Sliding Calendar Puzzle

Mental Calculation, Mathematics, and Puzzles
1

Here’s a different way to test your memory and puzzle solving skills: The Sliding Calendar Puzzle!

You select a date range (or use the default range of 2000-2099h, and the computer will automatically select a random month and year in that range, and generate a scrambled 15-puzzle-style sliding puzzle of that month.

Your challenge, without peeking at any external references, is to unscramble the puzzle, and put the calendar back the way it should be. The dates 1-28/29/30/31 should be placed in their proper place (the 1 tile always goes in the top row), and the white lettered tiles must fill the remaining empty spaces in alphabetical order.

Obviously, you’ll need to know your calendar calculation skills well, and know how to solve a 15 puzzle.

I just solved August 2032 in 8:44, with 700 moves. What are your records for best times and fewest moves?

2

Fun! I got 8:17 on Aug 2068. I started doing a bunch of 15-puzzle style puzzles recently, up through 20*20 grids and got pretty decent. I think I could probably get 5 or so minutes if I could use keyboard controls/arrows to move the pieces.

3

Glad you’re enjoying it!

I originally tried to have arrow keys as input, but difficulties developed as a result of the puzzle itself being in an iframe (which makes the fetching of the right month easier).

4

5:24 in 586 moves. I was going row by row earlier, but I tried row-column this time. Much better (it usually is, unless it’s a large grid in which case it’s usually fastest to do a few rows first, then start doing row-column). What’s your fewest number of moves?