Sudoku guides
Three short guides — one to get you solving, one for when the grid stops giving anything up, and one about the unglamorous business of getting a good print.
Sudoku is unusual among puzzles in that almost nobody is taught it. You pick up a grid somewhere, work out the rule in about a minute, and then either find your own way through or decide it is not for you. Plenty of people who would enjoy it stop at that second step, not because the puzzle is too hard but because nobody ever showed them the first move.
These guides are written to close that gap and then keep going. The first assumes no knowledge at all. The second assumes you can finish a medium grid and want to know what to do when a hard one goes quiet. The third has nothing to do with solving and everything to do with the printer, which turns out to matter more than most people expect.
- How to solve sudoku: a beginner’s guide6 min readThe single rule, where to make your first move, and how to work a whole easy grid without ever guessing.
- Sudoku solving techniques for hard and expert grids8 min readWhat to do when scanning runs out: candidate marking, naked and hidden pairs, pointing pairs, box-line reduction and the X-wing.
- How to print sudoku puzzles that look right5 min readScaling, margins, layout and paper: the settings that decide whether your printed grid is a pleasure or a squint.