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What is the history of this great logic puzzle, the sudoku?

Well, we have already seen what the word sudoku means in the sudoku FAQ.

Tracing the origin is a little harder, even with the relatively short history of the puzzle, and ultimately comes down to how strict we are being. If we are talking literally about sudoku, then the answer is very recent.

However, if we are talking about number games in general from which sudoku might be thought to be derived, then the answer is a little different.

That's because the idea of the Magic Square has been around for many centuries, and it could have been these which sparked the idea for sudoku - since the sudoku is a special case of this puzzle.

Additionally, Euler developed the Latin Square, another relation. Moving to the present era, a similar puzzle called Number Place appeared in American magazines in the 1970s. It is, therefore, perhaps a myth that sudoku is actually a Japanese puzzle, given that the puzzle was printed previously under the name of Number Place.

Nikoli magazines in Japan have indeed printed the puzzle under the name sudoku for many years, and this seems to be why the puzzle is thought to be Japanese originally. It first came to prominence in the West when it appeared in the Times newspaper around the start of 2005 and took off from there.

If you have any more information on the history of sudoku, please do Let us know