Why is the sliding puzzle problem episodic and not sequential?
From what I understand, an environment is episodic if each episode is independent and doesn't affect past or future episodes. The actions in the next episode don't depend on the actions in past episodes. In other words, current actions/decisions have no effect on future decisions.
For example, an agent that looks at radiology images to determine if there is a sickness is an example of an episodic environment. One image has nothing to do with the next.
However, in a sequential environment, an agent requires memory of past actions to determine the next best actions and current actions affect future decisions e.g chess
But I think the sliding puzzle can be considered a sequential environment because the agent must make a series of actions (moving tiles) in a specific order to reach the goal state (the solved puzzle). The agent's decision at each step is based on the current state of the puzzle, and the agent's actions affect the state of the puzzle for subsequent steps. These episodes aren't independent, they directly affect each other.
But if we say the sliding puzzle problem is episodic because each puzzle can be seen as one episode, then can't I say the same about chess? Or a crossword puzzle? Or any sequential problem then? One chess match doesn't affect another, and looking at it like that chess would be episodic in that sense (which seems wrong, right?). So why are chess and crossword puzzles sequential but the sliding puzzle is episodic?