Friday Puzzler -- More Othello

Re: Friday Puzzler -- More Othello

Larry Barrett

Question - in addition to moving tiles from one board to the other, can tiles be turned over?

If the answer is yes, then I think the solution is straightforward - move one tile from Board 2 to Board 1, then turn over all the tiles on Board 1.

Start:

Board 1 has 11B, 12W. Board 2 has 13B, 12W.

Case 1 - a W tile is selected at random and moved from Board 2 to Board 1.

Result: Board 1 has 11B, 13W. Board 2 has 13B, 11W.

Turn all the tiles on Board 1; Result: Board 1 has 11W, 13B - same as Board 2.

Case 2 - a B tile is selected at random and moved from Board 2 to Board 1.

Result: Board 1 has 12B, 12W. Board 2 has 12B, 12W.

Turn all the tiles on Board 1; Result: Board 1 has 12W, 12B - same as Board 2.

If the answer to the question is no, then I do not have a solution.

On the right track

Alex Y

Very good! That is a solution, but not the minimal one. (And yes, you can flip the pieces, which is the key.)

You can do it with just x discs moved

Alex Y

Close this if you want to keep working on it without knowing x.

If

not

,

then

scroll

down

and

try

your

hand

at

figuring

out

how

to

get

the

same

number

of

black-up

pieces

on

each

board

with

only

2

discs being moved!

More Othello solution

Alex Y

This one has been out there three weeks, so maybe it is time for the answer

Move 2 discs from the board with 13 black discs to the board with 11, flipping the discs as you do.