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Sudoku Syndication

Sudoku syndication for newspapers, magazines, books, and mobile apps by Ian Riensche, the Sudoku creator for the Tacoma News Tribune, The Olympian and Reader's Digest Canada. Whether you manage a newspaper or are creating a mobile phone app, Sudoku Puzzler will provide you with industry standard 9x9 Sudoku puzzles. 6x6 Sudoku puzzles are also available upon request. Sudoku Puzzler has the widest difficulty range of any published Sudoku puzzle that I've personally tested. The Ultra Easy's are approachable for beginners and the Diabolical's are a challenge even for experts. Please see below for more on the comparison study I performed.

In 2009 the TNT was seeking a new Sudoku provider to replace the low quality provider (i.e., the puzzles were way too easy) that had been generating complaints from readers. About that time I sent in a copy of my newly self-published book, Sudoku for Lunch, which landed on the managing editor's desk. The TNT appointed a panel to verify the puzzles' legitimacy and complexity. They passed, and I've been creating Sudoku puzzles for them ever since. People say timing is everything, and that was definitely true in this case.

Please see rates below for 9x9 Sudoku puzzles & solutions in high quality format. No contract required. Please email Ian at ian@sudokupuzzler.com if you have questions or would like more information. Sample puzzles available upon request.

Please copy and paste the code below into your web page in order to link back to this website:

Ultra Easy | Easy | Medium | Hard | Diabolical | PDF

Sudoku Puzzler
Free Sudoku Web Feature

Free interactive Sudoku web feature for your newspaper's Sudoku web page. Even if you don't subscribe to Sudoku Puzzler's daily print puzzles, you are still welcome to use this Sudoku web feature for your web site. All I ask is that you retain the link to Sudoku Puzzler. Here's the code:


Copy and paste the code above to get the embedded page below.

Sudoku Puzzler
Sudoku Puzzler's available difficulty levels:
  1. Ultra Easy
  2. Easy
  3. Medium
  4. Hard
  5. Diabolical

All Sudoku puzzles are ready for print, with solutions. For samples, please see the PDF (above); for more information, please email: ian@sudokupuzzler.com.

Below is a graph that numerically compares the difficulty level of Sudoku Puzzler (blue) with Universal Uclick's Daily Sudoku (red) and Universal Sudoku (green). All three Sudoku puzzles start off at about the same difficulty rating at the easy end, but as we move right along the graph some separation begins to occur. When we get to the difficult end, Sudoku Puzzler is clearly above the other two in terms of difficulty, yet without being ridiculous. Sudoku Puzzler's Diabolical is typically what would be printed on Sundays.

Sudoku Puzzler vs Universal Uclick

Reader takes extra step for his favorite puzzle

This story can be found at:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/01/30/1523282/reader-takes-extra-step-for-his.html

From the Tacoma News Tribune, 1/30/11, by Karen Peterson:

Sudoku man, meet your No. 1 fan. And when it comes to Sudoku puzzles, TNT reader James Lee knows what he's talking about.

Our managing editor, Dale Phelps, and a number of staffers serving as reader representative got to know Lee two years ago during what amounted to The Great Sudoku Wars.

Early in 2009, our original puzzle vendor imposed an outrageous price increase, so we switched to one with a more reasonable price. Readers - Lee the most prolific among them - began calling the reader rep to say the new puzzles were too easy. Lee declared them "distressingly easy," "defective" and "kindergarten stuff."

We petitioned the new Sudoku vendor to toughen up the puzzles, but the upgrade did not impress Lee.

"If they were eggs they would be graded F," he told us. Later, he called to say, "Today's puzzle, it was pathetic." Another day it was "a real letdown." Thankfully, on the rare occasion we met his tough standard, Lee also called to thank us.

Next, Phelps collected Sudoku puzzles from other vendors and appointed a reader panel - including Lee - to test them. Lee even applied his own complicated scoring method. Still, we couldn't find a suitable Sudoku.

Finally, we found Ian Riensche, a Gig Harbor man who had written a book of Sudoku puzzles and was willing to sell us one a day. Lee tested his puzzles and found them suitable, which played a role in our choosing Riensche as our new Sudoku vendor.

We considered the Sudoku Wars over, and we hadn't heard from Lee for more than a year.

Until Friday.

That's when the bundled stack of completed puzzles (see photo) arrived in a manila envelope. Each puzzle is marked with the time it took Lee to finish and other notations that apparently lead to a circled numerical score.

In the envelope was this note: "Mr. Phelps, All of 2010 enclosed - Ian Riensche is averaging 5.7 on a 1-to-10 scale of difficulty. He's right down the pipe and well on, on his estimates. Still a winner. Hang on to him. Sincerely, James Lee."

Readers often are quick to criticize, but rarely do they go to the lengths of James Lee to make this paper better. For that, we offer our thanks. And we'll keep trying to measure up.

Below are the results of James Lee's assessments, in graph format. The first graph shows the solution times, as recorded by Mr. Lee. The second graph shows his assigned difficulty level, based on his own formulation.

2010 Sudoku Puzzler solution times, as recorded by Mr. Lee

2010 Sudoku Puzzler difficulty scores, as assigned by Mr. Lee
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