More than thirty-five combinations of the fifteen letters cannot be formed within the conditions. Theoretically, there cannot possibly be more than twenty-three words formed, because only this number of combinations is possible with a vowel or vowels in each. And as no English word can be formed from three of the given vowels (A, E, I, and O), we must reduce the number of possible words to twenty-two. This is correct theoretically, but practically that twenty-second word cannot be got in. If JEK, shown above, were a word it would be all right; but it is not, and no amount of juggling with the other letters has resulted in a better answer than the one shown. I should, say that proper nouns and abbreviations, such as Joe, Jim, Alf, Hal, Flo, Ike, etc., are disallowed.

Now, the present puzzle is a variation of the above. It is simply this: Instead of using the fifteen letters given, the reader is allowed to select any fifteen different letters of the alphabet that he may prefer. Then construct thirty-five groups in accordance with the conditions, and show as many good English words as possible.

272.—THE NINE SCHOOLBOYS.

This is a new and interesting companion puzzle to the "Fifteen Schoolgirls" (see solution of No. 269), and even in the simplest possible form in which I present it there are unquestionable difficulties. Nine schoolboys walk out in triplets on the six week days so that no boy ever walks side by side with any other boy more than once. How would you arrange them?

If we represent them by the first nine letters of the alphabet, they might be grouped on the first day as follows:—

A B C D E F G H I

Then A can never walk again side by side with B, or B with C, or D with E, and so on. But A can, of course, walk side by side with C. It is here not a question of being together in the same triplet, but of walking side by side in a triplet. Under these conditions they can walk out on six days; under the "Schoolgirls" conditions they can only walk on four days.

273.—THE ROUND TABLE.

Seat the same n persons at a round table on

(n - 1)(n - 2) ——————— 2

occasions so that no person shall ever have the same two neighbours twice. This is, of course, equivalent to saying that every person must sit once, and once only, between every possible pair.

274.—THE MOUSE-TRAP PUZZLE.



This is a modern version, with a difference, of an old puzzle of the same name. Number twenty-one cards, 1, 2, 3, etc., up to 21, and place them in a circle in the particular order shown in the illustration. These cards represent mice. You start from any card, calling that card "one," and count, "one, two, three," etc., in a clockwise direction, and when your count agrees with the number on the card, you have made a "catch," and you remove the card. Then start at the next card, calling that "one," and try again to make another "catch." And so on. Supposing you start at 18, calling that card "one," your first "catch" will be 19. Remove 19 and your next "catch" is 10. Remove 10 and your next "catch" is 1. Remove the 1, and if you count up to 21 (you must never go beyond), you cannot make another "catch." Now, the ideal is to "catch" all the twenty-one mice, but this is not here possible, and if it were it would merely require twenty-one different trials, at the most, to succeed. But the reader may make any two cards change places before he begins. Thus, you can change the 6 with the 2, or the 7 with the 11, or any other pair. This can be done in several ways so as to enable you to "catch" all the twenty-one mice, if you then start at the right place. You may never pass over a "catch"; you must always remove the card and start afresh.

275.—THE SIXTEEN SHEEP.



Here is a new puzzle with matches and counters or coins. In the illustration the matches represent hurdles and the counters sheep. The sixteen hurdles on the outside, and the sheep, must be regarded as immovable; the puzzle has to do entirely with the nine hurdles on the inside. It will be seen that at present these nine hurdles enclose four groups of 8, 3, 3, and 2 sheep. The farmer requires to readjust some of the hurdles so as to enclose 6, 6, and 4 sheep. Can you do it by only replacing two hurdles? When you have succeeded, then try to do it by replacing three hurdles; then four, five, six, and seven in succession. Of course, the hurdles must be legitimately laid on the dotted lines, and no such tricks are allowed as leaving unconnected ends of hurdles, or two hurdles placed side by side, or merely making hurdles change places. In fact, the conditions are so simple that any farm labourer will understand it directly.

276.—THE EIGHT VILLAS.

In one of the outlying suburbs of London a man had a square plot of ground on which he decided to build eight villas, as shown in the illustration, with a common recreation ground in the middle. After the houses were completed, and all or some of them let, he discovered that the number of occupants in the three houses forming a side of the square was in every case nine. He did not state how the occupants were distributed, but I have shown by the numbers on the sides of the houses one way in which it might have happened. The puzzle is to discover the total number of ways in which all or any of the houses might be occupied, so that there should be nine persons on each side. In order that there may be no misunderstanding, I will explain that although B is what we call a reflection of A, these would count as two different arrangements, while C, if it is turned round, will give four arrangements; and if turned round in front of a mirror, four other arrangements. All eight must be counted.



