tutORial: * Easy Pieces


An OR/MS Perspective on the 8 Easy Pieces Game

This note is very similar to the one related to the N-Queens problem

So we raise the eternal question: Why should this puzzle be of interest to the OR/MS community?

Good question!

Firstly, in all likelihood, this puzzle stands the chance of soon becoming an integral part of the OR/MS folklore. Secondly, it poses a challenge to "traditional" OR/MS.

Concerning the first point, now that constraint programming is part of OR/MS, this puzzle will become an obvious example of the relationship between constraint programming and .... integer programming.


As to the challenge, well let's see:

Assignment

  1. Formulate this game as a conventional OR/MS optimization problem.
  2. Use one of traditional OR/MS software packages to solve the problem.

In any case, the objective of this module is just to provide you with a user-friendly facility to experiment with the basic elements of this puzzle.

We do plan to use it in modules on branch and bound and dynamic programming.

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Date created: January 15, 2000
Date last modified: February 15, 2000
Authorised by: Moshe Sniedovich
Maintained by: Moshe Sniedovich, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Email: m.sniedovich@ms.unimelb.edu.au