🟧 How to play Consecutive Sudoku

By Miguel Arechaga

Consecutive Sudoku is a very visual variant that adds bars between cells to give hints about their values. It's the sibling of Non-Consecutive Sudoku, but the other way around: here the bars mark exactly the pairs that ARE consecutive. And there's a key detail that makes it very powerful: the absence of a bar also gives information. Here are the rules and a few tips.

What is Consecutive Sudoku?

It's a standard 9x9 sudoku where, between some neighboring cells (sharing an edge), a bar appears. That bar means the two numbers are consecutive, meaning they differ by 1 (for example 4 and 5). Since every consecutive pair is marked, if there's no bar between two neighbors it means they're NOT consecutive.

Rules and how to play step by step

1. The sudoku rules apply: 1 to 9 without repeats in each row, column and 3x3 box.
2. A bar between two neighboring cells means their numbers are consecutive (a difference of 1).
3. If there's no bar between two neighbors, their numbers are not consecutive.
4. You start with some clue cells and fill in the rest with logic. Every puzzle has a unique solution.

Tips to solve Consecutive Sudoku

• Use the bars: if a cell holds a 5 and there's a bar, the neighbor is a 4 or a 6; combine with the box and row to decide.
• The absence of a bar rules things out: between two neighbors without a bar, neither can be one more or one less than the other; that eliminates candidates very fast.
• Chains of bars: several bars in a row form a sequence that rises or falls by one; they usually solve almost on their own.
• Combine the bars with the classic elimination techniques of sudoku.

How it differs from regular sudoku

Compared to classic sudoku, Consecutive gives information about the relationship between neighboring cells, not just the ban on repeats. It's the reverse of Non-Consecutive Sudoku. If you enjoy variants with marks and extra restrictions, you'll also enjoy Killer Sudoku.