As “part of a regime of daily activities to keep my brain limber,” which is my excuse for “fun,” I like to work on kakuro puzzles. Kakuro is the name of a paper puzzle that’s like Sudoku on steroids. As with Sudoku, a grid must be filled with the numbers 1-9 without repetition in every row or column. Kakuro adds new wrinkles: columns and rows can be less than 9 spaces long, meaning that some numbers between 1 and 9 will be left out. Which numbers will be left out of a row or column? You have to figure that out, given one new piece of information: the sum total that each of the rows or columns has to add up to.
If you’re given two blanks and they have to add up to 16, that’s easy: 9 and 7 are the only two (non-repeating) numbers between 1 and 9 that add up to 16. If you’re given four blanks and they have to add up to 16, that’s trickier. A kakuro puzzle overall can be simpler or trickier by including more of the simpler solutions or more of the tricker solutions.
Having played kakuro for a while, I look forward to the more devilishly difficult kakuro puzzles. I thought I’d find that in the collection of Kakuro by Johnny Wong. It advertised four sets of puzzle difficulties: beginner, intermediate, advanced and “extreme.” I started from the back, which is where Johnny Wong’s “extreme” kakuro puzzles were located. Sadly, these puzzles were only mildly difficult, as mildly difficult as pepper jack cheese is mildly spicy. This book heads to my eight-year-old son, who is starting off with the beginner puzzles, which are great for someone still nailing down his addition skills. But Johnny Wong’s Kakuro book isn’t what I was looking for.
If you’re looking for kakuro puzzles that will not only kick your ass but grind it into fine meaty bits and stuff it into sausage casing, I suggest that you try The Kakuro Challenge with puzzles by Peter Gordon. As often as not, I find that I cannot successfully complete the puzzles, and I wrinkle my forehead in frustrated despair. That’s the way I like it, because when I do succeed in finishing one of Gordon’s kakuros, I feel a wave of elation.
If you are looking for comfort puzzling (or are just starting with kakuros), you can’t go wrong with Wong. But if you’ve been doing kakuros for a while and are looking for some really tricky puzzles, get Gordon.
