A challenge to all Sudoku enthusiasts: Have you ever thought of sliding out a Sudoku?

There is a new game combined from the principles of the popular Sudoku puzzle and the simple, yet deceiving, 15 puzzle of the 1880s. As such, the game is called Sudo15 (for the 4 by 4 size) but in general is called SudoSlide.

SudoSlide was invented by Kung-Ming Tiong, a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and its dynamics were analyzed together with a student, Yen-Peng Lee.

The idea for SudoSlide began around April 2006 and its analysis was completed in October 2006. The publication of the academic article on SudoSlide, which describes its game characteristics and some methods of play appeared in March, 2008 in the Game Journal http://www.gamejournal.org/game_journal_index_2008.php.

SudoSlide was also briefly introduced at a Science Carnival held at the School of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah in March 2008. And recently, one of the authors (Kung-Ming Tiong) talked to Mr. Balasingam of sudoku.com.my and was invited to write this short description on SudoSlide. » Read more

Youngest Participant in the Inaugural Asia Pacific Open was crowned the Asian Champion. Sarah Jane Cua,14, from the Philippines wins S$ 10,000. Participants from 7 Asian countries competed for the coveted title in the first BRAND’S Asia Pacific Open Sudoku Challenge. The nine participants nominated by Sudoku Event Management and the three winners of the BRAND’S Malaysia Sudoku Challenge represented Malaysia in the Inaugural BRAND’S Sudoku Challenge Asia Pacific Open held in Singapore on 12th July 2008.

Earlier in the day, 100 Singaporean finalists, short-listed from 1,000 semi-finalists of 7,129 qualifying entries from the preliminary online competition on the STOMP website, participated in the BRAND’S Sudoku Challenge Singapore Open. In the afternoon, 53 participants from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong, India and China competed in 5 rounds in the Asia Pacific Open. Our participants did Malaysia proud by having 6 of the 15 contestants in the fourth round. In the 5th and final round of 5 contestants on the stage, there were two representing Malaysia. The sixth position was secured by Lim Fong and the other three, Adrian Wong, Lim Vee Loon and Lim Kar Gee were close behind. Lee Chen Hsieng narrowly missed qualifying for the fourth round. Suganthi and Ng Chee Kiat also performed well, not far behind. » Read more

Sudoku Event Management is pleased to announce that we have successfully facilitated the first online Sudoku Competition in Malaysia. The event was organised by the Mathematics Society of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and was held in-house at the Faculty of Information and Communication Technolgy at the UTAR PJ Campus.

We wish to congratulate the Organising Committee for their pro activeness in initiating this event and and making it a success, and the Management of UTAR for their support and encouragement. We also wish to thank the above for giving us the opportunity to facilitate this event. Mr. Logan, our IT Director, deserves special thanks for developing the software and for running the event without a glitch.

Most of the participants had fun.? As the winners of each round moved on to the next round, the rest participated in various events planned by the Organising Committee. Lee Chen Hsieng was the Champion. He received the RM 1,500 cash prize.

Bong Hui Chin & Yong Kuan Chen, the first runner-up, shared the 2nd prize of RM 1,000 and Ooi Heap Guan & Lee Yoeu San, the 2nd runner-up, shared the 3rd prize of RM 500. All three winners are from UTAR.

The following are the consolation prize winners:

4th Lim Vee Loon
5th Yong Pui Mun & Gan Fei Shin
6th Woo Shi Yuin & Tan Jian Qi
7th Lim Pik Shan & Yap Ying Ying
8th Liew Wei Wei & Lau Chin How
9th Tiew Chuan Shin & Khoo Yi Shien
10th Gavin Chung Sieng Leung
All the above are also from UTAR except for Lim Vee Loon from INTI College.

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Online registration form

Welcome to the UTAR National Sudoku Competition 2008, the first online Sudoku competition in Malaysia, to be held on Saturday, 14th June 2008 from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Sudoku.com.my is the competition website and we are pleased to have been invited to facilitate this competition organised by the UTAR Mathematics Society.

In addition to being an online competition, the Organisers have planned to make this a fun event by creating a loser?s pool and also sessions on Sudoku variations. While the winners move on to subsequent rounds, the losers in each round will be moved to an adjacent venue for puzzle solving of a different kind. It will be fun and there will be prizes to be won. You can expect a carnival atmosphere, with undergraduates from various Universities mingling and enjoying the fellowship with new-found friends. » Read more

An artist has simulated a solved sudoku puzzle with various related images into Greeting Cards. Samples at www.objetdecarte.com

A book review by N.Balasingam

We are pleased to review this book written by another Malaysian. The Author, popularly known as Tee Gee, is Mr Lim Teck Guan, an Electrical Engineer, retired recently, having served in the LLN and subsequently in the privatised TNB. His entire career was with this one establishment.

He was introduced to Sudoku Puzzles two years ago and found himself with lots of time to engage in this new-found pursuit which, in his own words, he got ?hooked? to. He talked to all his friends about Sudoku and introduced many to the game.

Scouting around for books on Sudoku, to hone his Sudoku solving skills, he was not satisfied with what was available. This prompted him to consider writing a book, as suggested by his friends, to come up with a simple book to introduce the game for beginners. » Read more

LIM VEE LOON, 18, was the under 18 Champion in the NST Sudoku Tournament 2007. An SPM student, last year, at SMJK Chung Hwa, Klang, he received RM 3,000, a handsome cash prize. This was his best performance, following a series of previous wins in various local competitions; but very few in Malaysia would know that he has moved on from Classic Sudoku, to solve the many variations of Sudoku played in the World Sudoku Championships.

He participated in the Polish International Online Sudoku Championship held in March 2007. Participants from 22 countries were given 11hours 30 minutes to solve 8 puzzles online real-time, consisting of Sudoku Variations. Vee Loon was placed 25th out of 207 participants, completing all the puzzles in a time of 2h 12m 29s. This was a very creditable performance and our congratulations to Vee Loon on his initiative and grit, to venture into un-chartered waters. » Read more

The 3rd World Sudoku Championship 2008 was held in Goa, India from 14th to 17th April, 2008.

The 1st World Sudoku Championship 2006 was held in Lucca, Tuscany from 10th to 11th March 2006. Ninety Sudoku champions from 22 countries participated in solving 48 puzzles of Sudoku Variants. The 2nd World Sudoku Championship 2007 was held in Czech Republic from March 28th to April 1st 2007 in the city of Prague.

140 Individuals and teams from 32 countries participated in solving nine sets of variations of Sudoku. Most of the 22 countries for the 2006 championships and the 32 countries participating in the 2007 World Sudoku Championships held their own National Sudoku Championships to select a team of 6 for the WSC. » Read more

The Sudoku Numbers Puzzle reached the shores of Malaysia about six months after it hit the Crossword puzzle pages of leading British newspapers in November 2004. From May 2005, newspapers in more than 50 countries, spanning the whole world, started to introduce Sudoku to their readers. The readership in all these countries have taken to Sudoku with frenzy expected to eclipse the Rubik?s cube craze of the 80?s.

Sudoku in Japanese can be translated to ?single number?. This was the name given to the puzzle when it was abbreviated from ?Suji wa dokushin ni kagiru?, which stood for ?the number must be single?. Kaji Maki the president of Nikoli introduced the puzzle in Japan in April 1984 in the Monthly Nikolist.

However, the origins of Sudoku have been traced back to the 18th century. Leonhard Euler, born in Basle, Switzerland in 1707, was a mathematical genius who had authored numerous books and papers. He became blind in his later years but continued his work with mathematics and in 1783 introduced ?Latin Squares? which is considered the precursor to Number Place. » Read more