A truly global puzzle, Sudoku was arguably born in France, revived in the United States, established in Japan and became a phenomenon thanks to its success in the United Kingdom.

It was so successful that multiple game shows based on the puzzle were broadcast, and it became an international obsession that largely endures to this day.

As a logical numbers-based puzzle, it is not surprising that it would transcend Japan to become a global hit, but much of this can be credited to the work of a single man who spent six years making Sudoku as big as it could possibly be.

Who Was Wayne Gould And How Did He Popularise Sudoku?

Sudoku was already a huge hit in Japan thanks to Maki Kaji, but whilst the game can be said to have many creators, perhaps the most important from an international perspective was Wayne Gould.

A Hong Kong judge born in New Zealand, Wayne Gould stumbled upon Sudoku when travelling to Japan and finding a book of the puzzles in Tokyo.

Immediately falling in love with the game, he set about developing a tool that could automate the process of making Sudoku puzzles. This would eventually turn into Pappocom Sudoku, the first computer-driven Sudoku puzzle generator.

Now he had the means, he wanted to get it into publications, and one of the first places he turned was The Times, the most popular broadsheet newspaper in the United Kingdom at the time.

How Did Wayne Gould Convince The Times To Publish Sudoku?

According to an article in The Times, Mr Gould arrived unannounced at the newspaper’s offices in London, wanting to speak to the features editor. He was granted time but did not know when.

Fearing his laptop would die before he got the chance to show off his handiwork, he opted to put his skills in forgery developed by watching countless trials in Hong Kong to work.

He printed one of his puzzles out onto a blank piece of newsprint and cut the existing puzzles page to incorporate his new puzzle. The result was seamless and was enough of a conversation starter to get Sudoku published in The Times, where it quickly spread and became a phenomenon.