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arXiv:1305.1010cs.GT

An Optimal Mastermind (4,7) Strategy and More Results in the Expected Case

Geoffroy Ville

Early discovery. Linked by one identifiable commenter. This paper is outside the main ranking; a mention is not an endorsement.

Abstract

This paper presents an optimal strategy for solving the 4 peg-7 color Mastermind MM(4,7) in the expected case (4.676) along with optimal strategies or upper bounds for other values. The program developed is using a depth-first branch and bound algorithm relying on tight upper bound, dynamic lower bound evaluation and guess equivalence to prune symmetric tree branches.

arXiv comments
20 pages, 9 tables, 2 figures
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.GTComputer Science and Game Theory

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Linked by 1 identifiable commenter in 1 comment across 1 thread, from May 2017 to May 2017.

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Discussed in comments1 thread

  1. Computer as Master Mind (1976) [pdf] 1 comment

    • I've been studying the game of hangman (somewhat obsessively) for the last 6 or so years. I only recently discovered this Knuth paper via An Optimal Mastermind (4,7) Strategy and More Results in the Expected Case [1]. I think the reason it has captivated me for so long is…

      chrisconleyView on HNParent context

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