277.—COUNTER CROSSES.

All that we need for this puzzle is nine counters, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. It will be seen that in the illustration A these are arranged so as to form a Greek cross, while in the case of B they form a Latin cross. In both cases the reader will find that the sum of the numbers in the upright of the cross is the same as the sum of the numbers in the horizontal arm. It is quite easy to hit on such an arrangement by trial, but the problem is to discover in exactly how many different ways it may be done in each case. Remember that reversals and reflections do not count as different. That is to say, if you turn this page round you get four arrangements of the Greek cross, and if you turn it round again in front of a mirror you will get four more. But these eight are all regarded as one and the same. Now, how many different ways are there in each case?



278.—A DORMITORY PUZZLE.

In a certain convent there were eight large dormitories on one floor, approached by a spiral staircase in the centre, as shown in our plan. On an inspection one Monday by the abbess it was found that the south aspect was so much preferred that six times as many nuns slept on the south side as on each of the other three sides. She objected to this overcrowding, and ordered that it should be reduced. On Tuesday she found that five times as many slept on the south side as on each of the other sides. Again she complained. On Wednesday she found four times as many on the south side, on Thursday three times as many, and on Friday twice as many. Urging the nuns to further efforts, she was pleased to find on Saturday that an equal number slept on each of the four sides of the house. What is the smallest number of nuns there could have been, and how might they have arranged themselves on each of the six nights? No room may ever be unoccupied.



279.—THE BARRELS OF BALSAM.

A merchant of Bagdad had ten barrels of precious balsam for sale. They were numbered, and were arranged in two rows, one on top of the other, as shown in the picture. The smaller the number on the barrel, the greater was its value. So that the best quality was numbered "1" and the worst numbered "10," and all the other numbers of graduating values. Now, the rule of Ahmed Assan, the merchant, was that he never put a barrel either beneath or to the right of one of less value. The arrangement shown is, of course, the simplest way of complying with this condition. But there are many other ways—such, for example, as this:—

1 2 5 7 8 3 4 6 9 10

Here, again, no barrel has a smaller number than itself on its right or beneath it. The puzzle is to discover in how many different ways the merchant of Bagdad might have arranged his barrels in the two rows without breaking his rule. Can you count the number of ways?

280.—BUILDING THE TETRAHEDRON.

I possess a tetrahedron, or triangular pyramid, formed of six sticks glued together, as shown in the illustration. Can you count correctly the number of different ways in which these six sticks might have been stuck together so as to form the pyramid?

Some friends worked at it together one evening, each person providing himself with six lucifer matches to aid his thoughts; but it was found that no two results were the same. You see, if we remove one of the sticks and turn it round the other way, that will be a different pyramid. If we make two of the sticks change places the result will again be different. But remember that every pyramid may be made to stand on either of its four sides without being a different one. How many ways are there altogether?



281.—PAINTING A PYRAMID.

This puzzle concerns the painting of the four sides of a tetrahedron, or triangular pyramid. If you cut out a piece of cardboard of the triangular shape shown in Fig. 1, and then cut half through along the dotted lines, it will fold up and form a perfect triangular pyramid. And I would first remind my readers that the primary colours of the solar spectrum are seven—violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. When I was a child I was taught to remember these by the ungainly word formed by the initials of the colours, "Vibgyor."



In how many different ways may the triangular pyramid be coloured, using in every case one, two, three, or four colours of the solar spectrum? Of course a side can only receive a single colour, and no side can be left uncoloured. But there is one point that I must make quite clear. The four sides are not to be regarded as individually distinct. That is to say, if you paint your pyramid as shown in Fig. 2 (where the bottom side is green and the other side that is out of view is yellow), and then paint another in the order shown in Fig. 3, these are really both the same and count as one way. For if you tilt over No. 2 to the right it will so fall as to represent No. 3. The avoidance of repetitions of this kind is the real puzzle of the thing. If a coloured pyramid cannot be placed so that it exactly resembles in its colours and their relative order another pyramid, then they are different. Remember that one way would be to colour all the four sides red, another to colour two sides green, and the remaining sides yellow and blue; and so on.

282.—THE ANTIQUARY'S CHAIN.

