Amritha and I discovered Sudoku-X with Hema's help. We used to buy Deccan Herald on Sundays and never read the instructions in Sudoku-X. Once we left the paper by mistake in Hema's place and then told us that the diagonals should also be solved. Eureka and we became fans of Sudoku-X. We are so addicted that in Chennai I would copy the puzzle from Deccan Herald e-paper at 5.30 AM and we would both solve the puzzle as soon as we returned from the temple and then only do other jobs.

Sudoku X builds on the rules of Sudoku.

The rules of Sudoku are fairly easy to understand. A standard Sudoku puzzle consists of a square 9 by 9 grid, with bold lines every third square in order to sub-divide it into nine 3 by 3 boxes. Out of the 81 squares, some are already filled with the numbers 1 to 9 by the setter. The aim is to fill all the squares with the numbers 1 to 9 into the puzzle grid so that each number occurs once and once only in each row, column and in each of the 3 by 3 box. The level of difficulty of a Sudoku puzzle may be Easy, Medium or Hard. Though many factors decide the level of difficulty, as a thumbrule, if the setter has filled 25 to 27 squares it may be Hard, 27 to 30 may be Medium and more than 30 will be Easy.

For children 6x6 puzzles where 1 to 6 are placed in the grids are used.

Other variations use the 12x12 puzzles where 1 to 9 plus A, B and C into each region in the grid are placed. In 16x16 puzzles place 1 to 9 and A to G.

A Sudoku X puzzle adds to the standard rows, columns and bold-lined boxes by also requiring that you place 1 to 9 into each of the two main diagonals, which are highlighted by a different colour or a line. Generally Sudoku - X setters fill only 19 to 23 squares.

Have fun and good luck in solving the Sudoku - X here. It is not fillable as I could not find any Javascript/html program that would help me make a fillable one. So for solving, you have to draw the grid, mark the two diagonals with lines and enter the given numbers and start solving. Hopefully I will locate a Javascript program and adapt it before the next issue.

Click on Grid to see half the solution click here to go back