Printable Easy Kakuro Puzzles (Free PDF)

These printable easy Kakuro puzzles are five small grids made by the LogikLand generator, with the solutions on the last pages. They are meant for a first evening with Kakuro: short runs, a 6 by 6 white area and no guessing.

Download the PDF (5 puzzles and the solutions). It is free, needs no account, carries a small LogikLand footer and is for personal use.

What is in the pack

• Five easy Kakuro grids, one per page, followed by three pages of solutions (two grids per page, one on the last page).
• The white area of every grid is 6 by 6 cells, plus the grey row and column that carry the clues.
• Runs are 2 to 4 cells long. That is the easy level of the LogikLand Kakuro assistant.
• Each grid has one solution and can be solved by logic alone. The generator throws away any grid that would need a guess.

If you do not know the rules yet, read the Kakuro rules first. They take three minutes.

Four grids to look at

The first four grids of the pack, without their solutions:

How to print them

• The pages are US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches). On A4 paper, choose "fit to page" in your print window.
• Print only pages 1 to 5 for the puzzles. Keep pages 6 to 8, the solutions, for later.
• The clue cells are filled with light grey. A black and white printer is enough, and a low ink setting still works.
• Our suggestion, not a rule: use a soft pencil and a good eraser. Kakuro is a puzzle of small corrections.

Start with grid 1

Here are the first moves of grid 1, in the order that makes them easiest. Each step uses only the clue numbers.

1. In the lower left, a run of two cells with clue 9 crosses a column of two cells with clue 16. The only pair that makes 16 is 7 and 9. A 9 cannot be in the run of 9 (the other cell would be 0), so the shared cell is 7, the other cell of the 9 run is 2, and the one above the 7 is 9.
2. The column of two cells with clue 5 has a 2 at the bottom now, so the cell above it is 3.
3. On the bottom right, the run 17 must be 8 and 9, and the column 16 that crosses it must be 7 and 9. The cell they share has to be a digit of both pairs: it is 9. The other cell of the 17 is 8 and the one under the 9 is 7.
4. The row at the very bottom has clue 12. It has a 7, so its other cell is 5.
5. The long column with clue 29 has four cells and can only be 5, 7, 8 and 9. You have placed 5 and 8, so the two cells above are 7 and 9. The row with the 3 and the 9 already has a 9, so the lower of the two cells is 7 and the upper one is 9.

Why this works

Every step used a sum with a very short list of possible pairs, then looked at the crossing run. That is the whole method for easy Kakuro. The cells you fill give new restrictions to the next run, and the grid unrolls.

Checking your grid

When every white cell is filled, check the grid in two passes. First go through the clues one by one and add up the run that belongs to each. Then look for repeats inside each run: two equal digits in one run is an error even if the sum is right. A digit that appears twice in the grid is not a mistake, because only runs count. If one run is wrong, the error is almost always in one of its cells, and the other run that crosses the cell will tell you which. Only then open the solution pages.

Why the grids are 6 by 6

Easy grids are small on purpose, but the size also comes from how Kakuro grids work. When we measured the generator, a 6 by 6 area with runs of 3 cells at most allowed only 4 symmetric shapes, and runs of up to 4 cells allowed 55. That is why the easy level uses runs of 2 to 4 cells: with fewer shapes, the grids would start to look alike. No level uses runs longer than 5 cells: with runs of 9 cells, the grids we tested almost never had a single solution.

When the easy grids feel too easy

The LogikLand Kakuro assistant goes up to 12 by 12 white cells, with runs of up to 5 cells. Before you move up, read how to solve Kakuro for the method and advanced Kakuro techniques for the harder levels.

Making your own pages

This pack is not made in a tool you can use without an account. To make your own Kakuro pages or a whole book, create a free account and use the Kakuro assistant: you choose the levels, 1 or 2 grids per page and the solutions per page. To sell books you make, you need the PRO or EXPERT plan, which carries the commercial rights.