An antiquary possessed a number of curious old links, which he took to a blacksmith, and told him to join together to form one straight piece of chain, with the sole condition that the two circular links were not to be together. The following illustration shows the appearance of the chain and the form of each link. Now, supposing the owner should separate the links again, and then take them to another smith and repeat his former instructions exactly, what are the chances against the links being put together exactly as they were by the first man? Remember that every successive link can be joined on to another in one of two ways, just as you can put a ring on your finger in two ways, or link your forefingers and thumbs in two ways.



283.—THE FIFTEEN DOMINOES.

In this case we do not use the complete set of twenty-eight dominoes to be found in the ordinary box. We dispense with all those dominoes that have a five or a six on them and limit ourselves to the fifteen that remain, where the double-four is the highest.

In how many different ways may the fifteen dominoes be arranged in a straight line in accordance with the simple rule of the game that a number must always be placed against a similar number—that is, a four against a four, a blank against a blank, and so on? Left to right and right to left of the same arrangement are to be counted as two different ways.

384.—THE CROSS TARGET.

+-+-+ * * +-+-+ * * +-+-+-+-+-+-+ * +-+-+-+-+-+-+ * * +-+-+-+-+-+-+ * +-+-+ +-+-+

In the illustration we have a somewhat curious target designed by an eccentric sharpshooter. His idea was that in order to score you must hit four circles in as many shots so that those four shots shall form a square. It will be seen by the results recorded on the target that two attempts have been successful. The first man hit the four circles at the top of the cross, and thus formed his square. The second man intended to hit the four in the bottom arm, but his second shot, on the left, went too high. This compelled him to complete his four in a different way than he intended. It will thus be seen that though it is immaterial which circle you hit at the first shot, the second shot may commit you to a definite procedure if you are to get your square. Now, the puzzle is to say in just how many different ways it is possible to form a square on the target with four shots.

285.—THE FOUR POSTAGE STAMPS.

- + 1 2 3 4 + - 5 6 7 8 - + 9 10 11 12 + -

"It is as easy as counting," is an expression one sometimes hears. But mere counting may be puzzling at times. Take the following simple example. Suppose you have just bought twelve postage stamps, in this form—three by four—and a friend asks you to oblige him with four stamps, all joined together—no stamp hanging on by a mere corner. In how many different ways is it possible for you to tear off those four stamps? You see, you can give him 1, 2, 3, 4, or 2, 3, 6, 7, or 1, 2, 3, 6, or 1, 2, 3, 7, or 2, 3, 4, 8, and so on. Can you count the number of different ways in which those four stamps might be delivered? There are not many more than fifty ways, so it is not a big count. Can you get the exact number?

286.—PAINTING THE DIE.

In how many different ways may the numbers on a single die be marked, with the only condition that the 1 and 6, the 2 and 5, and the 3 and 4 must be on opposite sides? It is a simple enough question, and yet it will puzzle a good many people.

287.—AN ACROSTIC PUZZLE.

In the making or solving of double acrostics, has it ever occurred to you to consider the variety and limitation of the pair of initial and final letters available for cross words? You may have to find a word beginning with A and ending with B, or A and C, or A and D, and so on. Some combinations are obviously impossible—such, for example, as those with Q at the end. But let us assume that a good English word can be found for every case. Then how many possible pairs of letters are available?



CHESSBOARD PROBLEMS.

"You and I will goe to the chesse."

GREENE'S Groatsworth of Wit.

During a heavy gale a chimney-pot was hurled through the air, and crashed upon the pavement just in front of a pedestrian. He quite calmly said, "I have no use for it: I do not smoke." Some readers, when they happen to see a puzzle represented on a chessboard with chess pieces, are apt to make the equally inconsequent remark, "I have no use for it: I do not play chess." This is largely a result of the common, but erroneous, notion that the ordinary chess puzzle with which we are familiar in the press (dignified, for some reason, with the name "problem") has a vital connection with the game of chess itself. But there is no condition in the game that you shall checkmate your opponent in two moves, in three moves, or in four moves, while the majority of the positions given in these puzzles are such that one player would have so great a superiority in pieces that the other would have resigned before the situations were reached. And the solving of them helps you but little, and that quite indirectly, in playing the game, it being well known that, as a rule, the best "chess problemists" are indifferent players, and vice versa. Occasionally a man will be found strong on both subjects, but he is the exception to the rule.

Yet the simple chequered board and the characteristic moves of the pieces lend themselves in a very remarkable manner to the devising of the most entertaining puzzles. There is room for such infinite variety that the true puzzle lover cannot afford to neglect them. It was with a view to securing the interest of readers who are frightened off by the mere presentation of a chessboard that so many puzzles of this class were originally published by me in various fanciful dresses. Some of these posers I still retain in their disguised form; others I have translated into terms of the chessboard. In the majority of cases the reader will not need any knowledge whatever of chess, but I have thought it best to assume throughout that he is acquainted with the terminology, the moves, and the notation of the game.

