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Many puzzles stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems (see packing problems and tour puzzles). Others, like chess problems, are derived from board games. Others again have been devised for the sole purpose of being brain teasers.

The history of puzzles goes back many thousand years, Tangram being one of the earliest and still one of the most popular puzzles. In certain temples of Japan monks used to write mathematical puzzles on temple walls.

1 Categories of puzzles

• boardgame puzzle s - puzzles derived from board games
  • chess-type problems
    • chess problems
    • Eight queens puzzle
• computer puzzle games
• cube puzzles
• logic puzzles
  • Paint by numbers
• mechanical puzzles
  • Rubik's_CubeRubik's Cube is a mechanical puzzle invented by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik in 1974. It has been estimated that over 100,000,000 Rubik's Cubes or imitations have been sold worldwide. The Rubik's Cube reached its height
• packing problems
• pair-up puzzleIn pair-up puzzles the player has to match tokens, usually two at a time. The matched tokens are usually taken from the board, and the player wins when the board is empty. Examples of pair-up puzzles Bowls Pairs Solitaire Memory game Board games Puzzles.s
• polycube puzzlePolycubes are made from cubes that are glued face-to-face without overlap. In polycube puzzles the player is usually presented with a set of such polycubes and he has the task to assemble them to a certain shape. Sometimes (especially when polycube puzzles
  • Soma cubeThe Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle created by Piet Hein during a lecture on Quantum Mechanics by Werner Heisenberg. Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3x3x3 cube. The pieces can also be used to make a variety of other int
• brain teaserA Brain teaser is a form of puzzle that involves a lot of thinking (mental/cognitive activity). Normally, this includes thinking in conventional ways with given constraints in mind; sometimes, it also involves lateral thinking. Logic puzzles and riddles a
• riddleA riddle is a puzzle, consisting of text with a question to answer. Riddles have a distinguished literary ancestry, although the contemporary sort of conundrum that passes under the name of "riddle" may not make this obvious. Riddles occur extensively in
• shuffling puzzleAs in transport puzzles, in shuffling puzzles no piece is ever lost or added. Typically all pieces are given at the outset as a specific board situation. The player has to achieve a certain end configuration though swapping of sets of tokens (like two rows
  • Tower of Hanoi
• solitaire-type puzzles
  • Peg solitaire
• stick puzzles
  • matchstick puzzles
• tiling puzzles
  • jigsaw puzzles
  • polysquare puzzles
  • Tangram
• tour puzzles
• transport puzzles
  • sliding puzzles
    • Fifteen puzzle
  • Sokoban
• whodunits
• word puzzles
  • anagrams
  • code cracker s
  • crossword puzzles
  • ditloids
  • the - gry puzzle
  • word seek puzzle s
  • verbal arithmetic

For more examples click one of the categories.