One part of the equation has definitely to be obvious simplicity of the riddle. The procedures of Sudoku are so easy to understand that anybody can start gaming almost right away.Yet complete mastery of the game requires significant amounts of practise and patience. A Sudoku puzzle can also be made so incomprehensible that even a sudoku master would probably have a hard time solving it.



Contrary to what many will suppose when they initially see a Sudoku enigma, this brain-teasing exercise doesn't require exceptionally high understanding of math. It is more a matter of reason and the numbers could, in fact, be substituteed with any other symbol.

A lesson in determination

Most people have fond memories from their childhood, a time where we often manage to enjoy the simple things in life on a whole other level.

I when I was a kid and we spent the holidays at our cottage in the country. One day my sister and I found an old darts game - not like the posh ones they use in real dart competitions, but more of a strong-featured "outdoors" (or whatever the term is) type of dartboard with digits from one on the outside to ten in the bulls eye, and somewhat heavy and firm darts.

Neither of us where very good at throwing darts, so it was a good decision we hung the dart board on the outside wall of an old shed. After a while of practising, I happened to get quite a good score - 42 with five darts.

Luck had much to do with it of course, but now something interesting happened. My sibling would not quit before she had gotten at least the same score as me!

I think she fired away at that dart target for a couple of hours in a row, and had she been a individual in a comic she could definitely have been portrayed with a thunder bank of clouds over her head, so to speak. It was beginning to get dark before she finally had beaten my record and could allow herself to quit.

It is beyond doubt mind-blowing to observe such determination.

Although having almost none to do with Sudoku puzzles per se, I think the same kind of driving influence is also in part accountable for the addictiveness of the Sudoku mystery.

Most people love a trial, provided that there is actually a fairly credible chance to emerge "winning" in the end. When tackling a fittingly tough Sudoku brainteaser a participant can sometimes move into almost a trance like state where he or she just can't put down the pen before they have flattened the Sudoku challenge. Much in the same way as it happend in that dart game many donkey's years ago.

One might perhaps argue that my sister has always been a very ambitious type with anything she has ever done, but I still think the point made is valid.

This is all good, as Sudoku is a very cheap hobby that definitely presents a good work out for the brain.However, would something very catch fire nearby or if someone is drowning - by all means put that Sudoku puzzle aside for just a few hours.