Kakuro

kurosu ( , addition cross), seems to have

gained general acceptance and the puzzles appear to be
titled this way now in most publications. The popularity
of Kakuro in Japan is immense, second only to Sudoku
among Nikoli's famed logic-puzzle oerings.* [3]
The canonical Kakuro puzzle is played in a grid of lled
and barred cells,blackandwhiterespectively. Puzzles are usually 1616 in size, although these dimensions
can vary widely. Apart from the top row and leftmost column which are entirely black, the grid is divided intoentrieslines of white cellsby the black cells. The black
cells contain a diagonal slash from upper-left to lowerright and a number in one or both halves, such that each
horizontal entry has a number in the black half-cell to its
immediate left and each vertical entry has a number in
the black half-cell immediately above it. These numbers,
borrowing crossword terminology, are commonly called
clues.
An easy Kakuro puzzle

The objective of the puzzle is to insert a digit from 1 to

9 inclusive into each white cell such that the sum of the
numbers in each entry matches the clue associated with
it and that no digit is duplicated in any entry. It is that
lack of duplication that makes creating Kakuro puzzles
with unique solutions possible, and which means solving a Kakuro puzzle involves investigating combinations
more, compared to Sudoku in which the focus is on
permutations. There is an unwritten rule for making
Kakuro puzzles that each clue must have at least two numbers that add up to it, since including only one number is
mathematically trivial when solving Kakuro puzzles.
At least one publisher* [4] includes the constraint that a
given combination of numbers can only be used once in
each grid, but still markets the puzzles as plain Kakuro.
Some publishers prefer to print their Kakuro grids exactly
like crossword grids, with no labeling in the black cells
and instead numbering the entries, providing a separate
list of the clues akin to a list of crossword clues. (This
eliminates the row and column that are entirely black.)
This is purely an issue of image and does not aect solving.

Solution for the above puzzle

Kakuro or Kakkuro (Japanese: ) is a kind of

logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical
transliteration of the crossword. Kakuro puzzles are
regular features in many math-and-logic puzzle publications in the United States. In 1966,* [1] Canadian Jacob E. Funk,an employee of Dell Magazines came up
with the original English name Cross Sums * [2] and other
names such as Cross Addition have also been used, but the
Japanese name Kakuro, abbreviation of Japanese kasan

In discussing Kakuro puzzles and tactics, the typical

shorthand for referring to an entry is "(clue, in numerals)in-(number of cells in entry, spelled out)", such as 16in-twoand25-in-ve. The exception is what would
otherwise be called the 45-in-ninesimply 45is
used, since the "-in-nineis mathematically implied (nine
cells is the longest possible entry, and since it cannot duplicate a digit it must consist of all the digits from 1 to 9

4 VARIANTS

once). Curiously, 3-in-two, 4-in-two, 43-ineight, and 44-in-eightare still frequently called as
such, despite the "-in-twoand "-in-eightbeing equally
implied.

Solving techniques

Although brute-force guessing is of course possible, a

better weapon is the understanding of the various combinatorial forms that entries can take for various pairings
of clues and entry lengths. Those entries with suciently
large or small clues for their length will have fewer possible combinations to consider, and by comparing them
with entries that cross them, the proper permutationor
part of itcan be derived. The simplest example is where
a 3-in-two crosses a 4-in-two: the 3-in-two must consist
of1and2in some order; the 4-in-two (since2
cannot be duplicated) must consist of 1and 3in
some order. Therefore, their intersection must be 1,
the only digit they have in common.

the dierence can reveal the value of a partial entry, often a single cell. This is possible because addition is both
associative and commutative.
It is common practice to mark potential values for cells
in the cell corners until all but one have been proven impossible; for particularly challenging puzzles, sometimes
entire ranges of values for cells are noted by solvers in
the hope of eventually nding sucient constraints to
those ranges from crossing entries to be able to narrow
the ranges to single values. Because of space constraints,
instead of digits some solvers use a positional notation,
where a potential numerical value is represented by a
mark in a particular part of the cell, which makes it easy
to place several potential values into a single cell. This
also makes it easier to distinguish potential values from
solution values.
Some solvers also use graph paper to try various digit
combinations before writing them into the puzzle grids.

As in the Sudoku case, only relatively easy Kakuro puzzles can be solved with the above-mentioned techniques.
Harder ones require the use of various types of chain patWhen solving longer sums there are additional ways to terns, the same kinds as appear in Sudoku (see Patternnd clues to locating the correct digits. One such method Based Constraint Satisfaction and Logic Puzzles* [6]).
would be to note where a few squares together share possible values thereby eliminating the possibility that other
squares in that sum could have those values. For instance,
2 Mathematics of Kakuro
if two 4-in-two clues cross with a longer sum, then the 1
and 3 in the solution must be in those two squares and
Kakuro puzzles are NP-complete.* [7]
those digits cannot be used elsewhere in that sum.* [5]
When solving sums which have a limited number of so- There are two kinds of mathematical symmetry readily
lution sets then that can lead to useful clues. For in- identiable in Kakuro puzzles: minimum and maximum
stance, a 30-in-seven sum only has two solution sets: constraints are duals, as are missing and required values.
{1,2,3,4,5,6,9} and {1,2,3,4,5,7,8}. If one of the squares All sum combinations can be represented using a
in that sum can only take on the values of {8,9} (if the bitmapped representation. This representation is useful
crossing clue is a 17-in-two sum, for example) then that for determining missing and required values using bitwise
not only becomes an indicator of which solution set ts logic operations.
this sum, it eliminates the possibility of any other digit
in the sum being either of those two values, even before
determining which of the two values ts in that square.
Another useful approach in more complex puzzles is to
identify which square a digit goes in by eliminating other
locations within the sum. If all of the crossing clues of a
sum have many possible values, but it can be determined
that there is only one square which could have a particular
value which the sum in question must have, then whatever
other possible values the crossing sum would allow, that
intersection must be the isolated value. For example, a
36-in-eight sum must contain all digits except 9. If only
one of the squares could take on the value of 2 then that
must be the answer for that square.
Abox techniquecan also be applied on occasion, when
the geometry of the unlled white cells at any given stage
of solving lends itself to it: by summing the clues for a series of horizontal entries (subtracting out the values of any
digits already added to those entries) and subtracting the
clues for a mostly overlapping series of vertical entries,

