much. Today’s fun Sudoku craze traces its roots way back to the 4th century when the Chinese mathematician Wei Dakan created a number-placement puzzle. Zoom ahead to the 18th century when Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a Latin square puzzle with numbers. Then late in the 19th century, a French newspaper featured a puzzle called The Diabolical Magic Square. It used the 9x9 grid we know today but it didn’t use the same rules as we do for modern Sudoku.
And all those facts gave me the idea to use this little puzzle as part of a side character’s interest in my new release, The Sleuth of Blackfriars Lane. He’s an accountant who—in his spare time—is trying to perfect the game to sell to a newspaper. Will he succeed? Well, you’ll have to nab a copy of the book HERE or enter to win a signed copy.
