Welcome puzzle fans... OurTown2Day is pleased to offer Sudoku puzzles (new puzzles will be posted on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) plus a monthly "contest" puzzle. Imported from Japan in 2004 Sudoku puzzles have taken the puzzle community by storm. From ancient Magic Squares to the Rubik's Cube of the 21st century, Sudoku has something for everyone. Where this rapidly developing fad leads to, no one can tell. What is clear though is that Sudoku is a fun and challenging way for people of any age and culture to hone their logical and deductive abilities. Who knows... played often enough, Sudoku may help make the human race a tiny bit smarter. The rules for solving a Sudoku puzzle - like the puzzle itself are deceptively simple. However, it is the simplicity of the rules and of the puzzles which make Sudoku what it is... a challenge to deductive reasoning riddled with twists and turns.

A "classic" Sudoku puzzle is a grid 9 squares wide and 9 squares deep. The lines of squares running horizontally are called rows, and the lines running vertically are called columns. The grid is further divided by the darker lines into nine 3 X 3 square "boxes".

Some of the squares already have numbers in them. Your task is to fill in the blank squares.

The Rules:

Rule 1: Each row, each column and each box must end up containing all of the numbers and/or characters used in the puzzle (in this example the numbers 1 trough 9 are used).

Rule 2: Each number and/or character can only appear once in a row, column or box.

That's it... Oh, there is one little thing you should know, there is one and one only correct solution to any Sudoku puzzle.

Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we will publish a "classic" Sudoku puzzle. The Monday puzzle will be easy, Wednesday's won't be and Friday's will be hard (you have the entire weekend to work on it). I have read that a child of 10 can complete an easy Sudoku puzzle in 20 - 30 minutes (providing they have a Masters Degree in mathematics), medium and hard puzzles take longer in some cases a lot longer.

Our monthly "contest" puzzle will be published on the first day of the month. The first three people to send in the correctly completed puzzle before noon on the last calendar day of the month will receive a prize. The sooner you send in your correctly completed puzzle the greater the chance of winning. The monthly contest puzzle will be a 30 x 30 grid Sudoku, sub-divided into 30 - 6 x 5 boxes and will use the digits 0 through 9 and alpha characters A through S. As in the example above all numbers and alpha characters must end up in each row, column, and box but may only appear only once in each row, column, and box. You may email the completed puzzle to me (walt_hyzer@ourtown2day.com) or fax it to me at 1.800-551-1859. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number. The winners will be announced on the 5th day of the following month.