Get a quick Sudoku fix on the iRex iLiad

[Alexander Turcic]

In a world that has gone sudokuing mad, it doesn't come as a surprise that puzzle enthusiasts turn latest gadgets into platforms for ancient games. Thanks to MobileReader yokos who created 666 Sudoku puzzles of three different difficulties for the iRex iLiad. So, dear iLiad fans, it's time to sharpen your pencils... uhm, styluses!

How to play: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9. There's no maths involved. You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic.

[tribble]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

There's no maths involved. You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic.

Which actually is all math

[doctorow]

One implies the other - but it's not necessarily the way around.

[yokos]

Easy explanation: It's not math in non-academic understanding because you are not calculating to solve it.

[pdam]

It may be simple maths, but unless you're entering random numbers you'll still be doing some adding up, which still counts

[tribble]

Darn, i didnt want to cause so much confusion.

Just a little explanation. reasoning and logic are the basic principles of math. Calculation, is only a logic "framework", so you are basically using math every day

and drrow, what do you mean? math => reason and logic but but not necessarily reason => logic => math ?? that might be true with alot of people.

[Bob Russell]

How about this?... No advanced math needed, just simple arithmetic with integers. ;-)

[arivero]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

How about this?... No advanced math needed, just simple arithmetic with integers. ;-)

On the contrary, it is advanced math what is implied in this kind of highly symmetric objects. Kind of Rubick's cube being about group theory. But you do not need to use it to understand the examples.

[Devlar]

I'm not totally certain, but I'm wondering if a similar program exists for generating chess problems as does for the Sudoku puzzles?

[tribble]

Originally Posted by Devlar

I'm not totally certain, but I'm wondering if a similar program exists for generating chess problems as does for the Sudoku puzzles?

hehe, ok, now we are getting into it
Actually, those two games can not be compared.

Usually sudoku games are created to have only one possible solution. You could design them to be more difficult with several solutions. But that would make it hard for the user, because he would come to a point in the game, where he has to "guess" a number for a field. I have yet to come across one of those. Until now i could solve every sudoku by just following plain logic without ever having more than one solution or even come across a dividing path while solving of which one would prove not solveable.

It is for that an "easy" problem and can easily be solved by a computer in milliseconds.

chess on the other hand is a multiplayer game, which offers a totally different level of difficulty. You simply can not calculate all possible moves and choose the best one there is in a reasonalbel amount of time. Thats why computers still loose against human beeings.
There is a whole reasearch field about game theory and multiplayer game theory.

Getting into that, that is high level logic, reasoning and calculation
Math at its best.

[Devlar]

Originally Posted by tribble

chess on the other hand is a multiplayer game, which offers a totally different level of difficulty. You simply can not calculate all possible moves and choose the best one there is in a reasonalbel amount of time. Thats why computers still loose against human beeings.

Indeed they do, because the games are usually based on brute force tactics. In a few years though, with processing power accelerating it is unlikely that many humans will still triumph.

That being said, there are several chess puzzles that could be manufactured easily by a computer:

• Forced Mates (Mate in 2, 3, 4, ...)
• Find Forks
• Find Skewers
• Find Hung Piece
• Pin Pieces
• Avoid Mate

Probably several more.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Devlar

Indeed they do, because the games are usually based on brute force tactics. In a few years though, with processing power accelerating it is unlikely that many humans will still triumph.

That being said, there are several chess puzzles that could be manufactured easily by a computer:

• Forced Mates (Mate in 2, 3, 4, ...)
• Find Forks
• Find Skewers
• Find Hung Piece
• Pin Pieces
• Avoid Mate

Probably several more.

This could be helpful: http://chesstask.sourceforge.net/
We'll be working on adding all sorts of games that you can find in newspapers for Feedbooks, chess will be included somehow sooner or later.

Right now we can already generate random sudokus, here's an example for the iLiad: http://download.feedbooks.com/Random%20Sudoku%20(4-4).pdf

Still got some issues with the generation speed but the rest is ready. Multiple RSS feeds + games should be available as soon as we have a better % of supported RSS feeds.

[k2r]

Originally Posted by Devlar

I'm not totally certain, but I'm wondering if a similar program exists for generating chess problems as does for the Sudoku puzzles?

How would you solve these problems? Would you just need a way to present the setup board and find the solution in your head or would you need a digital board you can move the pieces on?

#!chris

[Devlar]

Originally Posted by k2r

How would you solve these problems? Would you just need a way to present the setup board and find the solution in your head or would you need a digital board you can move the pieces on?

#!chris

Well the former would be easier since there is no SDK, and no real way to set up a digital board. I'd just like to find a piece of software that can randomly generate these puzzles.

If there were an SDK we could try to get xboard working and import the puzzles through pgn files. (Granted I'm not sure how the lack of root would effect compiling something like that)

[doctorow]

The origins of Sudoku lie with the mathematician Euler who devised something nasty called Latin Squares.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LatinSquare.html