I first deal with a few questions affecting the chessboard itself; then with certain statical puzzles relating to the Rook, the Bishop, the Queen, and the Knight in turn; then dynamical puzzles with the pieces in the same order; and, finally, with some miscellaneous puzzles on the chessboard. It is hoped that the formulae and tables given at the end of the statical puzzles will be of interest, as they are, for the most part, published for the first time.



THE CHESSBOARD.

"Good company's a chessboard." BYRON'S Don Juan, xiii. 89.

A chessboard is essentially a square plane divided into sixty-four smaller squares by straight lines at right angles. Originally it was not chequered (that is, made with its rows and columns alternately black and white, or of any other two colours), and this improvement was introduced merely to help the eye in actual play. The utility of the chequers is unquestionable. For example, it facilitates the operation of the bishops, enabling us to see at the merest glance that our king or pawns on black squares are not open to attack from an opponent's bishop running on the white diagonals. Yet the chequering of the board is not essential to the game of chess. Also, when we are propounding puzzles on the chessboard, it is often well to remember that additional interest may result from "generalizing" for boards containing any number of squares, or from limiting ourselves to some particular chequered arrangement, not necessarily a square. We will give a few puzzles dealing with chequered boards in this general way.

288.—CHEQUERED BOARD DIVISIONS.

I recently asked myself the question: In how many different ways may a chessboard be divided into two parts of the same size and shape by cuts along the lines dividing the squares? The problem soon proved to be both fascinating and bristling with difficulties. I present it in a simplified form, taking a board of smaller dimensions.

[Illustration:

- -* - - - - -* - - - -* - H H H - -* - - - -*==* -+ + -*==* -* -+ H H H H H + - -* - -+ + - -* - -+ + -* -* -* -+ H H H H H + - -* - -+ + -*==* - - -* -*==* - H H H - -* - - -* - - - -* - - -

+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+

- -* - - - - -* - - - -* - H H H -*==* - -+ + -*==*==* -+ + - -*==* - H H H -*==*==* - -*==*==* - - -* - - H H H - -*==* -+ + -*==*==* -+ + -*==* - - H H H - -* - - -* - - - -* - - -

]

It is obvious that a board of four squares can only be so divided in one way—by a straight cut down the centre—because we shall not count reversals and reflections as different. In the case of a board of sixteen squares—four by four—there are just six different ways. I have given all these in the diagram, and the reader will not find any others. Now, take the larger board of thirty-six squares, and try to discover in how many ways it may be cut into two parts of the same size and shape.

289.—LIONS AND CROWNS.

The young lady in the illustration is confronted with a little cutting-out difficulty in which the reader may be glad to assist her. She wishes, for some reason that she has not communicated to me, to cut that square piece of valuable material into four parts, all of exactly the same size and shape, but it is important that every piece shall contain a lion and a crown. As she insists that the cuts can only be made along the lines dividing the squares, she is considerably perplexed to find out how it is to be done. Can you show her the way? There is only one possible method of cutting the stuff.



290.—BOARDS WITH AN ODD NUMBER OF SQUARES.

We will here consider the question of those boards that contain an odd number of squares. We will suppose that the central square is first cut out, so as to leave an even number of squares for division. Now, it is obvious that a square three by three can only be divided in one way, as shown in Fig. 1. It will be seen that the pieces A and B are of the same size and shape, and that any other way of cutting would only produce the same shaped pieces, so remember that these variations are not counted as different ways. The puzzle I propose is to cut the board five by five (Fig. 2) into two pieces of the same size and shape in as many different ways as possible. I have shown in the illustration one way of doing it. How many different ways are there altogether? A piece which when turned over resembles another piece is not considered to be of a different shape.



291.—THE GRAND LAMA'S PROBLEM.

Once upon a time there was a Grand Lama who had a chessboard made of pure gold, magnificently engraved, and, of course, of great value. Every year a tournament was held at Lhassa among the priests, and whenever any one beat the Grand Lama it was considered a great honour, and his name was inscribed on the back of the board, and a costly jewel set in the particular square on which the checkmate had been given. After this sovereign pontiff had been defeated on four occasions he died—possibly of chagrin.



