Welcome to Duane Bailey's Hitori puzzle page. Basically, the goal of the puzzle is to knock out (color black) some squares, and keep (color white) the others, so that every row and column is composed of unique values. Black squares can't touch, and the white squares are all connected by the edges of their squares. Precise rules & strategy are found here.

Below is a Java applet that generates new Hitori puzzles, every time you visit. You can, if you want, have this applet generate puzzles of other sizes (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, or 20).

Press mouse on values to cycle through coloring.
Type = for new puzzle, > for larger, < for smaller, - to clear board, and ? for a hint.

Go here if you want to see the puzzle on a page by itself.

Built fairly well, with Processing, by Duane

To solve this hitori puzzle, keep in mind the following solution goals:

1. All cells are committed to white or black.
2. Values in white cells are unique within each row or column.
3. Black cells should never share an edge.
4. White cells should form a single mass, connected along edges.

Like solving sudoku puzzles, hitori puzzles should not involve guessing or backtracking.