3 Popularity

Kakuro puzzles appear in nearly 100 Japanese magazines

and newspapers.Kakuro remained the most popular logic
puzzle in Japanese printed press until 1992,when Sudoku
took the top spot.* [8]In the U.K. the rst appeared in
Guardian with the Telegraph and the Daily Mail following.* [9]

4 Variants
A relatively common variant of Kakuro is its logical successor, Cross Products (or Cross Multiplication), where the
clues are the product of the digits in the entries rather than
the sum. Dell Magazines has produced such puzzles but
also allowed repeating of digits aside from 1 because of

3
space limitations in the number of digits in each product in a puzzle. Puzzles by Games Magazines are more
like crossword puzzles, allowing the implementation of
the no-repeating digits rule.
Another variant is having a dierent range of values that
are inserted in the cells, such as 1 to 12, instead of the
standard 1 to 9.
A genuine combination of Sudoku and Kakuro is the socalled Cross Sums Sudokuin which clues are given
as cross sums on a standard 9 x 9 Sudoku grid. A relevant variant is the so-calledCryptic Kakurowhere the
clues are given in terms of alphametics and each number
represents a digit from 1 to 9.
The nal puzzle of the 2004 United States qualier for the
World Puzzle Championship is titled Cross Number Sums
Place: it is a Cross Sums where every row and column of
the grid (except the top row and leftmost column as usual)
contains exactly nine white cells, none of whicheven
across multiple entriesare allowed to use the same digit
twice, like a Number Place (Sudoku); in addition, small
circles are printed on the borders between some white
cells; numerically adjacent digits must be placed astride
those circles, and may not appear orthogonally adjacent
when not astride a circle.

See also
Killer Sudoku, a variant of Sudoku which is solved
using similar techniques.

References

[1] Timmerman, Charles (2006). The Everything Kakuro

Challenge Book. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media. p. ix.
ISBN 1-59869-057-4.
[2] http://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.aspx?uri=
puzzle/kakuro/history
[3] Kakuro history. Conceptispuzzles.com. Retrieved
2013-06-16.
[4] Keesing Group B.V, publishing in Belgium, Denmark,
France, and the Netherlands. shows the restriction.
[5] http://www.daily-sudoku.com/kakurorules/
[6] (English) Berthier, Denis (20 November 2012).PatternBased Constraint Satisfaction and Logic Puzzles. Lulu
Publishers, ISBN 978-1-291-20339-4. Retrieved 15 June
2013.
[7] Takahiro, S. (2001). The complexities of puzzles, cross
sum and their another solution problems (ASP). Thesis for
BSc, Department of Information Science, University of
Tokyo.
[8] http://www.kakurolive.com/about-kakuro.php

[9] http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/games/kakuro/aboutkakuro.
php

7 External links
Tutorial at Nikoli (Flash required)
The New Grid on the Block: The Guardian newspaper's introduction to Kakuro
Kakuros.org: randomly generated puzzle collection
playable in the browser.
Kakuro for Android
IAENG report on Kakuro
Kakuro Total Tables: List all the possible combinations for various sums for Kakuro.

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Kakuro Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakuro?oldid=641746044 Contributors: Palnatoke, Ixfd64, GCarty, GregRobson, Charles

Matthews, Steinsky, Morven, Chealer, Ruakh, Nikunjb, Smjg, DocWatson42, Antandrus, Lacrimosus, Poccil, Tsujigiri, Dataphile,
Blotwell, Ricky81682, A.T.M.Schipperijn, DreamGuy, Tony Sidaway, Oleg Alexandrov, Shreevatsa, Jeremy Young, Btyner, MrSomeone, Rjwilmsi, Nanami Kamimura, Phileas, Jamesrskemp, Pitan, Pabix, Himasaram, Zotmeister, Yamamoto Ichiro, Mathbot, Kurando,
YurikBot, FrenchIsAwesome, Bota47, VederJuda, Zargulon, Zvika, GLmathgrant, A bit iy, SmackBot, Roger Hui, Thelem, ApolloToTheMoon, KocjoBot, Chris the speller, Bluebot, Alexwagner, Octahedron80, DHN-bot, Kriviere, ConMan, Vina-iwbot, JzG, Tzhu, Mr
Stephen, Ehheh, Yaaaay, Civil Engineer III, Suttkus, Tawkerbot4, Julian2003, Oerjan, DestradoTensai, Headbomb, Big Bird, Roman clef,
Denalidragon, Mwalimu59, Ztobor, STBot, Je epstein, Mikhail Dvorkin, DorganBot, Nanaimobar, VolkovBot, Banacek555, Scholar79,
Pjoef, Atkman, Bayin3, OKBot, Martarius, Simply Agrestic, Okmexy, Lhmathies, XLinkBot, Tzic, Mexy ok, Addbot, Betterusername,
OhBeardedOne, Ekojnoekoj, MrOllie, Z. Patterson, Mapotofu, Luckas-bot,
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SporkBot, DJUpton, Catlemur, BG19bot, Dan.eker, Benzband, Brad7777, BattyBot, Corn cheese, 069952497a, MPFitz1968 and Anonymous: 154

8.2

Images

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artist: ?
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8.3

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