professor fuji 's sudoku ( jewel case )
we love puzzles . sudoku is an attractive and intriguing puzzle that is gaining attention ( and addicts ) all over the world . professor fuji 's sudoku shows you how to start playing and solving sudoku puzzles . then there are hundreds of sudoku puzzles to continue challenging your brain . it 's addictive fun . it would be nice to explain the ancient derivatives of this game with an exotic asian name but its origins are relatively recent . originally called simply number place the first puzzle was created by howard garns a freelance puzzle constructor in 1979 . the puzzle was first published in new york in the late 1970s by the specialist puzzle publisher dell magazines in its magazine dell pencil puzzles and word games under the title number place . the puzzle was introduced in japan by nikoli in the paper monthly nikolist in april 1984 . the puzzle was named by kaji maki the president of nikoli . at a later date the name was abbreviated to sudoku ( pronounced sue-do-koo ; su = number doku = single ) ; in 1986 nikoli introduced two innovations which guaranteed the popularity of the puzzle : the number of givens was restricted to no more than 30 and puzzles became symmetrical ( meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells ) . it is now published in mainstream japanese periodicals .