Simon Park (Journalist for RANDOM Magazine)
Sudoku is basically a puzzle attempting to fill in the blanks with numbers from 1
to 9. The typical Sudoku attempts to fill up the 99 grid that is made up of 9 smaller
33 grids (or boxes) in a way that every number in the same row, column, or box is
different from one another.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 above respectively show examples of an unsolved and a
fully solved Sudoku puzzle.
Now, here are three examples of incorrectly solved puzzles:
Figure 3 on the left illustrates one example of
an incorrectly solved puzzle. There are two 1s
in the first row. To solve this problem, one must
erase one of the two 1s. Since the 1 on grid
(1,8) is a given number in Figure 1, we can
conclude that the 1 on grid (1,3) is in the
wrong place. After erasing the 1, we can also
find that only 4 is missing in the first row, so
4 should be written on grid (1,3).
5 3 7 8 1
9 4
8 3
5 7 4
4 6 8 1
1 5
6 3 7 4
2 7 4 3
4 6
5 3 4 6 7 8 9 1 2
6 7 2 1 9 5 3 4 8
1 9 8 3 4 2 5 6 7
8 5 9 7 6 1 4 2 3
4 2 6 8 5 3 7 9 1
7 1 3 9 2 4 8 5 6
9 6 1 5 3 7 2 8 4
2 8 7 4 1 9 6 3 5
3 4 5 2 8 6 1 7 9
5 3 1 6 7 8 9 1 2
9 4
8 3
5 7 4
4 6 8 1
1 5
6 3 7 4
2 7 4 3
4 6
5 3 4 7 8 1
7 9 4
Figure 1: An unsolved Sudoku puzzle Figure 2: A solved Sudoku puzzle
Figure 3: An incorrectly solved puzzle
Figure 4 on the left also illustrates another
example of an incorrectly solved puzzle. There
are two 7s in the 3
rd
column. To solve this
problem, one must erase one of the two 7s.
Since the 7 on grid (8,3) is a given number in
Figure 1, we can conclude that the 7 on grid
(2,3) is in the wrong place. After erasing the 7,
we can also find that only 2 is missing in the
3
rd
column, so 2 should be written on grid (2,3).
Figure 5 on the left is the last figure that
illustrates an example of an incorrectly solved
puzzle. There are two 7s in the 1
st
box. To
solve this problem, one must erase one of the
two 7s. Since we dont have any given number,
we cannot conclude at this point which number
is in the wrong place. We need to fill in other
blanks to find out the answer.
Definitions for Terms
1. The numbers of the boxes are counted from the left side of the
first row to the right side, then from left to right of the second row,
and so on, as shown on the left.
2. (a,b) indicates the number written in a vertical row a and
horizontal column b.
8 3
5 9 7 4
4 6 8 1
1 3 5
6 1 3 7 4
2 7 4 3
4 5 6
5 3 4 7 8 1
7 6 2 9 4
1 7 8 3
5 7 4
4 6 8 1
1 5
6 3 7 4
2 7 4 3
4 6
1
st
box
2
nd
box
3
rd
box
4
th
box
5
th
box
6
th
box
7
th
box
8
th
box
9
th
box
Figure 4: An incorrectly solved puzzle
Figure 5: An incorrectly solved puzzle
