Welcome My book, "Sudoku Strategies and the Sudokerson Matrix" (available for download), outlines a four-step process by which you can solve even the most difficult of published Sudokus. It involves three procedures that I call the "basic levels," followed by an enormously powerful parallel analysis tree technique. It does not involve a Sudoku-solving computer program; you still have to do all the thinking and all the deciding. But a "Chapinator" Excel program (also downloadable) helps speed matters and eliminates the need for pencils, erasers and photocopier machines.
To date I have never encountered a published Sudoku puzzle that could not be solved in a straightforward manner by the four-step methods outlined in "Sudoku Strategies...." But these methods have still other advantages. These are powerful enough to let you take a Sudoku puzzle apart, see how it is put together, and create your own variations, some of which can be fascinating. You can start with an interesting pattern of digits, find a finished Sudoku matrix that exhibits this pattern, and then find a set of starting digits that will lead to this matrix as the answer. I call this back-to-front designing process "Kudosu." It would be difficult or impossible without the power of parallel analysis trees.
Both "Sudoku Strategies and the Sudokerson Matrix" and the "Chapinator" can be downloaded from this site. A sequel to "Sudoku Strategies...." is now in preparation, entitled, "The Sudoku from Hell and Other Loopy Phenomena: An Introduction to Kudosu." When it is completed it will be available by snail mail to any interested parties.
Sudoku is a process of systematically eliminating the impossible, leading at the end (hopefully) to that which is possible. As the great detective Sherlock Holmes said on more than one occasion: "When you have eliminated all that is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Holmes would have been a great Sudoku player.
Email questions or comments to support@sudoku-strategies.net Copyright ©2008 R. E. Dickerson
