Welcome to 4D Sudoku^™

On Sunday 26th April, national Sudoku champions from 28 countries gathered in Žilina, Slovakia, for the final day’s competition of the puzzlers' Olympics – the 4th World Sudoku Championships.

The competitors, already winners of their own country’s title, were competing to become the overall World Sudoku Champion. For their final part of the competition, the organisers sprang a surprise. They provided each team with a magnetic, four-dimensional version of the world’s most popular number puzzle called 4D Sudoku^™.

The competitors examined the object before them – which seemed to be a cross between a Rubik’s Cube, Lego and a Crossword. Then, at every table, quick minds and nimble fingers began the process of manipulation and elimination. Their challenge was to construct a square block of 27 numbered magnetic cubes, arranged in such a way that every possible row, column and side around the block contains each of the numbers 1–9. Meanwhile, INSIDE the block, every 3 x 3 section, sliced vertically or horizontally, must also consist of the digits 1–9.

The team event proved very interesting, but the highlight of the whole weekend was to witness the 8 finalists working their 'puzzle magic' on the 4D Sudoku^™ puzzle, at the close of the contest. As the allotted time was running out, all attention was drawn to Wei-Hwa Huang, the four times World Puzzle Champion. The room erupted with a buzz of excitement when he raised a 'completed' 4D Sudoku^™™ puzzle into the air, his cube was checked and verified as solved correctly. Wei-Hwa, representing Team USA, was the first to complete the4D Sudoku^™ puzzle at the World Sudoku Championships, he had solved the ingenious puzzle in an amazing 65 minutes!

Later, Wei-Hwa was invited to come up to the stage, to rapturous applause, and show his achievement to the room - by Ben Sellers, son of the puzzle's creator, Paul Sellers. "4D Sudoku^™ has many thoughtful design aspects, like the added 4th dimension, the arrangement of the numbers, and the orange and white cubes that click together with a magnetic force", said Wei-Hwa Huang, "It’s an intriguing, challenging and very satisfying puzzle".

For further information about 4D Sudoku^™ at the World Sudoku Championships, please contact Ben Sellers (  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or tel: +44 (0)7836 238293