Now the new Grand Lama was an inferior chess-player, and preferred other forms of innocent amusement, such as cutting off people's heads. So he discouraged chess as a degrading game, that did not improve either the mind or the morals, and abolished the tournament summarily. Then he sent for the four priests who had had the effrontery to play better than a Grand Lama, and addressed them as follows: "Miserable and heathenish men, calling yourselves priests! Know ye not that to lay claim to a capacity to do anything better than my predecessor is a capital offence? Take that chessboard and, before day dawns upon the torture chamber, cut it into four equal parts of the same shape, each containing sixteen perfect squares, with one of the gems in each part! If in this you fail, then shall other sports be devised for your special delectation. Go!" The four priests succeeded in their apparently hopeless task. Can you show how the board may be divided into four equal parts, each of exactly the same shape, by cuts along the lines dividing the squares, each part to contain one of the gems?

292.—THE ABBOT'S WINDOW.



Once upon a time the Lord Abbot of St. Edmondsbury, in consequence of "devotions too strong for his head," fell sick and was unable to leave his bed. As he lay awake, tossing his head restlessly from side to side, the attentive monks noticed that something was disturbing his mind; but nobody dared ask what it might be, for the abbot was of a stern disposition, and never would brook inquisitiveness. Suddenly he called for Father John, and that venerable monk was soon at the bedside.

"Father John," said the Abbot, "dost thou know that I came into this wicked world on a Christmas Even?"

The monk nodded assent.

"And have I not often told thee that, having been born on Christmas Even, I have no love for the things that are odd? Look there!"

The Abbot pointed to the large dormitory window, of which I give a sketch. The monk looked, and was perplexed.

"Dost thou not see that the sixty-four lights add up an even number vertically and horizontally, but that all the diagonal lines, except fourteen are of a number that is odd? Why is this?"

"Of a truth, my Lord Abbot, it is of the very nature of things, and cannot be changed."

"Nay, but it shall be changed. I command thee that certain of the lights be closed this day, so that every line shall have an even number of lights. See thou that this be done without delay, lest the cellars be locked up for a month and other grievous troubles befall thee."

Father John was at his wits' end, but after consultation with one who was learned in strange mysteries, a way was found to satisfy the whim of the Lord Abbot. Which lights were blocked up, so that those which remained added up an even number in every line horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, while the least possible obstruction of light was caused?

293.—THE CHINESE CHESSBOARD.

Into how large a number of different pieces may the chessboard be cut (by cuts along the lines only), no two pieces being exactly alike? Remember that the arrangement of black and white constitutes a difference. Thus, a single black square will be different from a single white square, a row of three containing two white squares will differ from a row of three containing two black, and so on. If two pieces cannot be placed on the table so as to be exactly alike, they count as different. And as the back of the board is plain, the pieces cannot be turned over.

294.—THE CHESSBOARD SENTENCE.



I once set myself the amusing task of so dissecting an ordinary chessboard into letters of the alphabet that they would form a complete sentence. It will be seen from the illustration that the pieces assembled give the sentence, "CUT THY LIFE," with the stops between. The ideal sentence would, of course, have only one full stop, but that I did not succeed in obtaining.

The sentence is an appeal to the transgressor to cut himself adrift from the evil life he is living. Can you fit these pieces together to form a perfect chessboard?



STATICAL CHESS PUZZLES.

"They also serve who only stand and wait." MILTON.

295.—THE EIGHT ROOKS.



It will be seen in the first diagram that every square on the board is either occupied or attacked by a rook, and that every rook is "guarded" (if they were alternately black and white rooks we should say "attacked") by another rook. Placing the eight rooks on any row or file obviously will have the same effect. In diagram 2 every square is again either occupied or attacked, but in this case every rook is unguarded. Now, in how many different ways can you so place the eight rooks on the board that every square shall be occupied or attacked and no rook ever guarded by another? I do not wish to go into the question of reversals and reflections on this occasion, so that placing the rooks on the other diagonal will count as different, and similarly with other repetitions obtained by turning the board round.

296.—THE FOUR LIONS.

The puzzle is to find in how many different ways the four lions may be placed so that there shall never be more than one lion in any row or column. Mere reversals and reflections will not count as different. Thus, regarding the example given, if we place the lions in the other diagonal, it will be considered the same arrangement. For if you hold the second arrangement in front of a mirror or give it a quarter turn, you merely get the first arrangement. It is a simple little puzzle, but requires a certain amount of careful consideration.



297.—BISHOPS—UNGUARDED.

