Help me remember the name of a puzzle

Several months ago my local newspaper ran a fluff story about this puzzle fad that was going on in the UK. It involved a square that was divided into nine smaller squares. Each square had nine spaces. The object was to fit the numbers 1 through 9 in each square and horizontal/vertical line. It’s just the sort of puzzle to occupy my currently bounteous time–but I can’t remember the name! I think it started with a Q? So far Googling has been of little help…sigh.

Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Sudoku

Sudoku?

Hot damn! Thanks.

Of course, this probably should have been in Cafe Society. Ah well, at least my question was answered.

This actually comes from Japan, su = number and doku = solve so sudoku is to solve a number (puzzle). I found the puzzle from a UK newspaper section in the Yomiuri (English) newspaper and got hooked. Fortunately, there quite a few sudoku books available here.

An online playable version of the game.

Be warned, it gets rather addictive!!!

Grim

Here’s another site for playing it online, along with a couple of other neat puzzles. I, for one, am seriously addicted to Light Up.

The Washington Post started running these recently in its comics pages. They rate the difficulty of each puzzle.

Su Doku page at The Times of London: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,18209,00.html

3 puzzles a day at different levels of difficulty, 1-week archive.
Another place to play online: http://www.sudokuhints.com/

2 levels of hints, and if you’re still stuck it’ll tell you how to solve the next step.

The 2005 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship had a sudoku with different-shaped subregions. In addition, some subregions wrap around the edges.

Get the puzzle pdf on this page: http://wpc.puzzles.com/p5/index.htm
The pdf is password protected. You get the password via a link lower on the page, but for reference the password is 2gr8work.

数 - [SUU, SU, kazu, kazo(-eru)] means number, several or count.
独 - [DOKU, hitori] means alone, single or unique (and also Germany).

The most literal translation of su doku would probably be “unique number”.