If you answered, “Hey, R4C8 has to be an 8!”, you’re right! Fill it in!And did you notice something else? Remember R5C8, the square rightbelow that had to be a 3 or an 8. What about R4C8, the square right above it? Whatpossibilities does it have? Sudoku 4 Kids. Pencil them in!Well, you didn’t solve a square, but you did learn something.
That’s the square right in the middle ofblock 6.What possibilities can it have?If you answered 3 and 8, you’re right. Here’s what yourpuzzle should look like now:You should have the 1,5,8 possibilities in R1C1, and 4 in R4C7.
It also has 5 numbers.Write them down here: _Now list all the numbers together.Write them down here: _So now ask yourself, “what numbers are missing?” What are thepossibilities for R4C7?The answer is on the next page (I didn’t trust you not to look ahead!) Sudoku 4 Kids - ĭid you figure out that R4C7 has to be a 4? If you did, give yourself a paton the back!Since possibilities 1,2,3,5,6,7,8 and 9 were taken by other squares in row4, column 7 and block 6, R4C7 has to be a 4! This is called a forcebecause R4C7 is forced to be a 4.So go and put a big 4 in R4C7! You’ve solved a square. Five numbers there.Write them down here: _Finally, look at block 6. There are three numbers there already.Write them down here: _Now look at column 7. You are on your honor to do the work!Well, look at row 4. What block is it in? That’s right, block 6.What numbers can it be? No being sneaky and looking ahead for theanswer. Can you find it? It’s the blank square right above a“2” that has been filled in. So for now, you could just pencil in a small “1 5 8” in R1C1 toremind you of what it could be.This is called “pencilling in the possibilities” and it is the first step tosolving the puzzle. But which one isit? So far, we can’t tell! Argh! But maybe later we’ll be able to narrow itdown. Well, we already knew that itcouldn’t be 7 and 3 from row 1, but now we know it can’t be a 4 either.So R1C1 can’t be a 2,3,4,6,7 or 9. Grrr!The other numbers in block 1 are 7, 4 and 3. Hey, that didn’t get usanywhere, because those numbers are already in row 1. So it can’t be any of those.The other numbers in column 1 are 3,9 and 2. Ithas to be a number that isn’t already in row 1, column 1, or block 1.The other numbers in row 1 are 7,3,6,2 and 9. It is in row 1 and column 1, so we call it square “R1C1” for short.What block is it in? Block 1, of course!What numbers might it be? Well, lets figure out what numbers it can’t be. There is a rule!Only one, but it’s a tricky one!“The number in each square can only appear once in its row,column and block.”So how does this work? Look at the square in the top-left corner of thepuzzle. But you can’t just put any number in a square.
Whatcolumn is it in? What block is it in? If you answered “column 5 and block8”, you’re right.Now the fun begins!To solve a Sudoku, all you have to do is fill in the blank squares withnumbers. The blocks are numbered from top-left tobottom-right, just as you would expect.Look for the 5 in the bottom row of the puzzle on the first page. The leftmost column iscalled column 1, and the rightmost column is called column 9.Look closely and you’ll see that the puzzle is divided up into 9 3x3 squaresections (sort of like a tic-tac-toe board made out of tic-tac-toe boards!).These are called blocks. The top row is called row 1,and the bottom row is called row 9.There are 9 columns of numbers in the puzzle. Some of the squares are blank.There are 9 rows of numbers in the puzzle. Some squares have digits in them,from 1 to 9. Your brainwill get quite a workout figuring them out! Sudoku 4 Kids - Ī Sudoku is a 9x9 grid of squares. Sudoku 4 Kids - Īn Introduction to Sudoku for Kids by Robert Woodhead - (Japanese for “one number”) are fun logical puzzles. It may not be otherwise distributed orreproduced without written permission.In other words, if you want to make money off this, you’ve got to cut mein for some of it! ©2005 Robert Woodhead - All Rights Reserved. I have tried to “voice” the documentin such a way as to be easily readable by a bright 10-year-old like my sonAlex.Additional chapters will be added as time permits.Permission is granted for this document to be distributed and reproducedfor non-profit, educational use (ie: in a classroom) and for personal use bythe users of the Sudoku Susser. An Introduction to An Introduction to Sudoku for KidsThis document is a work in progress, and your comments on itsimprovement are most appreciated.