Solitaire is a surprisingly difficult mathematical problem Diane Labombarbe/Getty
We finally have an answer to a surprisingly tricky mathematical problem: what are the chances of winning a game of solitaire? It was once called an “embarrassment” of mathematics that this couldn’t be solved, but now a computer program is homing in on the solution.
Solitaire, also known as patience, is a single-player card game that involves sorting cards using certain rules. Probably the most famous variant is called Klondike, which is often installed on Windows operating systems.
Klondike is hard. Renowned mathematician Irving Kaplansky once played 2000 games and…
