Human vs AI
05/11/2026
Context
Playing at nun’s FreeCell, you actually play against an AI. Well, not exactly an AI but an automated solving process created by an AI (as hinted by a human).
That contest between you and the AI is done when you win a game. The server running nun’s FreeCell is then given 2 seconds to find the best solution it can and compare the number of your moves with the lowest number of moves it found in that delay of 2 seconds.
Needless to say, the competition is unfair. It ends with you scoring around 50% most of the time, i.e. the computer’s best solution uses about 50% fewer moves than yours.
And yet, not every time…
What happened?
There is at least one deal that the computer can’t solve in 2 seconds, where it doesn’t find any solution, at all.
That happened with deal 26729. Maybe there are other deals that the computer can’t solve, in 2 seconds.
In this case, your score is 100%, the computer best solution is the one you found.
Moreover, deal 26729 was humanly solved as easily as other deals!
Differences in human and AI strategy
The computer makes what is called a beam search. It tries systematically all possible solutions, simply choosing the tactically best move at each step. When it finds a dead end, it undoes the last move and try the next possible one. If if finds a winning set of moves, it records it, undo the last move and try the next possible one, recording all steps on the go. Well, more or less, it’s the computer’s strategy. All that within its 2 seconds credit. At the end, it selects the best winning set of moves, the one with the fewest moves.
A human can’t do the same; it lacks the possibility to record every step or undo all the previous moves that went to a dead end. Besides, the human gets their score only for a won game. What is practicable for a human in such a game as FreeCell is to adopt a strategy that favours a winning set of moves, tactically choosing the move that has the best chance to allow a winning sequence, regardless of its efficacy.
Some deals have a graph of possible moves with an infinite (with respect to the 2 seconds credit) depth. When that branch is among the first explored by the beam search, it ends with no solution.
Beam search falls in that pit; humans easily avoid it.
Treat yourself: play the 26729 deal.
