17 Year-Old KenKen Whiz Publishes Her First Book

Do you solve KenKen puzzles? One Scarsdale teen does far more than do the puzzles ... she has become the U.S. Student KenKen Champion and has just written a book explaining how to solve the puzzles. Ellie's Grueskin's dad introduced her to the puzzles that appear on the New York Times crossword puzzle page when she was only ten. Since then Ellie has honed her skills, attended tournaments and ultimately risen to be the U.S. Student Champ.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, KenKen is similar to Sudoku in that both are based on logic and arithmetic operations. Within the puzzle, the solver must use the indicated operations to find the target number and not repeat a number in any row or column. The numbers of rows and columns in each KenKen dictate which numbers you can use; in a 3x3 puzzle, you can use digits 1-3, in a 4x4, you can use digits 1-4 and so on.

The KenKen Puzzle Company runs Championships twice a year and students and adults of all ages are invited to come. Traditionally, there are about three rounds with different sets of puzzles where the competitors receive points for completing the puzzles along with bonus points for finishing with extra time. This is followed by a Championship round of the top three contestants from the three rounds. There will be an international tournament on December 18th in New York City and Ellie encourages everyone to register! You can see the details here:

The story behind her new book is surprisingly simple. She worked for the KenKen Puzzle Company during the summer of 2015 and her boss, the President of KenKen, asked her if she would be interested in writing a book in order to teach beginners how to solve KenKens. The book is co-authored by Joshua Rosen, a teacher who uses KenKens in his math curriculum. At this point, it is the only book that provides a guide to solving KenKens for beginners.

Fortunately for Ellie she did not have to search for a publisher because the KenKen Puzzle Company publishes its own books. You can buy your copy of KenKen for Beginners here:

Ellie is currently a junior at the Hackley School in Tarrytown. Her favorite subjects in school are math and history because she finds them both to be the most applicable to her own life. Outside of classes, she's a swimmer on the school's varsity team, an editor for the literary magazine, an officer for the soup kitchen club, and a student leader for the peer tutoring program.

For those of you who would like a few tips on solving KenKen, here is what Ellie suggests:

Use the process of elimination when possible. For example, if you're doing a 4x4 and you know three of the numbers in a row or column, then you know the fourth number!

Start with 3x3s and gradually advance to 4x4s and 5x5s--the beginning sizes will help solvers develop techniques and stamina necessary for the more difficult KenKens.

Each puzzle has one unique solution. So while it may seem like there are many possibilities for each puzzle, only one is correct. I'd advise that you try out as many options as possible before coming to a conclusion.