Some Sudoku grids have the pattern: ABC ABC CAB - or - BCA BCA CAB where each 3x3 grid in the positions labelled A is the same except possible for permutation of rows and columns, and similarly for the grids in the positions labelled B or the positions labelled C. Here is one such example: 123 456 789 456 789 123 789 123 456 456 789 123 789 123 456 123 456 789 789 123 456 123 456 789 456 789 123 But some Sudoku grids are not like that. For example, the grid below is not of this form since 534 is the first row of the upper left 3x3 grid, but the numbers 534 do not appear (in any order) as a row in any of the four 3x3 grids in the bottom right. 534 678 912 672 195 348 198 342 567 859 761 423 426 853 791 713 924 856 961 537 284 287 419 635 345 286 179 If the Sudoku grid is of this form and I permute numbers, or permute the groups of 3 rows, or groups of 3 columns, or permute the rows or columns within any of those groups, then it is easy to see that the grid will still be of that form. If it is not of that form then these permutations will not put it in that form. Thus, the two grids about cannot be transformed into each other. (This is true even if you allow reflection as another transformation and if you freely permute the rows or columns within each of the 3 groups without regard to how the other rows and columns are being permuted. In fact, if you allow all of these transformations then there are 5,472,730,538 distinct grids according to J.-P. Delahaye, "Le tsunami du Sudoku" in 'Pour La Science' (French Edition of "Scientific American"), December 2005 pp. 144-9, Paris.