Sudoku is a type of logic puzzle, and is gaining popularity. People enjoy these puzzles as do them for challenging the mind.

Sudoku was created in the 1970’s by Howard Garns who was a freelance puzzler designer from Indianapolis. He took a concept from the Latin Square, which was developed by a Swiss mathematician named Leonhard Euler in the 1780s. The Latin Square is based on the idea of arranging numbers in such a way that any number or symbol would occur only once in each row or column. Garns added the rule that each of the nine numbers could only be used once in a row, column or 3×3 box.
It improves the mind’s ability in critical thinking by examining relationships between numbers in a set.

Although Sudoku originated in the United States, the name comes from Japan. It was introduced into Japan by Nikoli in the late 1970’s under the name of ‘Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru’ which is translated to mean the numbers must be unmarried or single. Fortunately the name has been shortened to Sudoku.

In 1989 a computer version of sudoku came for users of the Loadstar Publishing program. The Apple Macintosh would use this game in the near future. The Rubik’s cube, produced the 1980s, helped the development of sudoku in that decade. The reasoning and logic skills needed to solve the Rubik’s Cube are similar to those used in Sudoku

The history of Sudoku continued to expand. In 1997, Wayne Gould, a retired Hong Kong judge, author of Su Doku The Official Utterly Addictive Number-Placing Puzzle,  first encountered the puzzle in a Tokyo book store. He  created his own computerized version of sudoku, and eventually more newspapers around Asia began to carry daily sudoku puzzles, making this even more popular among logic puzzles.
He introduced his puzzles to The Times, a British newspaper, as Su Doku. His puzzles first appeared there on November 12, 2004.

In 2005 Sudoku came to its top level of popularity, as more newspapers and publications in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia began to use sudoku puzzles. Many major papers, including USA Today, and even smaller newspapers like the Evansville Courier-Press have been using sudoku now, and print publications with sudoku games have become popular in game sections of bookstores. More puzzle magazines are devoted special productions to the game as well.

The history of Sudoku is still evolving, and the development of sudoku will definitely continue as it becomes more popular. This is indeed one of the hottest logic puzzles in the world
Today you will find not only Sudoku puzzle books, but Sudoku hand held games, Sudoku board games and a growing list of merchandise.