Tell me the reason thatjust nine rows of boxes could start crossword puzzle hysteria? The answer is a relatively new mindbender named Sudoku. It’s popular in Japan, and more so in Europe and is now America is hooked. Sudoku - Japanese for "single number" – is sure to create crossword puzzle addicts among newspaper readers, online gamers, and even those already addicted to the regular grid crossword puzzles.

The popularity of the puzzle is due to its Zen quality: the rules of the puzzle are quite easy, yet playing it requires some amount of logic, patience and focus. Some teachers have their kids work on Sudoku puzzles to help enhance their logic and reasoning skills.

The most commun puzzle is a 9×9 grid, made up of 3×3 sub grids called regions or blocks. Some squares already contain numerals, known as "givens" - or sometimes as clues. The goal is to fill in the empty squares, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1–9 only once. Each number in the answer therefore occurs only once in each of three directions or scopes, hence the single numbers implied by the puzzle's name.

A retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor invented the game in 1979. The puzzle was first published in 1979 by the specialist puzzle publisher Dell Magazines in its magazine Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games, under the title Number Place. In 1984, the puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist; they later named it Sudoku.

In 1986, Nikoli changed the puzzle in two fundamental ways which guaranteed its popularity: they restricted the number of givens to no more than 32 and they started designing symmetrical puzzles meaning the givens are now distributed in rotationally symmetric squares. Funny enough, Dell Magazines, which publishes the original Number Place puzzle, now publishes two Sudoku magazines: Original Sudoku and Extreme Sudoku.

This easy game has taken off like wild fire in Britain and has generated an entire puzzle industry. Sooner than later the Sudoku will be added to cell phones, board games and quiz shows. The internet is loaded with message forums about Sudoku and computer nerds are toiling away to build the best software program possible for solving the puzzles.

The Sudoku challenge is not entirely original and its variations have appeared in numerous ancient societies. Benjamin Franklin wrote an article about a game called magic squares, and worked on them in his free time away from forming the U.S.

Just like the rubric’s cube, the cryptic crosswords, and chess, Sudoku will bend your brain in ways you never thought possible. Some people insist that doing these puzzles day after day will keep your mind young and spry. So check out your local newspaper or turn on your computer so you can find out what has started crossword puzzle mania.