Patent ID: 7566057

Claim:
A stacking puzzle comprising: a) a substantially horizontal stationary base; b) a plurality of stacks of playing pieces, each stack of said plurality of stacks comprising a plurality of playing pieces, each playing piece of said plurality of playing pieces belonging to a particular stack having a different diameter and a substantially centered bore therethrough, wherein the playing pieces in each stack of said plurality of stacks are initially arranged with a largest diameter playing piece disposed at a bottom position, a smallest diameter playing piece disposed at a top position and remaining playing pieces arranged in ascending diameter order from said top position to said bottom position; c) a plurality of pegs extending upwardly from said base, wherein a number of said plurality of pegs is equal to twice a number of said plurality of stacks, said plurality of pegs comprising: i) a plurality of shared pegs for receiving playing pieces from two of said plurality of stacks, wherein a number of said plurality of shared pegs is equal to said number of said plurality of stacks and wherein each stack of said plurality of stacks is initially disposed over a respective one of said plurality of shared pegs; and ii) a plurality of unshared pegs, each of said plurality of unshared pegs for receiving playing pieces from only one of said plurality of stacks associated with a particular unshared peg, wherein a number of said plurality of unshared pegs is equal to said number of said plurality of shared pegs and equal to said number of said plurality of stacks; wherein an object of the puzzle is to displace each of said plurality of stacks from an initial position on said respective one of said plurality of shared pegs to a final position on another of said plurality of pegs in a minimum number of moves by moving each of said plurality of playing pieces from said respective one of said plurality of shared pegs to another of said plurality of pegs one at a time, wherein a first playing piece cannot be placed over a second playing piece having a same or smaller diameter and wherein a playing piece from a stack not associated with a particular unshared peg cannot be placed on said particular unshared peg.