Customer Reviews

Will Shortz Presents Puzzles from the World Sudoku Championship: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Associated Press put it very well - "Hunched over newspapers on crowded subway trains, sneaking secret peeks in the office, a puzzle-crazy nation is trying to slot numbers into small checkerboard grids." No doubt about it! Sudoku is a mainstream craze and when people like me get fanatical about their puzzles, they undoubtedly get better and better at it. We're all looking for more and more difficult puzzles to challenge ourselves. Sudoku aficionados call their favourite puzzles "fiendish".

Wouldn't you think that a book entitled "Puzzles From the World Sudoku Championship" compiled by one of the best known Sudoku puzzle editors in the world would qualify as a compendium of exquisitely difficult fiendish puzzles? I know I did.

Well ... think again! This is not it! The regular Sudoku puzzles barely reach medium difficulty and, in most cases, I was able to solve the puzzles without even adding any intermediate notations. Now to the book's credit, the Sudoku variants are clever and, in many cases, quite challenging. In one particular case (called Ball Sudoku), I have as yet been completely unable to find the solution or, for that matter, even a method of beginning to find a solution outside of brute force elimination (and we all know that is not considered a particularly elegant method of solving a puzzle).

So what do we have here? In summary, 2 stars for the regular Sudoku component of the book and 4 stars for the variations. We'll call it 3 stars on average and provide the warning that if you don't care for Sudoku variants, then you'd better avoid the book entirely.

Paul Weiss

Both the cover and the introduction would have you believe that the puzzles contained in the book are very challenging. He presents some unusual variations of the standard puzzle, and these may be difficult. I have no interest in trying them. I wanted the standard format puzzle worthy of an international competition. The fifty some standard, or classic, format puzzles are not as advertised. If you are an experienced sudoku enthusiast, you will breeze through them all.

Quite a variety of puzzles beyond the standard 9x9 grid. Only wish there were more of the variety. Puzzles are fun and challenging. Recommended.

Brilliant book from Will Shortz. Puzzles are enjoyable and absorbing. Another successful book from the master. Thoroughly recommended.