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Researchers at the University of St Andrews have thrown down the gauntlet to computer programmers to find a solution to a "simple" chess puzzle which could, in fact, take thousands of years to solve and net a $1M prize. Computer Scientist Professor Ian Gent and his colleagues, at the University of St Andrews, believe any program capable of solving the famous "Queens Puzzle" efficiently, would be so powerful, it would be capable of solving tasks currently considered impossible, such as decrypting the toughest security on the internet.
Devised in 1850, the Queens Puzzle originally challenged a player to place eight queens on a standard chessboard so that no two queens could attack each other. This means putting one queen in each row, so that no two queens are in the same column, and no two queens in the same diagonal. Although the problem has been solved by human beings, once the chess board increases to a large size no computer program can solve it.
The team found that once the chess board reached 1000 squares by 1000, computer progams could no longer cope with the vast number of options and sunk into a potentially eternal struggle akin to the fictional "super computer" Deep Thought in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which took seven and a half million years to provide an answer to the meaning of everything.
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-simple-chess-puzzle-key-1m.html
[Abstract]: "Complexity of n-Queens Completion"
[Source]: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2017/title,1539813,en.php
Any takers for this challenge?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday September 02 2017, @09:33AM (3 children)
So that's less than 1000 dollars per year, or less than 83 dollars per month. Not exactly a good pay. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday September 02 2017, @12:40PM
In 1000 years inflation will make 1M dollar barely enough to buy a chewing gum, (the world population entirely made of bots means little demand for chewing gum, that's why).
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Saturday September 02 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
"any program capable of solving the famous "Queens Puzzle" efficiently, would be so powerful, it would be capable of solving tasks currently considered impossible, such as decrypting the toughest security on the internet"
I'd think anyone so misguided to ruin the privacy of everyone for a mere $1 million dollars will be in mortal danger after enabling such a feat. But, people do sell out for a remarkably low amounts compared to the risk they put themselves into, so I wouldn't be surprised if some creepy recluse comes up with the answer so that he can afford the back stage pass to a taylor swift concert or something.
(A smarter person [who also may be creepy] would simply keep the solution to themselves and acquire those tickets in a more hacker way, you know?)
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday September 06 2017, @12:18AM
You seem to be assuming that if one person does solve it, that they'll be the only person in all of history to figure it out. If a lone individual can solve it, what makes you think an organization like the NSA can't? Or hasn't already?
It would not ruin the privacy of everyone, it would *improve it* by showing us the weaknesses. Which we can then attempt to fix. Keeping such a solution to themselves -- or selling it to in a less public venue -- is what would ruin our privacy. Many nefarious organizations could easily buy such a solution and keep it secret, but it seems hard to conceal someone winning a million bucks from a university in a public competition.