Her tips for enthusiasts was to practise more -- she manages two hours a day when not working or riding her showjumping horse -- and keep up to date with the better Sudoku Web sites.
And there lies the future of Sudoku. Gould says he has made most of his US$1 million from Sudoku via his Web site www.sudoku.com and from his puzzle books.
Will Shortz has caught the wave of Sudoku in the US after Gould popularized it in Britain via the London Times in November 2004, and now has five Sudoku books in the top 150 titles on the current USA Today bestseller list.
"Sudoku is building up a new interest in puzzles and attracting people who didn't do crosswords, but there's a big crossover," Shortz said in Lucca.
"Sudoku is more popular with younger people. You don't have to know anything basically to do it, just the nine numbers. An eight year-old can do it."
Shortz has made "enigmatology" -- the study of puzzles of all kinds -- popular, having parlayed a love of puzzles into a university degree and a lucrative career.
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