Cavalcade of Games

Have you ever solved most of a puzzle and then discovered a mistake that you made much earlier? This happens to me a lot when I try to hurry through the little puzzles in the daily newspaper. It is especially frustrating because by the time I realize I’ve made a mistake there is no way I can remember how to go back to the point where I went wrong to correct it. Usually when this happens I just give up. But it doesn’t have to be this way, it is possible to backtrack in a puzzle if you want to.

To backtrack in a puzzle you just have to keep track of every number you enter, in the order that you entered it. Be sure to use a pencil when you are using this method so you can go back and erase all your mistakes. And also, it helps if you work on puzzles that have been printed on good paper so they won’t wear away too quickly when you erase.

What I do is make a tiny number “1″ in the bottom of the first box that I fill in when I start the game, then I put a “2″ in the second, and so on, and so on. I keep these numbers small and put them right down on the line so they don’t get mixed up with the actual number entries. Then when I find an error I can just erase all the other entries, in order, back to that mistake and correct it and start again.