![]() ![]() The four offset rings with clear repetition of digits stand out upon first sight. ![]() The treat at the start of this entry was hand-constructed by me by testing a simple theme. At the very least, this page will now serve as a great link to point anyone to who wants to see some of the sudoku I've written and understand my view on the possibility of puzzles in general. I figured, therefore, that it might be time to collect some of the "close-to-classic" sudoku I've written recently to offer a counterpoint to the thesis that sudoku cannot have developed themes or be an interesting ground for puzzle construction. I somehow doubt the photographer or editor understood what can make a puzzle beautiful and worth framing when it seems they barely understand what a sudoku is. They definitely are one source that hides solving themes in their puzzles, even their sudoku (a recent example is solvable exclusively as singles in 1 to 9 order - ie you look at the digit 1 and can place all 9 instances, then look at 2 and can place all 9 instances, and so on.) However, Puzzler, in trying to remarket the hand-crafted puzzle concept, missed something entirely in this photo. Nikoli, the Japanese innovator of the US puzzle that also renamed it Sudoku, often points out how their hand-made puzzles have unique qualities superior to computer-generated ones. Puzzler is a UK company that resells Nikoli puzzles in both the UK and the States. This came from a Puzzler publication which has now had a couple of framed pictures of sudoku used as advertisements. The symptom of the disconnect between creator and purveyor is maybe best shown in the scanned image below. Sure, it might be good for the first few times you get a buzz, but its not a lasting satisfaction. Bland, generic, mass-produced, not fit for expert consumption. That computer generation of the puzzle makes it an essentially zero cost resource for most content-providers has turned it, in its most common form, into the "boxed wine" of puzzles. That I don't like being known as someone who solves a lot of sudoku may be a response I have to the way sudoku, at least as a commodity publishers have been using to generate profits, has none of the qualities of puzzles I'm proud to either write or solve. ![]() Whenever a reporter asks (assuming my answer must be dozens of hours each week), I always explain, carefully, that I solve lots of different kinds of puzzles, from math and logic puzzles to cryptic crosswords, lateral thinking challenges to pure trivia. In the weeks since becoming world champion of that puzzle with the numbers that's near the crossword in the paper (except in the NYTimes (except online)), I've realized that I am incredibly defensive about how much time I spend solving sudoku. ![]()
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