I can't remember the first time I played Sudoku, only that I was a) young and b) instantly hooked.
Like countless other people across the globe, I found the game – in which you try to fill each row, column and box of a 9x9 grid with the numbers 1-9 without repeating – fun and addictive, challenging enough to make me work hard but not so tricky that I couldn't solve a grid (this was back when I still solely played on "easy" mode).
Over the years, I've played Sudoku hundreds of times, but despite my familiarity with the game, I was far less familiar with Sudoku's history and trivia. Chances are, you might be in the same boat: obsessed with the game, but not aware of how it got popular, who gave it its name, or just how fast some people can solve
a grid. Below, check out some fun facts about Sudoku that'll make playing the game even more fun.
It started in France with a name meaning "Diabolical Magic Square"
While Sudoku as we know it today didn't begin until 1979 (more on that later), early versions arose in France during the late 1800s – including one notable iteration called Carré Magique Diabolique, aka "Diabolical Magic Square." The concept and format was largely the same, but the sub-grids weren't separated with borders like in modern Sudoku. The name referred to a specific type of mathematical concept, not the word you might use to describe a particularly tough grid, but I think it's still very fitting!
Modern Sudoku's creator never saw it become a massive success
It was a full century later when the Sudoku we're familiar with came into the picture. Howard Garns, a retired architect and puzzle lover from Indiana, created a game he called Number Place in 1979. Garns' grids were anonymously published in popular game and puzzle magazines, so no one knew to credit him when Nikoli, a Japanese puzzle company, discovered Number Place and published it in their own magazines. The game, eventually renamed Sudoku (an abbreviation for a longer phrase that translated to "The numbers must be single") grew popular in Japan, but it didn't get re-introduced to America until the late '90s – sadly long after Garns had died of cancer in 1989.
There's an astronomically high number of possible grids
It's hard to even fathom, but the number of possible filled Sudoku gridsis 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960. So if you ever feel like you're running out of games, trust me: you're not.
The biggest Sudoku grid ever is... huge.
The Guinness World Records reports that the largest multi-Sudoku puzzle ever featured 280 individual Sudoku grids and was created in 2018 by several Japanese companies. Good luck even figuring out where to start!
The word Sudoku was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006
After first taking hold in Britain in the early '00s, Sudoku made its big American splash in the spring of 2005. The New York Post was the first major publication to publish a grid, with The Daily News and our very own USA Today following soon after – coincidentally launching puzzles on the same day. Millions of Americans subsequently became Sudoku fans, and the game continued to spread across the country over the following year. It's no wonder, then, that in 2006, Sudoku's cultural moment was enshrined forever with the word's addition to the Oxford English Dictionary.
An Australian trial was stopped short because jurors got distracted by Sudoku
And you thought you were obsessed! According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a 2008 drug trial in Australia had to be cut short when it was discovered that multiple jurors had been spending their time in court playing Sudoku instead of listening to testimony. Yikes.
There's a World Sudoku Championship (and sorry, you probably don't qualify)
Nearly every year since 2006, countries all over the world have sent their best Sudoku players to a championship tournament, where they compete for prize money and attempt to set world records for speed. Players are chosen by the National Puzzle Federation, and there are a number of qualifying rounds before the final stage. At this year's event in India, China earned top prizes in both the individual and team competitions.
The fastest Sudoku solve time took less than a minute
Think you can finish a 9x9 grid quickly? No offense, but you'd probably look like a snail when compared to Wang Shiyao, who was just 14 when she was credited with the fastest-ever solve time at the 2018 World Sudoku Championship: just 54.44 seconds. It takes me that long just to type in a few numbers sometimes!
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From world records to huge grids, here are eight fun Sudoku facts
