An NP-Complete Problem in Grid Coloring

Abstract

A c-coloring of G(n,m)=n x m is a mapping of G(n,m) into {1,...,c} such that no four corners forming a rectangle have the same color. In 2009 a challenge was proposed via the internet to find a 4-coloring of G(17,17). This attracted considerable attention from the popular mathematics community. A coloring was produced; however, finding it proved to be difficult. The question arises: is the problem of grid coloring is difficult in general? We show that the problem of, given a partial coloring of a grid, can it be extended to a full (proper) coloring, is NP-complete.