Countdown to our cracking new puzzles!

TODAY CAROL VORDERMAN’S CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE TO SUGURU

Bigger, brighter and more addictive than ever, the Mail’s launching a new suite of challenging puzzles, starting on Saturday. And who better to introduce the new games than quiz queen Carol Vorderman?

GRAB a pen, breathe deeply and get your thinking cap on. From Easter Saturday there’s a bigger, better puzzles section in your Daily Mail, with all your favourites plus some exciting new ones – promising to give your grey matter a sizzling workout.

Think you’ve cracked Sudoku? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet...

All this week, we’ll be introducing you to fascinating, ingenious and tantalising new brainteasers that will test you as never before – all of which will appear in our fabulous new puzzles section, alongside your regular favourites such as Codeword and Sudoku

On Saturday, we’ll publish your new 4-page puzzles section as a taster of what you can expect every weekday.

Today, we introduce you to the wonderfully uncomplicated but endlessly challenging Suguru (right), a number cell game that a child could pick up in a couple of minutes – though its Japanese inventors claim there are 175 different mathematical patterns that can crop up, and learning to spot them all could keep you busy for years.

Suguru is the Japanese word for ‘excellent’ and, when you discover the joys of solving its riddle, you’ll know how it got its name.

Tomorrow, we’ll introduce you to the mini-puzzle that needs a big brain to conquer it – Suko.

On Wednesday, it’s Futoshiki, a game that might remind you of Bruce Forsyth’s Play Your Cards Right. It’s all about going higher or lower.

Then on Thursday, it’s your chance to learn Train Tracks, the game that takes you from A to B.

It might look like child’s play but, just like travelling on our own railway network, it’s a challenge.

And finally, on Friday, we introduce Killer Sudoku . . . the name says it all!

From Easter Monday onwards, Train Tracks and Killer Sudoku will be published in the paper from Monday to Saturday. Meanwhile, as a bonus, Suguru, Suko and Futoshiki will also appear in the Saturday paper.

But fear not. Helping you every step of the way will be the nation’s conundrum queen, Carol Vorderman.

Drawing on a lifetime’s experience of solving puzzles, not to mention a degree in engineering from Cambridge and more than 25 years on TV’s Countdown, she will be giving you tips, pointing out pitfalls and applying relentless logic to every new game.

‘I can’t wait,’ says Carol. ‘There’s nothing more satisfying than cracking a challenging new number game, and it’s very exciting that the Mail is introducing five this week. I’ve got more than a few puzzler trade secrets to reveal, to help you master even the trickiest of the bunch.’

And you can find more games in the interactive version of the paper, Irish Mail Plus, available for tablets and smartphones at mailsubscriptions.ie – visit the website to find out more.

So what are you waiting for? Get puzzling! Read on for Carol’s tips on solving the first of our new puzzles.