I‘ve been a fan of Sudoku for quite a while now. While searching my blog for references, I found THREE different posts about Sudoku: 20 March 2006, 27 December 2006, and 9 March 2007. Lately I decided to look for a site that I would track my progress–if not actual puzzles solved, then points earned by the number of puzzles I’ve solved at each difficulty level. I’d found one before, but found it too cumbersome to navigate to new puzzles that I hadn’t solved yet, so I started looking around for a better site.

My favorite: Sudoku Kingdom. It has an interface that’s easy to work with (although I’d like it if they allowed using the Arrow keys to switch between boxes) and if you enter a number that’s already in that row/column/box, the existing number’s box flashes red a few times, alerting you to the conflict. Every month they reset the standings, so you can see who’s in the Top Ten for points (1-easy, 2-medium, 4-hard, 8-very hard). At the end of each month, every player who has at least 100 points is entered into a drawing for one of five e-books with 48 sudoku puzzles (with answers).

They have the regular collection of sudoku puzzles, which you can solve to your heart’s content. They also have Daily Sudoku, which gives you one point for each one you solve. Each puzzle is only available for two days (in case you miss a day, you can still get your puzzle done the next day). The Daily Sudoku has its own Top Ten list and its own monthly drawing (for 3 people who got at least 20 points that month). As a perk to keep you coming back, you get TWO points if you’ve solved the daily puzzle the day before. If you miss a day, though, then it goes back to one point until you do two days in a row.

If you’re more into solving Sudoku puzzles on paper, they keep the last twenty daily puzzles (plus solutions) available for downloading and printing. And if you’re new, there’s a Tutorial and a Beginners section which has its own Top Ten list, too (no drawing, though).

And to add a little something to the puzzle-solving process, they’ve got a Web Browser Toolbar (for Firefox AND Internet Explorer) that you can install, which allows you to listen to the radio or podcasts while you’re solving. Or even while you’re just online, since you can use the toolbar to share favorite links and jump right to sudoku puzzles with the click of a button.

Current music: Paint the Sky with Stars–The Best of Enya