Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
Date: 29 Aug 94 22:40:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Q: What is FreeCell?

Thanks to bl...@gpx01.d39.lilly.com for posting the rules to FreeCell.
There seems to be a typo, though:

> ====From the help screens====

> 3. You can move a card from a free cell or from the bottom of a
> column to the bottom of another column as long as the rank of the
> card is less than the rank of the card you will place it on, and the
       ^^ ^^^^
> colors of the cards are different.  For example, you can move a
> black three onto a red four.  Any card can be moved to an empty
> column.

I'm sure ``is less'' should be ``is one less''.  That is, you can't
move a black three onto a red six.  tur...@cs.utexas.edu (Russell
Turpin) said as much when he introduced the problem last month:

> ...the usual usual solitaire rule holds: the moved element must be
> one less and a different color than the card onto which it is moved.

Otherwise the rules are pretty much like I expected from the
discussion so far.

That said, what is the deal 11982 that seems to be baffling the
experts?  Has it been _proved_ unsolvable yet?

Dan Hoey
Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil