Contrary to the oriental themed image sudoku generally conjures up in the minds of most people who think of the puzzle games, Sudoku was actually invented by an American by the name of Howard Garns way back in 1979. Back then, Garns' puzzle was called "Number Place" when it was first published in Dell Magazine's "Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games" and didn't achieve the more familiar name of "Sudoku" or "Su Doku" until it was picked up by Japanese puzzle magazine publisher Nikoli who first titled it as the very catchy "Suuji Wa Dokushin Ni Kagiru" in a 1984 publication and later, thankfully, abbreviated it to Sudoku in 1986.

Sudoku returned to the West when The Times in Great Britain published a puzzlein late 2004 which was greeted with enthusiasm and a metioric rise to popularity which has since spawned all kinds of spin-offs including thousand of sudoku websites, books, board games, computer, video, handheld and console games, t-shirts, mugs, arts and even a few Sudoku television shows such as the BBC's SUDO-Q quiz show which was loosely based around the theme.

Hailed as the Rubik's Cube of its generation sudoku has even given rise to some big money tournaments around the world with prizes in the thousands to competition winners.

According to stats released from one source in 2005, Sudoku was the 7th most searched term on the internet at that time, and as a result there are thousands of places you can play sudoku online and usually for free. Whether you are new to the puzzle and are looking to check it out, or a veteran sudokuer looking for new challenges from one of the many sudoku variants out there, you'll find it online with a few simple searches. The following are a couple of sites you can try right now, both offer free sudoku puzzles you can play directly through your web browser.