Related papers: Minuet: A method to solve Sudoku puzzles by hand
A sliding puzzle is a combination puzzle where a player slide pieces along certain routes on a board to reach a certain end-configuration. In this paper, we propose a novel measurement of complexity of massive sliding puzzles with…
What can humans compute in their heads? We are thinking of a variety of Crypto Protocols, games like Sudoku, Crossword Puzzles, Speed Chess, and so on. The intent of this paper is to apply the ideas and methods of theoretical computer…
Sudoku is a famous logic puzzle where the player has to fill a number between 1 and 9 into each empty cell of a $9 \times 9$ grid such that every number appears exactly once in each row, each column, and each $3 \times 3$ block. In 2020,…
We develop a new discrete mathematical model which includes the classical Sudoku puzzle, Latin Squares and gerechte designs. This problem is described by integer equations and a special type of inequality constraint. We consider solutions…
Mastermind is in essence a search problem in which a string of symbols that is kept secret must be found by sequentially playing strings that use the same alphabet, and using the responses that indicate how close are those other strings to…
We consider a somehow peculiar Token/Bucket problem which at first sight looks confusing and difficult to solve. The winning approach to solve the problem consists in going back to the simple and traditional methods to solve computer…
In this paper we suggest analytical methods and associated algorithms for determining the sum of the subsets $X_m$ of the set $X_n$ (subset sum problem). Our algorithm has time complexity $T=O(C_{n}^{k})$ ($k=[m/2]$, which significantly…
The rules of Sudoku are often specified using twenty seven \texttt{all\_different} constraints, referred to as the {\em big} \mrules. Using graphical proofs and exploratory logic programming, the following main and new result is obtained:…
Su-Doku, a popular combinatorial puzzle, provides an excellent testbench for heuristic explorations. Several interesting questions arise from its deceptively simple set of rules. How many distinct Su-Doku grids are there? How to find a…
Existing reasoning benchmarks for large language models (LLMs) frequently fail to capture authentic creativity, often rewarding memorization of previously observed patterns. We address this shortcoming with Sudoku-Bench, a curated benchmark…
Many of the famous single-player games, commonly called puzzles, can be shown to be NP-Complete. Indeed, this class of complexity contains hundreds of puzzles, since people particularly appreciate completing an intractable puzzle, such as…
This article describes how to solve Sudoku puzzles using Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO). To this end, a QUBO instance with 729 variables is constructed, encoding a Sudoku grid with all constraints in place, which is then…
Rummikub is a tile-based game in which each player starts with a hand of $14$ tiles. A tile has a value and a suit. The players form sets consisting of tiles with the same suit and consecutive values (runs) or tiles with the same value and…
Sudoku puzzles are now popular among people in many countries across the world with simple constraints that no repeated digits in each row, each column, or each block. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Sudoku configuration provides us…
In this paper, we present Demystify, a general tool for creating human-interpretable step-by-step explanations of how to solve a wide range of pen and paper puzzles from a high-level logical description. Demystify is based on Minimal…
Are you having trouble getting married? These days, there are lots of products on the market for dating, from apps to websites and matchmakers, but we know a simpler way! That's right -- your path to coupled life isn't through Tinder: it's…
Based on a previous generalization by the author of Latin squares to Latin boards, this paper generalizes partial Latin squares and related objects like partial Latin squares, completable partial Latin squares and Latin square puzzles. The…
In this paper, we present the clockwise-algorithm that solves the extension in $k$-dimensions of the infamous nine-dot problem, the well-known two-dimensional thinking outside the box puzzle. We describe a general strategy that…
Icosoku is a challenging and interesting puzzle that exhibits highly symmetrical and combinatorial nature. In this paper, we pose the questions derived from the puzzle, but with more difficulty and generality. In addition, we also present a…
In this paper, we present a novel algorithm and its three variations for solving the Rubik's cube more efficiently. This algorithm can be used to solve the complete $n \times n \times n$ cube in $O(\frac{n^2}{\log n})$ moves. This algorithm…