Sudoku is a puzzle games consisting of numbers. Like any game that can take possession of our kids, playing Sudoku has all the elements of a good puzzle game: fun, excitement, and mental challenge. It is simply addictive – in a good and positive sense. However, more than these recreational values that Sudoku offers to its avid gamers, Sudoku also offers to develop more than your child’s numerical skills.

         Sudoku-solving trains your mind to process various forms of information, details, images and strategies at lightning speeds. While you devise strategies to win the game, it also builds your neural connections.  It helps in extending dendrite connections in your brain cells which help improve memory.  Scientists say solving them depends on neural pathways that even the most powerful computers can't replicate. They say that by studying how people solve the puzzles, we might be able to develop more intelligent and brain-like computers.

Which attributes are developed or sharpened while playing Sudoku?

To crack Sudoku our brain uses a unique set of neural pathways known as associative memory, which equips us to identify a pattern from a partial clue. We all recognize the basic pattern of counting digits from 1...9, yet the task of completing a Sudoku puzzle is confounded because of the large number of possible permutations of this pattern. But every time we plug the right digit in the correct slot it provides us with a clue, which reduces the number of permutations and simplifies the task.

Thus Sudoku is a marriage between logic and intelligent guesswork based on the abilities of associative memory.