The sliding puzzle is roughly divided into two major types: those that use identical shapes and those that use non-identical shapes. The former features pieces in the same shape and size, while the latter is formed with pieces in different shapes and sizes. The game known as Rearrange the Nine Grids is an identically-shaped sliding puzzle. This game challenges a player to rearrange the nine grids. The game has a long history which dates back to the Han Dynasty and was based on a mathematical game called “crisscross chart” or “magic square.”

 

Written records concerning the magic square and nine grid pattern have been found even as far back as He Tu and Luo Shu in ancient Chinese mythology. Luo Shu is basically a type of 3x3 magic square.

 

Rearrange the Nine Grids contains eight wooden pieces organized into three rows on a square board. After the pieces have been scrambled, a player has to use the only blank space to rearrange them according to their ordinal numbers. 

 

Rearrange the Nine Grids was brought to New York by Chinese immigrants. It was then redesigned by the famous American puzzle solver Sam Lloyd from a 3x3 into the 4x4 “Fifteen Puzzle,” which triggered a puzzle craze across the world.