Skip to main content

Finding Better Solutions to the Mastermind Puzzle Using Evolutionary Algorithms

  • Conference paper
Applications of Evolutionary Computation (EvoApplications 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 6024))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The art of solving the Mastermind puzzle was initiated by Donald Knuth and is already more than thirty years old; despite that, it still receives much attention in operational research and computer games journals, not to mention the nature-inspired stochastic algorithm literature. In this paper we revisit the application of evolutionary algorithms to solving it and trying some recently-found results to an evolutionary algorithm. The most parts heuristic is used to select guesses found by the evolutionary algorithms in an attempt to find solutions that are closer to those found by exhaustive search algorithms, but at the same time, possibly have better scaling properties when the size of the puzzle increases.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Berghman, L., Goossens, D., Leus, R.: Efficient solutions for Mastermind using genetic algorithms. Computers and Operations Research 36(6), 1880–1885 (2009), http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-56549123376

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Bernier, J.L., Herráiz, C.I., Merelo-Guervós, J.J., Olmeda, S., Prieto, A.: Solving mastermind using GAs and simulated annealing: a case of dynamic constraint optimization. In: Ebeling, W., Rechenberg, I., Voigt, H.-M., Schwefel, H.-P. (eds.) PPSN 1996. LNCS, vol. 1141, pp. 554–563. Springer, Heidelberg (1996), http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/context/1245314/0

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Bestavros, A., Belal, A.: Mastermind, a game of diagnosis strategies. Bulletin of the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University (December 1986), http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/bestavros86mastermind.html , available from http://www.cs.bu.edu/fac/best/res/papers/alybull86.ps

  4. Irving, R.W.: Towards an optimum mastermind strategy. Journal of Recreational Mathematics 11(2), 81–87 (1978–1979)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kendall, G., Parkes, A., Spoerer, K.: A survey of NP-complete puzzles. ICGA Journal 31(1), 13–34 (2008), http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-42949163946

    Google Scholar 

  6. Knuth, D.E.: The computer as Master Mind. J. Recreational Mathematics 9(1), 1–6 (1976–1977)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Kooi, B.: Yet another Mastermind strategy. ICGA Journal 28(1), 13–20 (2005), http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33646756877

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Merelo-Guervós, J.J., Castillo, P., Rivas, V.: Finding a needle in a haystack using hints and evolutionary computation: the case of evolutionary MasterMind. Applied Soft Computing 6(2), 170–179 (2006) , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W86-4FH0D6P-1/2/40a99afa8e9c7734baae340abecc113a ; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2004.09.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Neuwirth, E.: Some strategies for Mastermind. Zeitschrift fur Operations Research. Serie B 26(8), B257–B278 (1982)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Runarsson, T.P., Merelo, J.J.: Adapting heuristic Mastermind strategies to evolutionary algorithms. In: NICSO 2010 Proceedings. LNCS. Springer, Heidelberg (2010) (to be published) ArXiV: http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.2415v1

    Google Scholar 

  11. Stuckman, J., Zhang, G.Q.: Mastermind is NP-complete. CoRR abs/cs/0512049 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Wikipedia: Mastermind (board game) — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2009), http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mastermind_board_game&oldid=317686771 (Online; accessed 9-October-2009)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Merelo-Guervós, J.J., Runarsson, T.P. (2010). Finding Better Solutions to the Mastermind Puzzle Using Evolutionary Algorithms. In: Di Chio, C., et al. Applications of Evolutionary Computation. EvoApplications 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6024. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12239-2_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12239-2_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12238-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-12239-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics