Torture - Quick Summary
Torture is a six-piece separated board burr designed by Frans de Vreugd in 2002, burr level 17.4. The six boards form 7,680 assemblies, and exactly one of those is a solution. Expert difficulty, 4+ hour solve time. Ships disassembled.
Best for: burr collectors who already own a board burr or two and want the one with a genuinely unique solution, and solvers who have finished ZigZag and want the next step up.
One Solution Out of 7,680 Assemblies
Most interlocking puzzles let you wander a bit. Torture does not. De Vreugd ran a computer search across every combination of pieces this shape allows. 7,680 of them are assemblies, meaning the boards genuinely form the finished shape. Exactly one of those assemblies is a solution, meaning it can actually be built and taken apart. Everything else is a dead end that looks correct right up until the last board will not drop in.
The level reads 17.4. Seventeen moves to free the first board, four more for the second.
Moves That Look Like Nothing
De Vreugd noticed a mechanism that keeps turning up in high level puzzles. Boards slide back and forth, apparently getting nowhere, purely to shift one other board a few units across. In Torture it takes seven moves to move a single board three units. Nothing is wasted and nothing looks like progress, which is most of what makes it hard.
It is also the design that made Extreme Torture possible. Torture came first, and once de Vreugd had it he pushed the same search as far as it would go.
It Arrives in Pieces
Six loose boards and the knowledge that they fit. There is no solved state to copy, and with one solution out of 7,680 assemblies there is not much room to guess your way in. Expect to put it down and come back to it.
Torture sits in the middle of the three. If you want all of them, they come together as the Separated Board Burr Set.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a separated board burr?
A standard six board burr has six flat pieces in three pairs. In a separated board burr the two boards in each pair sit one unit apart rather than flush. The gap opens the shape up and allows much longer move sequences. Jim Gooch suggested the idea in 2002, Frans de Vreugd designed the puzzles.
Why is Torture so hard to assemble?
Because almost every arrangement that looks right is wrong. The six boards form 7,680 assemblies and only one of those is a solution that can actually be built, so recognising the correct arrangement is a real part of the puzzle, not just executing the moves.
Does Torture arrive assembled?
No. It ships as six separate boards, and assembling them is the challenge.
Is Torture harder than Extreme Torture?
No. Torture is level 17.4, Extreme Torture is level 28-22-9-8-3. Torture is the one to solve first.
