Kaji, ‘Father of Sudoku’, dies at 69

Kaji, ‘Father of Sudoku’, dies at 69

TOKYO: Maki Kaji, a puzzle enthusiast and publisher who was known as the “Father of Sudoku” — the number puzzle played daily by millions around the world — has died, his company said. He was 69.

A university dropout who worked in a printing company before founding Japan’s first puzzle magazine, Kaji took hints from an existing number puzzle to create what he later named “sudoku” — a contraction of the…