Not long ago a puzzle with an exotic name appeared, asking solvers to fill out numbers on a grid. Sudoku then became a worldwide craze.
Now there’s a new one with similar aspirations. Hidato is the creation of Israeli inventor Gyora Benedek. (The name comes from hida, the Hebrew for riddle.)
The aim of Hidato is to fill the cells with consecutive numbers from1 to the highest number (both of which are circled) so that consecutive numbers connect. In other words, 1 must be next to 2, which must be next to 3, which must be next to 4, and so on.
More simply: find the path from 1 to the highest number that covers the grid entirely.
Like Sudoku, every Hidato has a unique solution and it can be deduced using logic. The small ones are fairly easy, but the larger ones are quite challenging. Give them a go!
Benedek - who celebrates his birthday today - came up with the idea for Hidato about ten years ago following a scuba dive in which fish were darting around him so quickly that he could only see them on the moments they changed direction. On seeing a sudoku puzzle shortly afterwards the idea popped into his mind of a puzzle where you had to reconstruct the path of the fish from some given positions.
Benedek’s first Hidatos used a square grid. These ones already appear in newspapers around the world, and he has published several books of them. But recently Benedek started to design the puzzle using hexagons, which he calls beehive Hidato. I think they are much prettier, and produce more options for the paths.
Beehive Hidato is currently published in only one Israeli newspaper, and has never appeared in a UK publication before today.
I’ve included four here, from simple to difficult. If you want to print them out, I’ve put a link in the caption which will take you to a printable version (print several copies, as you will make mistakes). Or click on the links in the captions, which will take you to a page with interactive versions.
I’ll explain strategies for solving them in my ‘Did you solve it’ post later today.
Here’s the birthday boy on holiday in Danxia National Geological Park in China.
If you’d like to see the video of me setting the puzzle, plus how to get started, just click below:
If you like Hidato you can play many more of them at hidato.com
I post a puzzle here on a Monday every two weeks. If you like this sort of thing check out my other Guardian blog Adventures in Numberland. You can also check me out on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and my personal website.
If know of any great puzzles that you would like me to set here, get in touch.
