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Sudoku who? Not who; but what. Get to know Sudoku as you read on.

Here are your possible explanations for your fear of Sudoku:

(1) The scare could be a psychological block (read: trauma) my memory draws from earlier not-so-good experiences I had with math that translates to fear whenever I see numbers.

(2) It is nothing close to fear or fright, really, just disdain for my teachers who explained math in a language only they could understand.

(3) I was absent.

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Sudoku is a Japanese term that means ‘single digits’; but the puzzle is not Japanese by origin. The name is only a contraction or shortened description (Suuji Wa Dokushin Ni Kagiru for the numbers must be single) of the puzzle introduced in Japan in 1984 by Nikoli, a Japanese publisher that specializes in games and logic puzzles. It became an instant hit in Japan.

Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana, most likely anonymously designed the earliest Sudoku. It was first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku).

Here’s how it looks. The entire grid is composed of 9 3×3 boxes.

I remember my tita (aunt, tia), who visited us last year. She said she was so addicted to the puzzle it has become the very reason she buys a newspaper. My mom, who was there then, merely said, the puzzle was a chore for her and she could not find time placing numbers in boxes.

Sudoku, somehow is the new craze, believe it or not. After it had been featured in The Times in Britain (2004), it had attracted media attention in so little time that today the puzzle is accessible not only in the papers, but also online and in some mobile units. (‘Have it in mine!) It is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise, just like Word Search, the Dell Crosswords, the Rubik’s cube and a lot of other puzzles that have become fads and have profited hugely. But Garns did not live that long to see the popularity of his puzzle.

Craze or not you’d see people spending time on that section of the entertainment page of a daily more than the crosswords in cafés, lounges, libraries, in banks while waiting for the teller’s call — almost everywhere. My daughter told me last year that she had a classmate who did nothing in class but answer Sudoku puzzles while the teachers lectured on. She had another classmate who brought to school a thick book with hundreds of all-Sudoku puzzles where only a few pages were left unanswered.

And here’s what disturbed me the most: my daughter told me that the lady guard in her school is so good at it she knows where the numbers would fall the moment she looks at the puzzle and that it would only take her five minutes, maximum, to complete the puzzle! (And I could not accept that! I have nothing against guards, please don’t get me wrong. It’s just that how could she find the puzzle so easy when I don’t? Prior to that, I already heard from a friend about multiple intelligences — so not like the intelligence quotient — as a new way of measuring one’s mental capacity and how a person could get on with life by these intelligences he or she puts to use. I said skill is too different from intelligence. That topic would surely require a different entry.)

So I tried Sudoku, about a month ago. I found a newspaper with Sudoku on it (didn’t use the one in my mobile unit as it would surely run out of charge before I could even complete a 3×3), took a pencil and, after an hour or two, with all the erasures and everything, I ended up with migraine.

I was trying to fill a 3×3! I did not see any relationship going on in the other parts of the grid at all. It surely was a strain. I was using too much brain muscles where they weren’t supposed to. From then on, I didn’t want to have anything to do with Sudoku ever again.

While navigating through a new browser add-on feature on games I installed last night, I came across Sudoku. I merely ignored it. I tried all the other games instead and when I eventually got bored of them, somehow, I clicked on Sudoku

I wasn’t really set to face its challenge; it was more out of inquisitiveness that I had to click it last night. Besides, it is making waves and I could not even relate to it in any way. I had two tablets of paracetamol ready beside me, just in case.

The result? I had a change of heart. I got so hooked. I’m a convert and already an addict. I loved it! I played the same puzzle for the day for four times last night with each time solving it differently. I also tried the Mini Sudoku and the Mega Sudoku! I didn’t use hints, huh, and not the paracetamol tablets! There is no way one could memorize the arrangement of the numbers quickly. I even timed myself if I could beat the lady guard in my daughter’s school. Not yet; but will be there. (The photo below is my puzzle result.)

There is nothing mathematical about Sudoku! Nada! Nyet! Nil! That is the first truth. If you have that innate fright about numbers (numerophobia?), be calm, Sudoku is not one of them. It’s just a logical arrangement of numbers that must appear only once per row, column or 3×3 block. You could even assign letters, colors, names or any symbol you make up. The most universal symbol used in Sudoku, of course, is numbers.

Meaning, if you use names, say Jane; Jane must appear only once in a square going from left to right, top to bottom and within the 3×3 box. How are logic games or puzzles solved? By deduction or by elimination. So if Jane’s on this square, she can not appear anywhere in a box on any row or column that would cross the Jane square and that there can be no other Janes residing in that 3×3 box where she already is. As simple as that.

It is easier to complete a row or a column first, plus the consideration that there are other values already placed in a particular 3×3. Start with a column or row that is more than half filled then by deduction and elimination, check what other values are in the 3×3. You’d be surprised there is always a box that is only waiting to be found for that particular value or symbol you have to assign. I didn’t even have to make notations as some would on the paper. Very easy. Very cool.

There are levels of difficulty. The one I completed last night was a 2-star out of 5. Knowing what to place and where to place it is basic. All the rest will follow. In time, you’d notice that the grid is getting populated. I just don’t know how many clues are given on the higher levels but I will also like it there. Here’s the link to this online puzzle. If it won’t appear, just refresh or reload the page.

For more of Sudoku, check site 1, site 2, site 3.

But I still don’t see it from the by-the-look-of-the-puzzle-you’d-know-where-the-numbers-should-fall view. The brag!