November 29, 2007
November 04, 2007
The Great American Freecell challenge
OK, here is the deal. Somehow, it is suspected that all free cell games are winnable, however, no one seems to know for sure. I am currently playing each game and am up to game 1300* out of 35000, having won all of them. What I am currently seeking is any game anyone has encountered that is thought to be unwinnable. I will then take on the challenge to actually win such game. I will, after winning such, capture the window** and post it here to show it is winnable. Post the game number of any game you feel is not winnable in the comments.
* Susan is additionally working her way up starting with game 3000, nearly successfully completing the first one hundred.
**see example in extended entry
Added 11/7/07
In later implementations of FreeCell in Microsoft Windows, there are 1,000,000 games. Of these, 8 have been found to be unsolvable. They are games No. 11,982, No. 146,692, No. 186,216, No. 455,889, No. 495,505, No. 512,118, No. 517,776, and No. 781,948. This conclusion was arrived at by the consensus of several authors of FreeCell solvers. The solvers of both Danny A. Jones and Gary D. Campbell have been run through the first million FreeCell games and have found solutions to all but these eight. Several other solvers have also failed to produce solutions to these games. Wikipedia
And after 50 attempts at game No. 11,982, I am completely convinced it is unsolvable. As such, I cede the challenge. Boo-Hoo .. guess I'll have to find something else to do to occupy my free time, which comes in 3 to 4 minutes at a time.
