Kakuro

So I learned that the puzzles that I enjoy doing in my (limited) spare time actually have a real fancy Japanese name. No, I’m not talking about Sudoku, although I love them as well. No what I’m talking about is Kakuro. If you are like me, you have only ever heard these called Cross Sums or something like that. I guess the folks over at Dell decided way back when that we Americans were too stupid to “get” a catchy Japanese word (Psst - Nobody tell them about Sudoku).

Anyway, the idea behind Kakuro is that each group of cells (squares) below or to the right of the number listed, when added together equal the total (the number listed). Hence the phrase “Cross Sums”. The only other rule is that within a set of numbers, no number is duplicated, and only single digits are used.

The key to solving Kakuro is knowing your addition. For example, if there are two squares and the number given is 17, you know that the squares are either 8 and 9 or 9 and 8. Nothing else sums up to 17. Or, if the number given is 4, the two squares are either 1 and 3 or 3 and 1. These examples are called 17 over 2 and 4 over 2 respectively. Those are the easy ones, but what makes the game hard is when you have the number 23 over 5 squares. There are a number of different options, 1+2+3+8+9 or 1+2+4+7+9 or 1+2+5+7+8 or …. Well, you get the picture.

Anyway, it takes some thought and logic to figure out these puzzles. I really enjoy them. If you like them and knew them as Cross Sums, now you know what they are really called. If you never heard them before, give them a try and see if you like them. (You can do a Google Search of “Cross Sums” to find several other websites that have them, and even a Wikipedia article on Kakuro.)

CC