Description of Minimal Triple Klondike

Minimal Triple Klondike

Goal

Solve Triple Klondike deals with the minimum number of moves.

The Problem

There are 100 deals, numbered from 1 to 100.
You have to remove the most cards in the minimal number of moves.

Triple Klondike is similar to Klondike, but with three sets of 52 cards instead of one set.
There are 13 tableau piles, the first one contains 1 card, the second one 2 cards, ..., and the thirteenth one contains 13 cards.
Your goal is to move all the cards to the foundations.

You can move one card from the stock to the waste.
You can move one card from the waste to any tableau or foundation.
You can move one card from a foundation to any tableau.
You can move one or several cards from a tableau to another tableau or foundation.

It's easier to understand the rules by playing the game.

The Scoring System

When you submit a solution, it'll display two values: removed/moves.
removed is the number of removed cards (max is 156).
moves is the number of moves.

Let's note:

Removed as the number of cards removed in your solution
Moves as the number of moves used in your solution
BestRemoved as the number of cards removed in the record
BestMoves as the number of moves used in the record

Your score will be:

if Removed != BestRemoved, then you get 0 points
otherwise you get BestMoves/Moves points

Submitting

You may submit as many solutions as you want, for any deal of cards.
You can submit several solutions at once, if you put every solution on a different line.
The number of submissions has no influence on the score.

Whenever a participant submits a solution that is better than the current best solution for a given n, the corresponding scores of all participants are recomputed and adjusted immediately.

Total Scoring

Your score is the sum of all single problem scores.
Since there are 100 problems, the best total score you can get is 100.
If you do not submit for a particular N, you will receive a 0 for that N.

Deals

You can use the deal generator in C, or you can use the deals in text format.

The cards are distributed in the following order (the first line is the column's name):

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	4	7	11	16	22	29	37	46	56	67	79
	3	5	8	12	17	23	30	38	47	57	68	80
		6	9	13	18	24	31	39	48	58	69	81
			10	14	19	25	32	40	49	59	70	82
				15	20	26	33	41	50	60	71	83
					21	27	34	42	51	61	72	84
						28	35	43	52	62	73	85
							36	44	53	63	74	86
								45	54	64	75	87
									55	65	76	88
										66	77	89
											78	90
												91

The 65 remaining cards are placed in the stock pile.

The cards are:
A for Ace
2...9 for 2 to 9
T for Ten
J for Jack
Q for Queen
K for King

C for clubs
D for diamonds
H for hearts
S for spades

If you are unsure, you can get the disposition of the cards on the test page by submitting an empty solution, as this one for deal 3:
Display the cards for deal number 3

The deals are compatible with PySol Fan Club Edition.
In PySol, select French Games/Klondike Type/Triple Klondike, then select game by number (use Ctrl+M), the deal numbers are the same as this contest.

Notations

The columns names are:
@ is the stock (upper left)
A is the waste (at the right of the stock)
B-M are the foundations

N-Z are the tableau piles

The format to submit a solution is:

[number][series]
[number] is the deal number
[series] is the representation of the moves

@ is a move from the stock to waste.
All the other moves are represented as [source][destination], where [source] is the source column, and [destination] is the destination column.

For example, moving a card from the bottom left to the first foundation is written "NB"
Here is an example of solution for deal number 3: 3@nbtcwbydud

Playing with the interface

Click on the top right question mark to get some help.
In the menu Solitaire, "Restart Game" will restart the game, "Submit this Solution" will submit your current game state, "Undo Move" will take back the last move.
You can disable the autoplay feature in the Options menu.
Clicking on the deal number allows you to change its value.
When you play, the moves are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You can copy/paste them.

Automated submissions

You can submit solutions by using the following url:
http://hardpuzzles.free.fr/MTK_submit.php5?user=[user]&pass=[pass]&solution=[solution]
where:
[user] is you email address
[pass] is your password
[solution] is your solution (deal number followed by the moves)

Some interesting links

Proof of Klondike's NP-completeness
Analysis of winnable Klondike's deals
An optimal Klondike solver

Prizes

The winning team will receive a prize of €90.
The second team will receive €30.

Organization

As the organizers, we may change the rules during this contest.

Thanks

Special thanks to:

Mark Mammel, Jim Gillogly and Gunter Stertenbrink for beta-testing the site.
Robert Schultz for the idea of this contest.
Al Zimmerman for the inspiration of these contests.

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	4	7	11	16	22	29	37	46	56	67	79
	3	5	8	12	17	23	30	38	47	57	68	80
		6	9	13	18	24	31	39	48	58	69	81
			10	14	19	25	32	40	49	59	70	82
				15	20	26	33	41	50	60	71	83
					21	27	34	42	51	61	72	84
						28	35	43	52	62	73	85
							36	44	53	63	74	86
								45	54	64	75	87
									55	65	76	88
										66	77	89
											78	90
												91

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	4	7	11	16	22	29	37	46	56	67	79
	3	5	8	12	17	23	30	38	47	57	68	80
		6	9	13	18	24	31	39	48	58	69	81
			10	14	19	25	32	40	49	59	70	82
				15	20	26	33	41	50	60	71	83
					21	27	34	42	51	61	72	84
						28	35	43	52	62	73	85
							36	44	53	63	74	86
								45	54	64	75	87
									55	65	76	88
										66	77	89
											78	90
												91

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	4	7	11	16	22	29	37	46	56	67	79
	3	5	8	12	17	23	30	38	47	57	68	80
		6	9	13	18	24	31	39	48	58	69	81
			10	14	19	25	32	40	49	59	70	82
				15	20	26	33	41	50	60	71	83
					21	27	34	42	51	61	72	84
						28	35	43	52	62	73	85
							36	44	53	63	74	86
								45	54	64	75	87
									55	65	76	88
										66	77	89
											78	90
												91