Tabu search with simple ejection chains for coloring graphs

We present a Tabu Search (TS) method that employs a simple version of ejection chains for coloring graphs. The procedure is tested on a set of benchmark problems. Empirical results indicate that the proposed TS implementation outperforms other metaheuristic methods, including Simulated Annealing, a previous version of Tabu Search and a recent implementation of a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP).