Sakuro

Sakuro is an intense shot of intelligent puzzling in a compact form. The puzzle starts life as a Sekuta – a 3×3 grid, with a circled number at the centre of each of the four 2×2 blocks. The solver’s challenge is to place each of the numbers 1 to 9 in the grid, so that the four numbers in each 2×2 block add up to the circled number at its centre.

A Sakuro then differs from a Sekuta in that there is a second level on which sums must work – the nine squares of the grid are divided into shaded ‘regions’, and the numbers in each region must add up to the given regional totals.

The puzzle’s small size makes it an ideal choice for print publications with limited space on the page.