1 x 1 Rush Hour with Fixed Blocks is PSPACE-complete

Abstract

Consider $n^2-1$ unit-square blocks in an $n\times n$ square board, where each block is labeled as movable horizontally (only), movable vertically (only), or immovable -- a variation of Rush Hour with only $1\times 1$ cars and fixed blocks. We prove that it is PSPACE-complete to decide whether a given block can reach the left edge of the board, by reduction from Nondeterministic Constraint Logic via 2-color oriented Subway Shuffle. By contrast, polynomial-time algorithms are known for deciding whether a given block can be moved by one space, or when each block either is immovable or can move both horizontally and vertically. Our result answers a 15-year-old open problem by Tromp and Cilibrasi, and strengthens previous PSPACE-completeness results for Rush Hour with vertical $1\times 2$ and horizontal $2\times 1$ movable blocks and 4-color Subway Shuffle.

15 pages, 11 figures. Improved figures and writing. To appear at FUN 2020