Maki Kaji, a Japanese publisher who popularised the numbers puzzle sudoku played daily by millions around the world, has died from cancer aged 69. A university dropout who worked in a printing company before founding Japan’s first puzzle magazine, Kaji took hints from an existing number puzzle to create what he later named “sudoku” – a contraction of the Japanese for “every number must be single” – sometime in the mid-80s. The number of filled-in figures for a grid at the start of the puzzle determines how difficult it is. Sudoku became popular outside Japan around two decades ago after overseas newspapers began printing the puzzles. Kaji continued to create and refine puzzles with the help of readers of his quarterly puzzle magazine.

Source: The Guardian August 17, 2021 03:46 UTC