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Gone are the days of Sudoku; the in-thing is the Kakuro online puzzle. An even combination of mathematics and logic, Kakuro has so far swept the world off of its feet and the rust from the nooks and crannies of the average human brain. Claimed as the mathematical transliteration of the crossword, the Kakuro online puzzle brings forth the integer programming problems that depend upon matrix techniques for their solution. Other names for it are Cross Sums and Cross Addition, though the Japanese name Kakuro (from kasan kurosu or addition cross) stuck the most.
The Kakuro online puzzle has a unique quality of becoming reduced to the simplest form without losing generality. The 16 X 16 grid of filled and empty cells, divided into entries form a diagonal slash that runs from the corner upper-left to lower-right. There is a number in either one or both halves. The horizontal entry contains a number in the half-cell to its immediate left, while the vertical entry has a number in the half-cell immediately above, and is termed as a clue. Kakuro online puzzle grids are identical to crossword grids except for the lack of labeling in the black cells that correspond to matching clues found in crossword puzzles.
The game is played by inserting a digit between 1 and 9 in a way that makes the sum of the numbers in each entry match the associated clue. No digit is repeated in any of the Kakuro online puzzle entries, which makes the creation of Kakuro puzzles with unique solutions possible as well as the solving part an investigating combination, contrary to Sudoku’s emphasis on permutations. Going according to the intuition is always possible, but strategic playing requires an understanding of the various combinations brought forth by various pairings of clues and entry lengths.
NB: Entries with really large or small clues for their length shall give fewer possible combinations; comparing them to entries crossing them provides the proper permutation, or a part of it. Graph papers are of great help to advanced players.
