The magazine can be downloaded as a PDF and printed at home, or it can be ordered pre-printed from Lulu or Amazon.com (the last of these coming in the next week or so, once their system updates and lists it).

I’m also now posting full lists of content over on the magazines page at SudokuXtra.com,so you can click the expanding links to see a list of every puzzle in both this and the previous two issues, as well as order back issues.

And talking of back issues, I didn’t post here previously but issues 13 and 14 are also available (and have been for 4 and 2 months respectively), although the Amazon.com issues of these have only just been uploaded so again these should appear in the next week or so.

The cover puzzle is a giant Masyu, and then it follows through from there with the usual varied mix of sudoku variants and other puzzles, plus an extra-large bumper-packed Community Puzzles section.

This issue features more than 65 pages, leading to a record-breaking total of 139 puzzles! You’d need to complete more than 4 a day in order to do them all in time for the next issue. There are also two special Christmas Tree Sudoku puzzles (both much easier than they might look and really quite fun I think!) – it may be past Christmas now but they’re still fun puzzles!

Issue 13 is also due out in the next few days.

The cover features a Boomerang Samurai, made up of 10 overlapping 8×8 puzzles, and then later on there’s a double-page spread with a real X factor, the facing Return of the Boomerang 1 & 2 – consecutive and odd/even-pair variants.

There are also heyawake, yajilin, nurikabe, masyu, dominoes, calcudoku, slitherlink, killer sudoku prime, killer sudoku pro +/-, variant size jigsaw, hitori and many more puzzle types. And there’s a second huge 13-grid 9×9 Samurai, with a Consecutive Samurai 13-X – every bit as huge and intimidating as you might imagine!

The Community Puzzles section this month welcomes another new contributor, Deb Mohanty, a key member of the Indian puzzle community and author of some very well-respected puzzles and competitions. His “No 4 in a Row” puzzles will challenge your ability to both spot the “obvious” and also reason using uniqueness logic! There are also more Labyrinth puzzles, more Haijo from Vexus, an alternative set of Yajilin from Thomas Collyer, and the hexagonal ‘Hexagodoku’ from Clarity Media. David Millar’s mighty Knight Samurai Sudoku +/- will test your Sudoku variant skills to the limit, with its five grids of attacking knights and positive and negative numbers. And that’s just some of what’s in the section this month.

Sudoku Xtra 11 is available for download as a PDF, as well as pre-printed from Lulu and also from Amazon.com (eligible for free super-saver shipping!).

There’s an ‘S’ theme for a few of the puzzles this month, as you can see on the cover (right).

This issue I’m very excited to welcome some brand new Community Puzzles section contributors – Thomas Collyer, the two-time UK Times National Sudoku Champion; and Grant Fikes, one of the most prolific authors of Japanese puzzles outside Japan itself – who have very kindly donated some fantastic puzzles to this issue. There are also some brilliant Slitherlink/Sudoku cross-over puzzles by David Millar of The Griddle, and that’s only half of the section described so far!

The rest of the magazine as always has some new variants and rearranged content in, including Killer Prime (Killer Sudoku with prime numbers…) and Skyscraper S (a twisted 6×6 Skyscraper variant!). At just £3.99/$5.99 for a download it’s still incredible value even when compared to cheaper mags – with 116 puzzles that’s less than 4p/6¢ a puzzle, and you’d have to average around 4 a day to get the whole issue complete in time for issue 9!

With over 50 different types of puzzle in issue 8, what are you waiting for?!

Sudoku Xtra

Issue 7 of Sudoku Xtra contains even more large-page Japanese puzzle fun, with an incredible 116 varied logic and number puzzles. A special section in this issue is devoted to giant puzzles, with the 13 full-page puzzles including Hanjie, Nurikabe, Yajilin, Slitherlink, Hashi, Samurai Sudoku variants, Kakuro and more.

Sudoku Xtra offers greater variety than any other puzzle publication, with a huge range of Sudoku variants that include Jigsaw, Extra Region, Skyscraper, Consecutive and many more. Other featured puzzles include Calcudoku, Futoshiki, Hitori, Killer Sudoku and a range of variants, including Zero Killer Sudoku Inequality!

Designed to print on either A4 or Letter paper, or pre-printed on similarly large paper, Sudoku Xtra features puzzles at a range of difficulties, so is suitable for both logic puzzle fans and casual solvers alike. No matter what you like, you’re sure to find many puzzles to enjoy in Sudoku Xtra issue 7.

