The name Sudoku/ is Japanese, meaning single numbers. But the game/ is believed to be an American invention, created by a man/ named Howard Garns. The earliest known examples/ of the game/ were published/ in nineteen seventy-nine.

In the nineteen eighties, the game/ appeared in Japan/ under the name Sudoku. In recent years, newspapers/ in Britain/ began publishing the game. And last year, its popularity/ spread back to the United States. Now/ the games/ are found in several major American newspapers, in bookstores, and on the Internet. You can even play Sudoku/ on cellular telephones.

Sudoku/ is designed to be played/ by one person. The rules of the game/ are simple, although completing it/ can be extremely difficult, especially higher-level Sudoku games.

Although the game/ uses numbers, you do not have to be good at mathematics/ to complete Sudoku/ successfully. Anyone/ who can count/ can solve Sudoku.

The game/ includes a box/ that contains eighty-one spaces, or smaller boxes. The goal/ is to fill in each space/ with a number, one through nine. Some of the spaces/ are already filled in/ so the player must complete the rest.

The numbers/ must be placed/ in such a way/ that each number is represented/ in every line of spaces, going across the box, and up and down. Nine areas/ within the main box/ must also contain each number, one through nine. A single mistake/ in Sudoku/ makes the whole game/ wrong. The games/ are rated, depending on their level/ of difficulty.

Numbers/ have been called/ an international language/ because they are the same/ in any language. Sudoku/ is a good example/ of this international language/ of numbers/ that anyone, in any country, can understand. Sudoku books/ are currently among the top sellers/ in the United States.