SUDOKU and KenKen

[Karl-G]

Anyone else enjoy doing these puzzles? Best book of published very difficult sudoku puzzles that I have found is "1,036 Extreme Sudoku Challenges" by Frank Longo and published by Sterling Publishing. The puzzles are all very good and difficult, and the book was only $5 remaindered at Barnes and Noble. The scale is large, and the paper is good quality that takes plenty of erasing easily. Mr. Longo had difficulty creating really tough puzzles in his earlier publications, and I was disappointed in them. But he finally caught on and learned how, and this is an excellent book.

 

I am just beginning on KenKen, but have not been able to find a good book with plenty of 5x5, 6x6, and larger puzzles. Will Shortz seems to have a near monopoly on publishing KenKen in the U.S. I find the 7x7 and higher very difficult, at least for now. Does anybody do the larger puzzles, 8x8 and 9x9? If you want to sample, you can go to http://www.nytimes.com/puzzles and click on KenKen. They publish three different 4x4 puzzles and 6x6 puzzles every day. At http://www.kenken.com, they publish a 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 square puzzle each day. They both use the same software, which is quite good. The 4, 5, and 6 puzzles tend to be solved quickly, IMO.

[Karl-G]

Anyone else enjoy doing these puzzles? Best book of published very difficult sudoku puzzles that I have found is "1,036 Extreme Sudoku Challenges" by Frank Longo and published by Sterling Publishing. The puzzles are all very good and difficult, and the book was only $5 remaindered at Barnes and Noble. The scale is large, and the paper is good quality that takes plenty of erasing easily. Mr. Longo had difficulty creating really tough puzzles in his earlier publications, and I was disappointed in them. But he finally caught on and learned how, and this is an excellent book.

 

I am just beginning on KenKen, but have not been able to find a good book with plenty of 5x5, 6x6, and larger puzzles. Will Shortz seems to have a near monopoly on publishing KenKen in the U.S. I find the 7x7 and higher very difficult, at least for now. Does anybody do the larger puzzles, 8x8 and 9x9? If you want to sample, you can go to http://www.nytimes.com/puzzles and click on KenKen. They publish three different 4x4 puzzles and 6x6 puzzles every day. At http://www.kenken.com, they publish a 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 square puzzle each day. They both use the same software, which is quite good. The 4, 5, and 6 puzzles tend to be solved quickly, IMO.

[+ purplekow]

I enjoy the Sudoku in the daily paper. Over a cup of coffee and a bagel will do the daily puzzle. The Ken Ken are new to me and have just started doing the 6 x 6 grids in the paper and find I can complete them in less than 5 minutes. Will be on the lookout for 8x8 and 9x9. The NYT crossword and the extra Sunday Times puzzle are fun and challenging but I find the early week puzzles too easy and am usually done before my coffee is. I hate finishing early, many here can attest to that, so having a second challenge for the day is fun.

[+ Avalon]

It's too difficult for me.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

 

I've not heard of KenKen

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KenKen

[+ sync]

I threw in the towel during my bout with Sudoku almost immediately.

[+ poolboy48220]

Initially I did, but I figured out a plan - my strategy is more elimination based, as in "this square can't hold these numbers since they're already present in another cell in this row/column/box". I have a Word doc that I use to help with this, put in all the possible numbers and delete them as I eliminate possibilities.