By N.Balasingam

Congratulations to Mr. Jeff H.S.Keow, a Malaysian, on the launch of his book on Sudoku. The book entitled ?Think out of the Block with SUDOKU? is a complete manual on how to solve Sudoku puzzles, unlike most of the books published which give a few pages of tips with hundreds of puzzles. We tend to agree with the writers of the Foreword that this could be ?the first book of its kind in the world?, and definitely a first for Malaysia. A person who is just beginning to solve Sudoku puzzles, and willing to spend a few days to study his book, will get off to a running start to solving these puzzles with relative ease. If this person continues to refer to the book like one refers to a manual or handbook he/she will be attempting the most difficult puzzles within a month or two. Compare this with many of us who spent months to arrive at the Techniques, Procedures and Solving Strategies, which he has laid out in great detail, fully illustrated with worked examples.

This book will help one to avoid the months of trial and error, and wondering how to handle pure and locked twins and triplets referred to in the puzzle books, and much more.

Jeff Keow has used an empirical approach to Sudoku puzzle solving, deriving the techniques etc. based on the rules of Sudoku. He has used space repetition to emphasise the basic concepts and steps, so that these will be firmly entrenched in the beginners? mind. The methodology has been systematically developed from the basic to the more complex steps in three parts: Knowing, Applying and Solving Sudoku. The author completes the book with a fourth part called Thinking with Sudoku, an insight on critical and creative thinking, drawing from his vast experience in teaching, lecturing and experience in the corporate sector.

The book is well-written, in a smooth flow of English which makes it easy to comprehend the step by step progress to the more complex situations in Sudoku solving. A word of caution; do not expect to breeze through the book like a novel and start solving puzzles. One has to browse through and subsequently study it like a manual or handbook, and put in lots of practice.

We are pleased to highly recommend ?Think out of the Block with SUDOKU? for beginners and also for experienced players to consolidate and formalise their solving strategies. We are proud of Jeff?s work which was a labour of love and a valuable contribution to the world of Sudoku. We wish him world-wide sales of this book.

Note: We would be pleased to review any other book by a Malaysian Author, if any.