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Beginners Guide on How to Play Sudoku

Can I Afford Retirement Living

Sudoku is a game of numbers played on a 9×9 square grid. It’s similar to the crossword puzzle but uses numbers instead of words. Playing sudoku can help your older loved ones unwind while stimulating their brain and can help boost mental alertness in older adults.

Interestingly, sudoku isn’t as complicated as it may seem. To be an expert in the game, you only need the right approach with a few shortcuts. Your older relatives will start recognizing patterns and finding good opportunities to place numbers successfully in no time.

At Seasons Retirement, we encourage lifelong learning among older adults. This includes learning games like sudoku that can enhance their cognitive performance.

This article highlights some helpful sudoku tips for beginners to help your older loved ones understand the game better.

Guide to Playing Sudoku for Beginners: Step-by-Step Approach

Before playing sudoku as a beginner, one should familiarize themselves with sudoku rules. This will help them focus their mind on the real aim of the game. And afterward, they can even figure out their techniques to make the game easier.

1.    Learn the Sudoku Grid

The sudoku grid contains a 9×9 grid box with numbers 1 to 9. These nine squares on the rows and columns are subdivided into a 3×3 grid. In the sudoku game, every row, column, and 3×3 square must contain the numbers 1 to 9 without repeating any number.

2.    Don’t  Simply Guess Solutions

As one of the best memory games for adults, sudoku isn’t just a game of guessing. Instead, it requires focus and critical thinking to identify the correct figures. Although guessing may be tempting for beginners, you’ll need a more strategic approach to solve your puzzles consistently.

Therefore, sudoku players are encouraged to apply logic to arrive at the correct numbers; instead, players should have time to study the grid to identify possible figure placements. Not only will this make it easier for them to solve, but it’ll also help the player improve their cognitive performance.

A player can also move to a different grid when one subsection becomes too challenging, so feel free to solve a particular grid first. Focusing on another subsection can help unlock seemingly tricky placements.

3.    Find Easy Opportunities First

Initially, every sudoku grid has a few rows and columns filled with the correct numbers. This provides good hints and a reliable starting point for new players when learning how to play.

Check for grids with many positioned numbers, and start from there. Grids with more figures are more straightforward to fill than those with sparsely distributed grids. For example, a grid containing eight of nine numbers only means you should check for only one missing number and place.

Sometimes, the grids already answer the puzzle; all that’s needed is for the player to find the patterns and place the figures.

4.    Use the Elimination Method

An easy way for beginners to learn how to play sudoku is to use the elimination method when the game gets complex.

In the elimination method, you find out which numbers are missing and which number fits best into the available spaces. You can write down figures 1 to 9 and cross off each one for each row or column till you find the needed figure for that cell.

Then, you can determine where each number will go based on the position of the already-placed numbers on the grid. This can use a basic logical deduction strategy to help even beginners solve their puzzles with ease.

5.    Apply the Cross-Hatching Method

Sudoku involves various techniques, and one of them is the cross-hatching method. While learning how to play sudoku for beginners, the cross-hatching technique helps older people quickly understand the game.

This method involves cross-referencing columns and rows to find unique numbers specific to that grid. When cross-hatching, the player needs to remain aware of the figures they’re placing in each empty box to make progress on the puzzle.

6.    Always Re-evaluate Your Conditions

For beginners learning to play sudoku, constant re-evaluation is necessary to understand the game better. Ongoing evaluation of your current configuration can help you get consistently closer to the game’s conclusion. Every time one places a figure, they should ask what changed and what lessons they learned from playing the move.

Questioning their placements is a habit that starting players must learn to improve at the game. For instance, when you place the number 8 in a column, ask how the figure affects the corresponding grids. Every number you place in a grid, row, or column creates opportunities to put more numbers in nearby spaces.

7.    Keep up the Momentum

Players should ensure they don’t get stuck on one grid. The game involves momentum to keep up the challenge. Therefore, one should keep moving from block to block to find possible playing opportunities.

When a player finds a good figure spot, they should follow up and see other numbers that can be placed within the neighboring sub-grids. Practice quick thinking and decision-making to maintain the game’s momentum and keep your logical deductions flowing.

8.    Be Patient

When learning sudoku for beginners, older adults should be aware that the game will get difficult at some points. When this happens, it’s crucial to remain patient; since sudoku requires critical thinking, it’s natural for it to take some time before a player successfully figures out the next move.

Because the game can sometimes be challenging, older adults can stimulate their mental faculties and improve their mental sharpness when playing. So while it may feel difficult, remember to stay calm and stick with it – it’ll all pay off in the long run.

9.  Set a Timer

This may seem contradictory to our previous point emphasizing patience, but challenging yourself to complete a puzzle within a set period using a timer will help players increase their speed over time.

Our older loved ones can work with a timer to be conscious of the time taken to think out the next move. As such, the timer settings should always correspond to their difficulty and skill level.

10.  Play Other Sudoku Variations

Players starting to pick up the game can try to play online sudoku variations to enjoy a diverse game experience. There are several types of puzzles and difficulty levels available online, so players are encouraged to challenge themselves on more advanced configurations after getting the hang of the game at the beginner level. This will help improve their problem-solving skills faster and make the process easier for them in the long run.

Keep Practicing Your Sudoku Skills

Practice makes perfect. Although it can take a few games to learn how to play sudoku, constant practice can quickly help one become an expert.

If your parents or grandparents are learning sudoku, they can easily follow this guide to improve their game. Also, encourage them to practice the simple and moderate sudoku puzzles before moving on to more advanced models.

You could take a proactive approach to encourage your loved ones by playing with them and solving puzzles together. This can make sudoku a fun and engaging activity for your older loved ones that also offers opportunities to socialize and keep themselves mentally stimulated.

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