How Turing solved the enigma of Solitaire (fwd)

06 June 2015

How Turing solved the enigma of Solitaire : Codebreaker's letter to girl, 
8, explains how to crack the game ( and here it is for anyone who's lost 
their marbles trying to solve it )

- Alan Turing wrote to Maria Greenbaum in 1953 with advice on Solitaire
- Aim of the game is to leave a single piece at the centre of the board
- But Turing knew the game could end with pieces scattered around 
- Letter expected to fetch up to £60,000 when it is auctioned later this 
  month

By Chris Hastings for The Mail on Sunday

It is the parlour game that has been maddeningly frustrating to 
generations of players over the years.

Though the basic rules of Solitaire are simple – a marble is removed from 
the board after the player ‘jumps’ another over it – the aim of leaving a 
single piece at the centre of the board can prove baffling.

But one of the most brilliant minds of the last century devised a solution 
to help a young child play it.

Alan Turing, famed as the great intellect who broke the Nazis’ Enigma code 
during the Second World War, explained his Solitaire method in a letter to 
a girl who was a family friend.

Maria Greenbaum was the niece of Turing’s therapist, and was aged eight 
when she received the letter. It is expected to fetch up to £60,000 when 
it is auctioned at Bonhams on June 24.

Writing in July 1953, he provided her with advice on how to play the game 
so that it would ‘give you something to do’ during a train journey to a 
family holiday in Switzerland.

‘I hope you may get this before you leave… It is just to tell you how to 
do the solitaire puzzle,’ said Turing.

He knew that without a system, the game would end with several pieces that 
would be impossible to ‘jump’ and remove because they would be scattered 
across the board.

Turing used three diagrams to explain to Greenbaum how she might best 
succeed at the game: one showing a board made up of numbers, another with 
four different shapes representing pieces, and – on a piece of paper 
enclosed with the letter – a third showing the board shaded in different 
colours...../snip/


Read more :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3113800/How-Turing-solved-enigma-Solitaire-Codebreaker-s-letter-girl-8-explains-crack-game-s-lost-marbles-trying-solve-it.html

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1565800.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_06_06

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/enigma-genius-alan-turing-solved-4636115


http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22714/lot/172/

http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/news/books-and-manuscripts/alan-turings-solitaire-letter-expected-to-sell-for-92-500/19570.page

http://www.bletchleyparkresearch.co.uk/links/alan-turing-and-the-solitaire-solution/