SUDOKU A STORY & A SOLVER

Sudoku, also known as Number Place, is a logic-based placement puzzle. The aim of the puzzle is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9 x 9 grid made up of 3 x 3 subgrids (called ''regions''), starting with various digits given in some cells (the ''givens''). Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Completing the puzzle requires patience and logical ability. Although first published in a U.S. puzzle magazine in 1979, Sudoku initially caught on in Japan in 1986 and attained international popularity in 2005. Last fall, after noticing Sudoku puzzles in some newspapers and magazines, I attempted a few just to see how hard they were. Of course, the difficulties varied considerably. ''Obviously'' one could use Trial and Error but all the advice was to ''Use Logic''. Thinking to flex, and strengthen, those powers, I began to tackle the puzzles systematically. That is, when I discovered a new tactical rule, I would write it down, eventually generating a list of ten or so, with some having overlap. They served pretty well except for the more difficult puzzles, but even then I managed to develop an additional three rules that covered all of them until I hit the Oregonian puzzle shown. With all of my rules, I could not seem to solve that puzzle. Initially putting my failure down to rapid mental fatigue (being unable to hold a sufficient quantity of information in my mind at one time), I decided to write a program to implement my rules and see what I had failed to notice earlier. The solver, too, failed. That is, my rules were insufficient to solve that particular puzzle. I happened across a book written by a fellow who constructs such puzzles and who claimed that, sometimes, the only tactic left was trial and error. With a trial and error routine implemented, my solver successfully completed the Oregonian puzzle, and has successfully solved every puzzle submitted to it since