United States Jigsaw Sudoku
So I was doing the first "irregular toroidal sudoku" I had seen made by r.e.s. and posted here and also here - depending on which of the sudoku forums you really prefer to visit. I wrote a solution up on Wayne's forum at sudoku.com and had actually commented about same of the names I had given to the nonets. Admittedly, I have a better way of drawing "New Hampshire" with 9 squares (shift the top 4 rows over one, NH has a bit of a hub on the lower right), but after another poster (jokingly?) referred to a different nonet as "Illinois" I asked myself this question: "Could you make a jigsaw sudoku out of US state shapes?"


Well, my answer after much fiddling this evening is below. It is very hard to draw states in just 9 squares, let alone pack them together, and have the puzzle solved with just their initials. I made this by hand, and would be glad to hear what people think of it. It is completely solvable with logic, but has a couple tricky steps so don't be discouraged if you get stuck. Enjoy: