Warnsdorff's algorithm
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Warnsdorff's algorithm is a heuristic method for solving the Knight's Tour. The algorithm was first described in "Des Rösselsprungs einfachste und allgemeinste Lösung" by H. C. Warnsdorff in 1823.
[edit] External links
- Warnsdorff's rule
- Pohl, Ira (July 1967). "A method for finding Hamilton paths and Knight's tours". Communications of the ACM 10 (7): 446–449. doi:.
- Preprint of Pohl's paper (freely accessible)
A heuristic is a rule of thumb. Warnsdorf's rule was go to a next square that had the fewest further knight's moves. This more generally can be applied to any graph - as going to a next node that has least degree. Pohl generalized this by breaking ties at a next level. This led to a very powerful and linear time algorithm for finding Hamiltonian's in a graph. The knight's tour is a special case.
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