Some puzzles are derived from games, such as chess problems, draughts problems or bridge problems. It is rare that a game is built around a puzzle. One such a game is Mastermind, invented by by Mordecai Meirowitz, an Israeli postmaster and telecommunications expert.
For those who don’t know it (are there any such persons in the ‘civilised’ world?), here are the rules. The board is four columns white, and one player sets up a secret combination of colours by selecting 4 pegs from a set of pegs in six colours, as shown in the picture.
The second player has to guess this combination. He may put up his own combination, and the first player will respons with one black peg for every peg with a colour in the correct spot and a white peg for every peg with the colour in the wrong spot. Pegs with a colour which are not in the secret combination are not rewarded at all.
1) 4 colours on 3 spots*
2) 6 colours on 4 spots**
There are several variations of the game.
The standard form is one codemaker and one codebreaker. Roles alternate to see who can solve the others pattern is as few guesses as possible. Or in the shortest time.
An alternative is to have several code breakers, not able to see each others guesses, and competing for the fewest number of guesses.
Instead of using colours, one may use digits (0-9), or letters. In the latter case, players are limited to existing words.
More Mastermind puzzles are planned in one of the upcoming e-books.
You can check your solution here for no 1 and here for no 2
A new puzzle is published every friday, at which time I will also post the solutions to the previous weeks puzzle so you can check yours. I welcome your solution times, but please don’t publish your solutions – that might spoil the fun for others. I also welcome your remarks on the difficulty level, multiple solutions, ambiguities and so on.