SCINTI LLATING SUDOKUS

The first. The craziest. And, specially for the Mail, the most fiendish! As the godfather of the puzzle dies, try...

The death of Maki Kaji, dubbed the ‘Godfather of Sudoku’, was announced this week — and if anyone has an enduring legacy it is surely this Japanese puzzlemaster.

Mr Kaji is credited with reinventing an ancient logicbased numbers puzzle for the modern world — which then went mad for it. his Sudoku is now a staple of newspapers globally, and boosts sales of millions of puzzle books and magazines.

It also attracts a dedicated online community.

We know Daily Mail readers are fans, too. So here we bring you some milestone Sudoku grids — including Mr Kaji’s first puzzle.

We are also printing one of the world’s toughest Sudokus, set for the Mail by Dr Arto Inkala, an applied mathematician from Finland.

By day, he is a researcher, using maths to solve environmental problems. By night, he deploys a complex computer program to create brain-aching Sudoku grids.

Dr Inkala made his name in Sudoku in 2006, when he created what was thought to be the world’s toughest puzzle. It was titled Al escargot for its snail-like appearance.

his Memorial Sudoku in honour of Maki Kaji is even harder, he says.

To put that in perspective, the Sudokus printed in this newspaper daily have difficulty ratings of one to five. This new one is a mind-boggling 11.

Dr Inkala insists a mathematical brain is not required. Instead, a good memory will suffice, allowing a puzzler to recall solution pathways. But even he found the Memorial Sudoku a fiendish challenge — so how will you get on?