The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[annie110774]

I just found out about these puzzles but cannot find any general hints and tips on how to start. I was reading some of the forums and you are using words that have special meaning to these puzzles. I thought this would be a fun easy hobby but is turning out to be harder than it sounds.
Any helpful hints on how to start this?
Thanks!
Struggling in Texas
P.S. It was 80 degrees here yesterday!

[ihope127]

Different Sudokus have different difficulties. There are many Sudoku sites in the world.

As for the "special" words: I think a web search should find those. The Sudoku Susser documentation is nice as well.

[Nick67]

Here are 3 sites that may help.

http://www.paulspages.co.uk/sudoku/howtosolve/index.htm
http://www.angusj.com/sudoku/hints.php
http://www.simes.clara.co.uk/programs/sudokutechniques.htm

I'ts helpful to have access to a lot of puzzles for practice.
The Pappocom Sudoku program generates excellent puzzles and
is available here: http://www.sudoku.com/

There are many puzzles available on-line, too.
Web Sudoku is one site: http://www.websudoku.com

I think you will quickly progress to the point where you are
having fun.

[lunababy_moonchild]

I just found out about these puzzles but cannot find any general hints and tips on how to start.

The websites mentioned should help, but there's nothing like trying to figure it out yourself.

I was reading some of the forums and you are using words that have special meaning to these puzzles. I thought this would be a fun easy hobby but is turning out to be harder than it sounds.

If it's any consolation, I've been coming to this forum since March 2005 (having started solving November 2004) and I find the terms used on some threads confusing. Most are are very advanced techniques and not necessary for the easy/medium and even hard puzzles and I wouldn't be able to point out a naked triple to save my life! I probably use the basic techniques mentioned on this site instinctively, but I've never bothered to find out their names. They are named because it makes it simpler to describe the next move to someone who gets stuck. It's certainly unnecessary - in my opinion - to get bogged down in terminology, especially when you are learning. The beauty of this game is that it can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

Any helpful hints on how to start this?
Thanks!
Struggling in Texas

Well, I'd stick to the easy puzzles to begin with. The rule is "Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. " Follow that. You'll solve an easy one eventually and after you've solved enough of them you can move up a grade. The Pappocom puzzles do not require anything harder than an x-wing (the search facility is really good for info on that) and that's only for the Very Hard ones. The Pappocom software is available in a 28 day trial, so you can see how you like that, and/or you can use the sites recommended.

Don't worry, once you get started, you'll very quickly get familiar with it.

P.S. It was 80 degrees here yesterday!

Oh, thanks for that. It was minus something or other and very dingy here in Glasgow - that's the West Coast of Scotland. No snow yet, though. We'll leave that for the English

I do hope that helps. Above all, remember it's meant to be fun!

Luna

[ihope127]

Glasgow - that's the West Coast of Scotland.

Home of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler?

[lunababy_moonchild]

Home of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler?

No idea But it is home of the Glasgow Coma Scale if that's any help!

Luna

[TheNewHuber]

you could use color coding for numbers, use process of elimination, or even just plain logic.