How to Play Kakuro - Live Cross Word Numeric Puzzles

Kakuro is a wonderful game for those who love solving brain teasers and puzzles. It is a live crossword puzzle. It requires a little more effort and care than playing Sudoku. It can be incredibly thrilling to players and fans. This game consists of a live check board with 16 squares. Live puzzle board of this game is 16 * 16 in size. The width of all puzzle squares may vary. The left most column and top row consist black cells. Rest part contains white cells. The goal of playing the game of Kakuro is to fill all white cells by using numeric digits between 1 and 9. This game involves investing more numeric combinations than Sudoku. Duplicate numeric combinations cannot be used in this game. There are many techniques to solve this game puzzle. Players can use complex or special techniques when simple techniques cease to give a unique puzzle solution. If a player is handling this numeric puzzle for the first time then he could feel it a bit challenging.

Here are few rules and strategies for playing Kakuro crossword puzzle:-

1) Players should remember that there are no zeroes in this puzzle game. So they have to use all digits and numerical combinations for a particular digit or cell by choosing values between 1 and 9.

2) No numerical digit is to be repeated again for a given sum of numbers.

3) The numerical combinations can vary according to the required sum or number of cells in the crossword puzzle. For example to cover a sum of 6 in 3 cells, players can use numeric combinations of 3-2-1, 3-1-2, 2-1-3, 1-2-3 and 1-3-2. For covering the same digit of 6 in two cells they can use numeric combination of 3-3 or 4-2.

4) Players can use the strategy of using common digits at the beginning. For example if a specific row in the puzzle has a sum of 6 over 3 squares and a column has a sum of 5 over 2 squares, then possible numeric combinations to cover those sums will be 1-3-5 for the row and 2-3 for the column.

5) Players can use noting possible solutions of Kakuro by using marks of pencils. This effort might seem to be a little extra but can help one to imagine and note all solutions. Players can use all marks of pencils for filling possible values in a particular box of the puzzle game.

6) If players want to remove pencil marks while playing then they can make combo lists to add a given sum total. After making the lists they can remove combos based on previously filled digits. The strategy of removing pencil marks can be used in combination with triples and pairs for removing combos.

7) While deciding which digit to fill in the puzzle box, players can refer to digits used previously in columns and rows. Such digits can be excluded from using again. Several digits can be seen around those previously filled columns and rows. Players can use these new digits to carry on the game.