There’s also another great Puzzle Community section too, thanks to the generous contributors. Puzzles sent in for issue 7 include Navigrid, Mini Killer Sudoku, Knighted Sum Sudoku, Fillomino and more.

Get Sudoku Xtra 7 now.

It’s packed with a frankly ridiculous 133 separate puzzles. The range of content includes:

• Light-up / Akari
• A large cover Nurikabe puzzle
• -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 Killer Sudoku – back by popular demand!
• A third Jigsaw 6×6 Variety Pack of miniature variants
• An extra-big Yajilin
• Killer Inequality Sudoku – lots of symbols on a grid!
• Dominoes - first time back since issue 1
• Plus all of the regular puzzles, from Skyscraper to Samurais to Calcudoku to Hashi to Hanjie to Kakuro and so on…

There’s a bumper-packed Puzzle Community section too, thanks to the generous contributors. Just look at some of the types that are in issue 6: 

• Yin Yang Sudoku
• Sudoku Minus (a trickier version of Sudoku Times!)
• Hexagon 25
• Klump
• Modula
• and more!

So if you’d like a copy (and if not, why not?! ) then just pick one of these links:

Download and self-print *  Lulu *  Amazon.com

Have fun!

I’m very pleased to announce that issue 5 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now available for download or in pre-printed form from either Amazon.com (US) or Lulu.com (recommended for rest of world).

This issue has even more puzzles than the previous ones, with a pretty mind-boggling 131 separate logic and number puzzles!

New content includes:

• Suraromu – the latest loop puzzle from Japan
• PivotPix (a.k.a. Tentai Show / Sym-a-Pix)
• -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 Killer Sudoku!
• An extra page of Yajilin, designed to help you get into the puzzle
• Some new Sudoku combinations

Plus the regular stuff is there too, including:

• Another Jigsaw 6×6 Variety Pack of miniature variants
• More Sudoku at more sizes than ever before
• Lots of Sudoku variations on a theme
• All of the other regular puzzles, from Skyscraper to Samurais to Calcudoku to Hashi to Hanjie to Kakuro and so on…

And the generous puzzle community contributors have been as creative as ever. Just look at some of the types that are in issue 5: 

• Kuromasu / Kurodoko
• Sudoku Times (outside products)
• Hexagon 25
• Shapely Alleys and Skyscrapers
• Modula
• Pathfinder
• and more!

As always, it’s designed to print well in black and white on either A4 or Letter paper, using up most of the space and without pointlessly wasting ink on large dark areas. If you have a colour printer there’s a small colour trim to each issue – this month’s is orange – but this prints fine as a greyscale. Pre-printed copies have a colour cover but black and white interior.

So check it out!

Issue 4 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now with us!  I really think I might be putting too many puzzles into it, because typing up the list of content just knocked me out with how much is crammed into its 52 large-format pages!  Is too much possible?  I don’t know, but look at this enormous list:

128 puzzles in total, including several seriously giant ones.  Brand new for this issue:

• Samurai Star Killer Sudoku Pro
• Number Link Samurai
• Odd Pair Sudoku
• Samurai Odd Pair Sudoku
• Sudoku Inequality Jigsaw
• Jigsaw Sudoku 6×6 Variety Pack (including toroidal, inequality, X, consecutive and killer)
• Killer Sudoku Pro Jigsaw
• Sudoku 15×15 and Sudoku 18×18
• Killer Sudoku 15×15
• Odd & Even Pair Sudoku
• Killer Sudoku Prime

Regulars from issue 3:

• Hanjie
• Masyu
• Calcudoku (three times as many as in previous issues!)
• Slitherlink
• Consecutive Sudoku
• Hitori
• Samurai Star
• Samurai Star Jigsaw
• Number Link
• Jigsaw Sudoku 8×8, 9×9 and 10×10
• Toroidal Sudoku and Toroidal Inequality
• Kakuro
• Futoshiki
• Killer Sudoku
• Skyscraper
• Skyscraper Sudoku
• Samurai Sudoku
• SSSS: Skyscraper Samurai Star Sudoku
• Sudoku Inequality
• Sudoku Extra Regions
• Jigsaw Sudoku Extra Regions
• Killer Sudoku Jigsaw
• SOS: Samurai Outside Sudoku
• Outside Sudoku
• Sudoku 8×8
• Sudoku 12×12 and 16×16
• Samurai Extra Regions
• Yajilin
• Nurikabe

Adding to that already exhausting list still further are the community puzzles: 

• Heyawake
• King’s Journey (also known as Hidato[TM], Numbrix[TM] and many other names)
• Mosaic (Minesweeper picture puzzle)
• As Easy as ABC
• Knight’s Tour
• Shapely Skyscraper
• Isolate
• Klump

And all of this for just £3.99 or $5.99 – it really is fantastic value!

