I’ve decided to start posting some sudoku variations that I’ve been playing around with.  I wanted to start with a variation that I hadn’t tried before, but since this is opening week for baseball, I decided to go with a new Scoreboard Sudoku instead.

I really like this variation.  There is definitely some interesting logic required for solving it.  Unfortunately, you have to know baseball to solve it.  Now, baseball is huge in Japan, so maybe there is a demand for this kind of puzzle.  Still, I’m working on ways to incorporate the nice aspects of Scoreboard Sudoku into a variation that doesn’t require sports knowledge.

This puzzle is similar to the last one.  There is a lot of variation potential here that I want to explore, mostly with different scoring options.  That, however, will be for another day.  Rules for this puzzle can be found at the link above or in the pdf file below.  Enjoy!

solution pdf

Here it is, my new puzzle that combines baseball and sudoku. And, as promised, it’s an interesting variation on sudoku and it requires some knowledge of baseball. I had been trying for a while now to work out a puzzle that required a solver to recreate the events of a baseball game using only the box score, in part because I wanted to know if it could be done. I took this idea and added sudoku elements to it to get my new puzzle: Scoreboard Sudoku. Here’s an example of the puzzle that I made up to illustrate my idea.

As you can see, the grid in the center is essentially a sudoku grid. In the case of a scoreboard sudoku, each row represents a batter and each column represents an inning. The internal squares are there just to make it a true sudoku. Although I will point out here that the scoreboard at fenway puts a wider gap between innings 3 and 4, as well as 6 and 7.

The letters and numbers in each block represent the result of each at bat. Also based on the complete game information, I’ve filled in the number of runs scored in each inning as well as the at bats, hits, and runs for each player. Here are the nine different results that can be filled into the grid.

• 1B = single; runners advance one base
• 2B = double; runners advance two bases
• 3B = triple
• HR = home run
• BB = walk
• E = reached first base on error; runners advance one base
• GO = ground out; lead runner on base with possible force is out; no double plays; runners advance one base
• FO = fly out; runners do not advance
• K = strikeout

Now here’s where some variation can come into the puzzle. These nine results could be changed to some other set of nine results, or they could be altered to allow double plays, etc. Also, we could give information in addition to at bats, hits, and runs. Or we could take away some information. As long as we can still solve the puzzle.

You’ve probably noticed this already, but not all of the blocks will be filled in. As soon as there are three outs in an inning, that side is no longer at bat. However, one rule that I’ve found to be very important for this puzzle is that all of the blocks coulb be filled in to form a valid sudoku.

So give this puzzle a try. I’m not sure I’m ready to feature it yet, but there will be more coming in the future. Here’s a pdf version of the puzzle and the solution.

ESPN.com has published a few sudoku puzzles (with more on the way, it seems) to promote a new book called ESPN Baseball Sudoku by Michael Solomon.  The only thing that distinguises a baseball sudoku from a standard sudoku is that the nine player positions are used instead of the digits 1-9.

When I first saw these puzzles, I knew that there had to be a way to come up with a better to include more baseball flavor and make the puzzles more fun and challenging.  Well, I have an idea that I will try to develop over the next couple of days.  Look for a new feature next week.