Blog » Colour Sudoku

I've been having a bit of a play recently with Sudoku (generators, solvers and puzzles). It's all the rage, after all. While I was at it I came up with what I believe is a new type of Sudoku puzzle - colour sudoku. There's an example below, ~~I'll be releasing a Colour Sudoku site in the near future (once I get hosting figured out)~~ I've released a Colour Sudoku site! Feedback is very welcome - enjoy!

To play, you must fill all columns and rows with the digits 1-9. Each digit can only appear once in each column and row. Additionally, you must fill each set of nine identically-coloured squares with the digits 1-9. Good luck!

		3	6		7	8
		7					5
			9			1
						2
5	6	8	2			7	1
	1
			7	6	5
				3	2	6
6	2		4	5		3

Colour Sudoku, by Dave Child, was posted on 16 March 2006 and has not been tagged yet.

22 Comments

I do like Sudoku, but recently I've been liking Kakuro (http://www.kakuro.com/) a lot more. It's by the same people only it'a more mathmatical than just a placement puzzle.

#1, Sam, United Kingdom, 16 March 2006. Reply to this.

Just curious as to whether or not this is any different from the original sudoku? I mean is it actually harder to do? Is there in fact the same solution if there were no colours? Or do you actually reduce the number of original numbers and use the fact that the numbers can only appear once in a colour to help finish the solution?

As I said I'm just curious. I really like sudoku and spend some time now and then playing it, and would be rather interested if this new colour sudoku is actually more complicated and thus may be able to while away more of my time. :)

#2, Richard, United Kingdom, 16 March 2006. Reply to this.

Hi Richard,

That's a tricky question. In my experience so far, this has been much harder than normal Sudoku - but that may be because I've not done many of these before. My gut instinct is that it probably is harder, simply because these are going to be less obvious squares to fill in.

#3, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 17 March 2006. Reply to this.

Seems to me like the addition of the "only 1-9 in each group of colored boxes" actually gives the player another advantage to the location of the numbers :)

#4, enygma, United States, 17 March 2006. Reply to this.

That would be true, if the digits 1-9 appeared in each of the 3x3 blocks (of 9 squares), but they don't, which is why I believe it is harder.

You do NOT have to place 1-9 in each 3x3 block. You only have to place 1-9 in each row and column and in each set of 9 same-coloured squares.

#5, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 17 March 2006. Reply to this.

http://www.syslogan.co.uk/wap/whynot/getthis.htm
already done this game jack sorry mate times have mved on check out my latest game at the above address circular colour sudoku. your game has been around for 2 years and can be found all over the internet, it is actualy a boradgame as well on sale at hamleys

#6, corin, United Kingdom, 20 March 2006. Reply to this.

put the following into google colour sudoku there are hundreds of variations out there

#7, big dog, United Kingdom, 20 March 2006. Reply to this.

I've seen lots of games called colour sudoku, but none of the same type. Most just seem to add colour in as another variable, making the puzzle easier, or replace numbers with colours entirely. The circular colour sudoku is certainly an unusual spin on the game!

If anyone has seem this variation of Sudoku, could they please post a link to it. There are other types of colour sudoku, yes, but I've not seen this variation anywhere else yet ...

#8, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 24 March 2006. Reply to this.

I've seen lots of sudoku variations, but never this one in particular, it's quite nice actually.

Have you tried programming it? I think it will be a more complex job than the usual sudoku generators. And solving it will indeed be harder than simple sudoku.

#9, Steven, Spain, 27 March 2006. Reply to this.

Hi Steven:

It is actually programmed - the above was generated by the program. I am currently putting the finishing touches to a site with these on.

#10, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 27 March 2006. Reply to this.

I am addicted to Sudoku! I made an inventory of methods for solving even the most difficult Sudoku. Start with looking for duo's, it's an eye opener!
Check http://www.sudokuhints.nl/en/ for details.

Good luck!

#11, Rijk, Netherlands, 7 April 2006. Reply to this.

@Rijk: Very nice! Is easy to understand because of your intuitive examples. Ive made developed a similar solution algorithm, which contains basically the same procedures!

#12, Blandi, Germany, 16 April 2006. Reply to this.

i like sudoku a lot but this one appears to be really bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#13, aiden, United Kingdom, 19 April 2006. Reply to this.

Hi Aiden. Thanks for your comment - would you care to elaborate? Bad because it's too difficult for you? Bad because it's too easy? Bad because it's not explained well enough? Bad because you don't like the colours?

#14, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 20 April 2006. Reply to this.

I am very impressed by the elaboration of such a "hard" (I suppose) coloured sudoku and by those who are able to solve it.
I am only involved in classical Sudoku with "Computer Aided Sudoku Excel" to download free at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sudoku.laviron
This free Sudoku Excel game includes generator helper solver. SURPRISES appears when sudoku solved without help. An HISTORIC table records all the plays and allows partial replay. In the CLINIC, analyse your Sudoku.
For me coloured board, but not coloured Sudokus !

#15, AndreL, France, 24 April 2006. Reply to this.

This looks cool. I have started a blog, where I would occassionally post Double Wordoku's. You are welcome to check it out at http://harismind.com/blog/
I have also created a very popular Excel based Sudoku generator cum solver cum helper application which can be freely downloaded from my site http://www.harismind.com/sudoku.html

#16, Hari, Singapore, 23 September 2006. Reply to this.

I love to hear about these new ideas. Recently I found a new grid game called SHENDOKU. Its great because you can play with 2 or more friends. Check it out at www.shendoku.com.Theres other goodies too.

#17, gridrat, Portugal, 7 December 2006. Reply to this.

Just in time for Valentine's Day - http://www.personalsudoku.com
Choose your initials (or your sweetie's initials) and get a
personalized puzzle or use the permalink feature to email
a puzzle to that special someone!

#18, Dave, United States, 5 February 2007. Reply to this.

I really like the colors. It adds a level of difficulty when you look at the puzzle. My site <a href="http://www.mysudokugames.com">www.mysudokugames.com </a> has a color option as well, but each 3x3 box is the same color. Does not play with the eyes as well as yours.

#19, Elizabeth, United States, 27 April 2007. Reply to this.

That's a neat idea. I bet it's REALLY hard when someone is color-blind. The only new spin so far at my sudoku site is letting people chose a square for a hint.

#20, Sudoku With Us, United States, 17 December 2007. Reply to this.

SUDOKU ANOMALY by Fabien La Bastide
It is said that there can be ?only one solution for each SUDOKU puzzle?. They were wrong! I found one puzzle which there is two possible solutions of the same puzzle. It can be found in the paperback book Bendon?s SUDOKU the original brain workout from Japan ? Volume 11. Puzzle #143 (very hard)

The ?sure numbers? 5 and 8 in grids 3 and 9 can be entered alternately. I?m sure more can be found in the 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 possible games of SUDOKU. Good luck.

9 1 3 4 7 2 58 6 58
8 7 4 6 5 9 1 2 3
2 6 5 8 3 1 9 4 7
7 8 2 5 4 6 3 9 1
3 9 6 2 1 8 7 5 4
4 5 1 3 9 7 2 8 6
6 4 9 7 2 3 58 1 58
5 2 7 1 8 4 6 3 9
1 3 8 9 6 5 4 7 2

#21, Fabien, Unknown, 7 April 2009. Reply to this.

It is too difficult for me to play !

#22, The thao, Vietnamese, 5 March 2011. Reply to this.