Hanjie

In the last 15 years hanjie has established itself as the classic, original 'Japanese' puzzle. It has a wide and devoted following right across the world.

The puzzle is neat, elegant, easy to understand and deceptively simple: a grid of squares is to have some squares filled in and others left blank. But the solver does not have just the satisfaction of successfully solving a purely logical puzzle but the pleasure of seeing a pixelated picture form before their eyes as the squares are filled in. The idea may have originated from businesses using large buildings in Japan at night that had some lights left on and others switched off to form huge pictorial adverts

Numbers are given at the end of each line and these tell you how many adjacent cells are to be filled in to form a 'block'. Blocks are identified by the spaces in between them. Only very simple counting and addition are required to solve many of the easier puzzles. But hanjie offers a wide range of difficulty levels and the harder puzzles can be very challenging, requiring the solver to spot just where a logical deduction can be made. However, there is no trial and error and only a single line needs to be examined at any one time. Discovering the logic needed for yourself is highly rewarding and there are also guides to the sort of thinking that is required. Many solvers who began with easy puzzles have developed into 'experts'.

The puzzles are neatly presented with very clear grids and an attractive pastel background. Each issue contains 45 puzzles ranging in size from 15x15 to 30x30.

The magazine is printed on clear white paper and only a pencil or pen is needed. It is available from WHSmith or by Puzzler Media Ltd subscription only.