What are the origins of sudoku?

It is a common misconception that the game of sudoku originated in Japan. This legend exists because when this puzzle was first published in 1984 in the monthly magazine "Getsukan Nikoli suto", it was called "Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru". The usage made that the name was gradually transformed to finally keep the name of Sudoku.

The term sudoku is therefore well and truly originating from Japan, but this puzzle finds its origin in a very close country, China. This puzzle, inspired by the magic square game, was played before (as early as 650 BC) with the help of different symbols. It is only during the Arab conquests of northern India that the game evolved and used numbers instead of Chinese characters. Finally, the sudoku arrived in the hands of the Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) and it is there that the definitive version, which we know today, was created: "A square table of n rows and n columns filled with n distinct elements of which each row and each column contains only one copy ".

The great thing about Sudoku is that it has evolved over time and today's Sudoku is a mixture of many cultures and knowledge. The original game came from China and traveled to Japan to find the simple and easy name we know today.\ In 2021, Sudoku Academy was created by a Frenchman with the objective of offering the world the simplest and most entertaining platform to enjoy this millennium game.