2012-11-14

Source: Wikipedia article on Peg Solitaire

Problem:



The European version of the popular game "Brainvita" (or "Peg Solitaire") looks as follows:

Y Y O O O Y Y

Y O O O O O Y

O O O O O O O

O O O T O O O

O O O O O O O

Y O O O O O Y

Y Y O O O Y Y

Prove that the initial configuration as shown in the representation is not solvable.

Background:

The game fills the entire board with pegs except for the central hole. The objective is, making valid moves, to empty the entire board except for a solitary peg. A valid move is to jump a peg orthogonally over an adjacent peg into a hole two positions away and then to remove the jumped peg.

Similar Problems:

Rubik's Cube

Sam Loyd Puzzle Solvability

Update:

Solution posted by Pritish Kamath (CSE IITB 2012 Alumnus, Assistant Researcher MSR Bangalore) in comments!

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