Games Index > Century Puzzle Hints

Here are some hints provided by people who have solved the puzzle.

1. Concentrate on a strategy to move the horizontal piece pass the big square, and the solution to the puzzle will soon follow. (Karen White)

2. The key is splitting up the single blocks at the right time. The move requires moving three of the singles above the big block and leaving one behind. (Shawn Mitchell)

3. The solution seems to require 107 steps. I recall this is called the century puzzle for that reason (there must be slight variations taking exactly 100 moves). The second hint is somewhat misleading, in that I never found a way to solve it with the single blocks in groups of 3 and 1. The first hint is right on the mark though. As another hint, I might say that the big square has to stay put for over 50 moves in one place while the other pieces sort themselves out (not saying where that place is :-) )

   (Later) After some more fiddling about, I did actually improve my 107 step solution to exactly 100 steps. So it's quite worthy of the name "Century Puzzle"!

4. Try not to think of getting the horizontal bar OVER the large block. Instead, visualize getting the large block UNDER the horizontal bar. (Eldon R. Hiebert)

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