Take a Break Sudoku: The Magazine, the Daily Puzzles and How to Play

Take a Break Sudoku is the sudoku brand of Take a Break, the long-running UK real-life magazine published by Bauer Media. It covers a monthly print magazine packed with 80+ sudoku puzzles plus free daily sudoku puzzles on the takeabreak.co.uk website, making it one of the most recognisable sudoku names in Britain.

What Is Take a Break Sudoku?

Take a Break Sudoku is not a single game but a puzzle brand. The name covers two main things: Take a Break Sudoku magazine, a monthly print publication, and the free sudoku puzzles published every day on the Take a Break website. Both are produced by Bauer Media UK's puzzles team, the same operation behind the puzzles in Take a Break, Take a Break Monthly and Woman's Weekly. If you are new to the number grid itself, our killer sudoku guide explains the trickiest sudoku variant, and the sudoku puzzle books roundup is ideal for offline practice.

The magazine describes itself as providing "brain food" for readers of all ages, with puzzles that vary in difficulty and size. Each issue combines challenging sudokus with cash competitions, so readers can win prizes as well as sharpen their minds. The website puzzles are free to play and refreshed daily, alongside wordsearches, codebreakers, crosswords and arrowwords.

Take a Break Sudoku Magazine

The print magazine is the heart of the brand. Here is what each issue offers:

• 80+ sudoku puzzles in every issue, varying in size and difficulty
• A new, larger format designed to be easier on the eyes than standard puzzle magazines
• Variations on classic sudoku alongside the standard 9×9 grids, to keep experienced solvers interested
• A monthly competition with prizes for readers
• Monthly frequency, 12 issues a year

The magazine is aimed at everyone from complete beginners to seasoned solvers. Subscription offers are widely available through magazine retailers, with trial offers (for example, three issues for a few pounds) and annual subscriptions commonly advertised — prices vary by retailer, so it is worth comparing current deals on sites such as magazine.co.uk, newsstand.co.uk and uniquemagazines.co.uk before committing.

There is also a travel-sized spin-off, the Tab Mini Sudoku Collection, a pocket-sized magazine with over 120 pages of sudoku puzzles across five difficulty levels, aimed at solvers who want puzzles on the move.

Take a Break Sudoku Online: Free Daily Puzzles

You do not need to buy the magazine to enjoy Take a Break Sudoku. The Take a Break website (takeabreak.co.uk/puzzles) runs a free interactive puzzles section with five puzzle types: wordsearches, sudokus, codebreakers, crosswords and arrowwords. A new puzzle of each type is posted every day, and players can also revisit puzzles from the previous six days.

This digital puzzles section was launched by Bauer Media's in-house puzzles team and built with the digital agency Digital Marmalade. The same team also supplies puzzles to major partners — including Harry Potter-themed crosswords and wordsearches for the Wizarding World website and app — which gives a sense of the operation's scale.

How to play the daily Take a Break sudoku

1. Visit the Take a Break puzzles section on takeabreak.co.uk.
2. Choose the sudoku puzzle for the day (previous days' puzzles are also available).
3. Fill the 9×9 grid so every row, column and 3×3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
4. Use the on-screen tools to enter numbers, add pencil marks and check your progress.

Sudoku Difficulty Levels

Whether you play in the magazine or online, Take a Break sudoku puzzles span a range of difficulties. Most sudoku publications use a similar ladder:

If you are new to sudoku, start with the easy puzzles and work upwards. Jumping straight to the fiendish grids is the fastest way to get frustrated — the satisfaction of sudoku comes from puzzles pitched just at the edge of your ability.

Strategies for Solving Take a Break Sudoku

These techniques work on any standard sudoku, including Take a Break's puzzles:

• Scan rows and columns first. Look for rows, columns or boxes that are nearly complete and fill the obvious singles before anything else.
• Use pencil marks. Write small candidate numbers in empty cells. When a cell is reduced to a single candidate, you have found a naked single.
• Look for hidden singles. Sometimes a digit can only go in one cell within a row, column or box even though that cell has several candidates — that digit must go there.
• Cross-hatch. Pick a digit and scan the whole grid for where it can and cannot go; this often reveals placements that scanning alone misses.
• Work in pairs. If two cells in a unit share the same two candidates, those digits are locked to those cells and can be eliminated elsewhere in the unit.
• Take a break (literally). Staring at a stuck grid rarely helps. Walk away for ten minutes and the missing number often jumps out when you return.

Take a Break Sudoku Competitions

Competitions are a signature feature of the brand. The print magazine runs a monthly competition with prizes, and Take a Break as a whole is famous for its cash prize puzzles across its magazines. Entry details are printed in each issue, and winners are typically announced in a later edition. If you enjoy competitive puzzling, the magazine's competition pages are the main reason many readers subscribe rather than just playing the free online puzzles.

Take a Break Sudoku vs Other UK Sudoku Sources

Take a Break's niche is the friendly, accessible end of the market: big print, gentle difficulty curve and prize competitions, rather than the hardcore solving scene.