The book Kakuro Strategies is the latest addition to the books on the popular number puzzle Kakuro. The title probably makes it clear what this book is about. The subtitle of the book is Solution Strategies, Examples, and Practice Puzzles—and that is exactly what it contains. It is one of the few books on this topic to date. Therefore, I am pleased to be able to contribute in a small way to filling this gap.
You can order the book Kakuro Strategies for $9.99 (or $3.99 for the Kindle e-book) from Amazon*. The book has a total of 176 pages and the size is 15.24 x 22.86 cm (6 x 9 inches). The cover was designed by pixelcompetence at fiverr.
In addition to many explanations and examples of the individual techniques, the book also contains 50 Kakuro puzzles for practice and a table with all possible combinations that can occur in Kakuro. Both the table and all solutions to the practice puzzles can be found in the appendix.
Details about the book Kakuro Strategies
In this book you will find:
- Easy and advanced Kakuro strategies
- Explanations and several examples for each strategy
- Step-by-step solutions for entire Kakuro puzzles to help you better understand the techniques
- An introduction to Kakuro and the rules for beginners
- 50 Kakuro puzzles to practice the strategies
- A table of all possible combinations in Kakuro as an appendix
- Solutions for the 50 practice puzzles as an appendix
- 176 pages
The book introduces the following techniques, among others:
Simple intersection of unique sums, Unique intersection of unique and non-unique sums, Unique intersection of two non-unique sums, Candidates as placeholders, Minimum and maximum candidates, X-Wing, Contradictions in chains of candidates, Naked or hidden double, triple, or quadruple candidates, working with the table of Kakuro combinations.
Some of these names may already be familiar from Sudoku. Not only are the two number puzzles closely related, but so are some of the solution strategies. For example, the X-Wing is also a relatively well-known method from Sudoku, and the logic behind this strategy in Kakuro is analogous.
In the e-book version of the book, the practice puzzles and solutions are not included directly in the book, but you can download them as a PDF file.
More about Kakuro
After Sudoku, Kakuro is probably the most popular number puzzle of all. Due to its rules and appearance, it is often described as a mixture of Sudoku and crossword puzzles. The design of the Kakuro puzzles is indeed reminiscent of a crossword puzzle (dark cells with information and white cells for entering the solution). Kakuro has in common with Sudoku that only the numbers 1 to 9 (in standard Sudoku) may be entered.
While there is some information and even books on Sudoku solution strategies (including my book Sudoku Strategies), this is not the case with Kakuro. Beginners in particular are often left to their own devices when they start playing Kakuro and get stuck at certain points. I hope that this book on Kakuro strategies will help to change that, at least to a small extent.
If you want more Kakuro puzzles, you can also take a look at the books Kakuro for Beginners and Kakuro for Advanced Players. Both books contain puzzles that you can easily master with the solution strategies from this book.
If you have any suggestions, requests, or ideas for improvement, please feel free to contact me by email at info@lr-raetsel.de.
* Affiliate link: If you order a book via a link marked with an asterisk (*), I will receive a small percentage of the sales price as commission. This does not incur any additional costs for you.