Brendan Owen

Founder of the eternity2 list; complex theory

Founded the eternity_two mailing list in October 2000, six years before the puzzle existed. He derived the expected-solutions formula that turned difficulty into a design parameter, and proved that a 17+5 colour split is the hardest possible 16x16. His complex theory, the exact model of the search tree, and his 9x9 and 10x10 benchmark puzzles still set the pace for the community; he returned in 2025 to refine the model.