If you’d like to get hold of it just pop on over to the Sudoku Xtra website!

This issue is packed full of all sorts of puzzles, including SOS (Samurai Outside Sudoku!), Toroidal Inequalities and many more.  Community puzzles include picture puzzle Mosaic from Clarity Media, and some fantastic Slitherlink-Masyu cross-over puzzles called Shotgun Slitherlink from David Millar of The Griddle.  There’s also some brilliant Klump and Navigrid puzzles from Vexus Puzzle Design.

With 121 puzzles it will almost certainly take you far more than the month until issue 4 to complete, so you’d better get hold of it as soon as possible!

Pre-printed versions will be available in the next couple of days, but you can download and print it yourself immediately!

I’m very pleased to announce that as of 24 hours ago Sudoku Xtra issue 2 is available for download or ordering in printed form.

It contains a staggering 121 puzzles, with only just a few of each type so there is a huge range of variety. At just £2.95/$4.95 it really is great value, but if you’re still not sure take a look at the sample part of issue 1 still available on the Sudoku Xtra site.

New puzzles for this issue include some crazy Sudoku variants, such as Samurai Killer Calcudoku Inequality, and a whole load of novel community-supplied puzzles, including Puzzle L and Knight’s Tour.

With so many different puzzles you’re sure to find not just one but lots of puzzles you’ll enjoy, so check out Sudoku Xtra today!

If you’ve read issue 1 then you’ll know that I’ve proposed a ‘community’ puzzle section at the back, where people get to send in their own puzzles and I will include a selection in a special section.  The idea is to try and build up the kind of puzzle community that some of the Japanese-language publications have, but which we haven’t yet seen in an English-language magazine. Hopefully it will lead to a virtuous spiral, with on the one hand people who contribute puzzles getting a larger audience for their own work whilst similarly on the other hand encouraging more people to read the magazine for the novel puzzles – and hopefully all the while encouraging more feedback too, which will help everyone.

In time for the second issue I’m not realistically expecting very many submissions – after all, it won’t be long before I need to start finalising content for issue 2, and that doesn’t give people much time to buy the magazine, think about puzzles, draw them up and submit them.  So in order to help things get going I’ve approached a few people who regularly create top-quality puzzles of their own and asked them if they’d be happy to contribute a puzzle or two to issue 2.  Therefore I’m very pleased to announce that David Millar of  The Griddle has agreed to provide a couple of his excellent designs for issue 2.  If you take a look at his site you’ll see that he regularly posts a huge variety of different puzzle types, and it will be fantastic to have some of this content to help launch the community section of Sudoku Xtra issue 2.

That was pretty quick, and is great news!  I already have my proof copy from them, and it looks just fantastic – lovely glossy colour cover, and fantastic quality printing within.  It’s essentially a  large size magazine printed at top book quality, and the paper it’s on is perfect for either pencil or pen solving.  It’s much better quality than a regular store puzzle magazine (particularly US ones, which are typically on very cheap and thin paper).

As mentioned yesterday, the most exciting feature (other than being able to view and buy and read about the magazine!) is the new discussion forum.  It’s a pity Sudoku Pro never had one, because the old BBC MindGames one (which incidentally featured a large number of my puzzles too) was always great.  It would be brilliant if we could make the Sudoku Xtra forums just as good! Here’s hoping…

If you’ve got issue 1 (or even if you haven’t!) please feel free to let people know about it – building up a readership is of course an important part of launching a new magazine, particularly one that won’t be on shop shelves any time soon!

I’m still working on adding content to the main Sudoku Xtra site, which of course it was more important to get up and running at all in the first place rather than waiting until it was ‘finished’ to launch, and so today’s big addition is a discussion forum!

Please feel free to continue posting here about Sudoku Xtra if you would prefer, but if there’s anything you’d like to open up for discussion – or just want to chat about a particular puzzle (or even ask for help solving one!) – then the forums are probably the best place to do it.

You don’t need to register on the Sudoku Xtra site in order to post to the forums, but if you don’t you’ll be asked to type in one of those anti-spam image things each time you post – but I’ve made sure they’re very legible, so conversely fingers-crossed there won’t be any nasty problems with spam! (You should see just how much gets caught in the anti-spam message filters for this site alone – it’s quite astonishing!)

Thanks again!

Sudoku Xtra discussion forums

I’ll also be adding more content to sudokuxtra.com over the coming week, including a discussion forum.