Sudoku and Tenner Grid are both grid-based logic puzzles you solve by pure deduction, so solvers naturally wonder how alike they really are. The short answer: Tenner Grid is moderate to Sudoku. Below we lay out what the two share, where they part ways, and whether the skills you have built on Sudoku will carry over.
- Grid: Ten columns
- Closeness to Sudoku: Moderate
- Also called: Tenner, Grid Ten, From 1 to 10
What is Tenner Grid?
A ten-column grid where each row holds 0-9 once, column totals are fixed, and touching cells must differ. Here are the rules in full:
- Every row contains the digits 0-9 exactly once.
- The number under each column is the sum of that column.
- Cells that touch - including diagonally - must hold different digits.
See a Tenner Grid row
A Tenner Grid is ten columns wide; each row holds 0-9 once, the number under each column is that column's sum, and touching cells (even diagonally) must differ. Here is one solved row holding all of 0-9.
A Tenner Grid: each row holds 0-9 once, the shaded numbers are the column sums, and any two touching cells (even diagonally) must differ.
The row rule - each digit once - is Sudoku's no-repeat rule on a ten-wide line, and the column-sum clues invite the same combination reasoning as a Killer cage. The diagonal no-touch rule is closer to Anti-King than to Classic Sudoku.
What Tenner Grid shares with Sudoku
- The row rule - each digit once - is Sudoku's no-repeat rule on a ten-wide line.
- The column-sum clues invite the same combination reasoning as Killer.
- It is a logic-only puzzle with a single solution.
How Tenner Grid differs from Sudoku
- It uses 0-9 and has no boxes - only rows, column sums and the touching rule.
- The adjacency constraint, diagonals included, is closer to Anti-King than to Classic Sudoku.
Do Sudoku skills transfer?
Column sums reward the same "which digits total this?" thinking as Killer cages, while the row rule is pure Sudoku no-repeat logic.
Brush up on the technique that carries over: Killer Sudoku Combinations.
The verdict
Tenner Grid blends Sudoku's no-repeat rows with Killer-style column sums and an anti-king touching rule.
Prefer to stay with Sudoku?
If Tenner Grid appeals, these Sudoku variants scratch the same itch and you can read up on each here:
Where to play it
If it was Sudoku you came for, the level is the choice that matters more than the variant - Tenner Grid and Sudoku part ways on the rules, but a Sudoku grid can be a two-minute warm-up or an hour of work depending on nothing but how much of it you are given.
Difficulty and type are two separate dials here: the type sets the extra rule, the level sets how much of the grid you start with. Easy Sudoku leaves 36 of the 81 cells filled, so there is always an obvious next move somewhere; Evil Sudoku leaves 23, with no easy moves at all. Take it at the gentler end while the pattern is still new, and move up once it stops being a fight.