American architect regarded as the creator of Sudoku, originally called Number Place. As per the accounts of his colleagues, Garns was “really interested” in creating the puzzles and “loved doing it”. So contrary to what the name would have you believe, Sudoku is NOT of Japanese origin!
The puzzle was first published as Number Place in the May 1979 issue of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games. It, however, received little success then and became popular only when it was published in Japan in the Nikoli magazine.
Later the puzzle was named Sudoku, which means single-digit in Japanese. The term is in fact copyrighted in Japan by Maki Kaji, president of the company that published Nikoli magazine. The surprising fact is that the Japanese still call the puzzle by its original name – Number Place.
Unfortunately, Howard Garns died before his baby became popular the world over. And the credit for that goes to Wayne Gould, a Hong Kong judge. He developed a computer program that would churn out puzzles automatically. Gould also convinced The Times in Britain to publish the modern form of the puzzle.
