Before you try our online Sudoku, we offer a little background knowledge for you. Have you ever wondered where the game comes from and who invented it? It all started in 1979, when Howard Garns, aged 74, published Sudoku anonymously in a puzzle magazine. At that time the inventor called his puzzle "Number Place". In Japan, where the game first found success, the Japanese gave it the name "Su Doku". In took longer for the game to reach Germany and the rest of Europe. Though nothing has changed in the game, Sudoku has now become a popular puzzle in Europe, especially in Germany. Its success continues until today, though Howard Garns did not live to see this hype. Shortly before the game's great breakthrough, at the age of 84, he succumbed to cancer and was buried in Indianapolis in 1989. Meanwhile, the game has become so popular that many Sudoku variants exist. Here you will find the most popular and most common version: The classic Sudoku.