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What constitues an ELEGANT Sudoku puzzle? Well put simply it is one that looks good to start with, and that to me, means the given values are distributed symmetrically across the puzzle in a nice pattern. I believe all Sudoku puzzles should have 180o rotational symmetry of the givens. However if they also have 90o rotational symmetry, that's elegant. When they also have reflective symmetry across the horizontal, vertical and diagonal axes, that too is elegant. Rows, Columns & Boxes devoid of given values can also add to a puzzle's elegance. Given values in a line appearing in series always looks better than randomly chosen ones (as in 1 3 5 7 looks better than 5 2 6 1), and adjacent cells on the diagionals having the same value can make a puzzle look sensational. Sometimes the arrangement of the givens can be seen as a dot-picture resembling a special shape. I calculate a score out of 4 for each of these elements to arrive at a puzzle's Elegance Factor (EF), with a theoretical maximum value of 28.
I consider any puzzle with an EF > 6.5 to be ELEGANT! To check out the Elegance Factor of other puzzles you can download my EF Calculator FREE! Regards Greg Shalless |