KenKen Example One:
Here is you first example KenKen puzzle. As the page before this explains, the heavily outlined boxes are called a cage. So let's start with the numbers the puzzle tells us have to be in a certain box. In in top right corner, we see that the cage contains only one box. The number in the upper left corner of that box is a 1, so we know that the number we have to write in that box is a one. Now let's look at the whole puzzle. Every KenKen puzzle is a square. which means that the number of rows and columns are equal. A row is the horizontal boxes that are touching (horizontal means sideways). A column is the vertical boxes that are touching (vertical means up and down).
So if we look at the puzzle right above, let's figure out what is a row and what is a column. The boxes containing numbers (1, 2, and 3) form a column. While the numbers (4, 5, and 1) form a row. Now lets count how boxes are in each row and column. Each column is made up of 3 boxes and each row is made up of 3 boxes, again they will always be equal since every KenKen puzzle is a square. So we know that this KenKen puzzle is what we call a 3x3 (three by three) puzzle or grid. What this tells us is that the only numbers we can use to fill the boxes are 1. 2. and 3. As you learned on the last page, each row and column can contain only one of each number. So let's look back at the column we already talked about, labled by the boxes containing numbers (1, 2, and 3). That column can only contain the number 1, 2, and 3. It could not contain any numbers higher than 3 (4,5,6,7,8,9...etc.) or 0. Also it has to contain only one of each of the numbers 1, 2, and 3. The same goes for the rows of the puzzle.
Now we will solve this puzzle together.
Now we will solve this puzzle together.
FIrst we will fill in the square that tells us it contains the number 1. Now lets look at the cage that adds to 3 (as indicated in the upper left hand corner). I can only use the number 1, 2, and 3. So I know that this cage contains the numbers 1 and 2 since that is the only way I can fill the cage so that the numbers add to three. Since there is already a number 1, I know that the number 1 in this cage has to go in the left box, and the 2 on the right. When I look at the cage that adds to 5, I know the numbers in here have to be 2 and 3. Since I know there is a 2 in the right box of the add to 3 cage, this means that the 2 in the add to 5 cage must be on the left, and 3 on the right. Use this same type of logic to fill in the rest of the puzzle. Look below to see a completed version of this puzzle.