Place as few bishops as possible on an ordinary chessboard so that every square of the board shall be either occupied or attacked. It will be seen that the rook has more scope than the bishop: for wherever you place the former, it will always attack fourteen other squares; whereas the latter will attack seven, nine, eleven, or thirteen squares, according to the position of the diagonal on which it is placed. And it is well here to state that when we speak of "diagonals" in connection with the chessboard, we do not limit ourselves to the two long diagonals from corner to corner, but include all the shorter lines that are parallel to these. To prevent misunderstanding on future occasions, it will be well for the reader to note carefully this fact.

298.—BISHOPS—GUARDED.

Now, how many bishops are necessary in order that every square shall be either occupied or attacked, and every bishop guarded by another bishop? And how may they be placed?

299.—BISHOPS IN CONVOCATION.



The greatest number of bishops that can be placed at the same time on the chessboard, without any bishop attacking another, is fourteen. I show, in diagram, the simplest way of doing this. In fact, on a square chequered board of any number of squares the greatest number of bishops that can be placed without attack is always two less than twice the number of squares on the side. It is an interesting puzzle to discover in just how many different ways the fourteen bishops may be so placed without mutual attack. I shall give an exceedingly simple rule for determining the number of ways for a square chequered board of any number of squares.

300.—THE EIGHT QUEENS.



The queen is by far the strongest piece on the chessboard. If you place her on one of the four squares in the centre of the board, she attacks no fewer than twenty-seven other squares; and if you try to hide her in a corner, she still attacks twenty-one squares. Eight queens may be placed on the board so that no queen attacks another, and it is an old puzzle (first proposed by Nauck in 1850, and it has quite a little literature of its own) to discover in just how many different ways this may be done. I show one way in the diagram, and there are in all twelve of these fundamentally different ways. These twelve produce ninety-two ways if we regard reversals and reflections as different. The diagram is in a way a symmetrical arrangement. If you turn the page upside down, it will reproduce itself exactly; but if you look at it with one of the other sides at the bottom, you get another way that is not identical. Then if you reflect these two ways in a mirror you get two more ways. Now, all the other eleven solutions are non-symmetrical, and therefore each of them may be presented in eight ways by these reversals and reflections. It will thus be seen why the twelve fundamentally different solutions produce only ninety-two arrangements, as I have said, and not ninety-six, as would happen if all twelve were non-symmetrical. It is well to have a clear understanding on the matter of reversals and reflections when dealing with puzzles on the chessboard.

Can the reader place the eight queens on the board so that no queen shall attack another and so that no three queens shall be in a straight line in any oblique direction? Another glance at the diagram will show that this arrangement will not answer the conditions, for in the two directions indicated by the dotted lines there are three queens in a straight line. There is only one of the twelve fundamental ways that will solve the puzzle. Can you find it?

301.—THE EIGHT STARS.



The puzzle in this case is to place eight stars in the diagram so that no star shall be in line with another star horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. One star is already placed, and that must not be moved, so there are only seven for the reader now to place. But you must not place a star on any one of the shaded squares. There is only one way of solving this little puzzle.

302.—A PROBLEM IN MOSAICS.

The art of producing pictures or designs by means of joining together pieces of hard substances, either naturally or artificially coloured, is of very great antiquity. It was certainly known in the time of the Pharaohs, and we find a reference in the Book of Esther to "a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble." Some of this ancient work that has come down to us, especially some of the Roman mosaics, would seem to show clearly, even where design is not at first evident, that much thought was bestowed upon apparently disorderly arrangements. Where, for example, the work has been produced with a very limited number of colours, there are evidences of great ingenuity in preventing the same tints coming in close proximity. Lady readers who are familiar with the construction of patchwork quilts will know how desirable it is sometimes, when they are limited in the choice of material, to prevent pieces of the same stuff coming too near together. Now, this puzzle will apply equally to patchwork quilts or tesselated pavements.

It will be seen from the diagram how a square piece of flooring may be paved with sixty-two square tiles of the eight colours violet, red, yellow, green, orange, purple, white, and blue (indicated by the initial letters), so that no tile is in line with a similarly coloured tile, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Sixty-four such tiles could not possibly be placed under these conditions, but the two shaded squares happen to be occupied by iron ventilators.



The puzzle is this. These two ventilators have to be removed to the positions indicated by the darkly bordered tiles, and two tiles placed in those bottom corner squares. Can you readjust the thirty-two tiles so that no two of the same colour shall still be in line?

303.—UNDER THE VEIL.



If the reader will examine the above diagram, he will see that I have so placed eight V's, eight E's, eight I's, and eight L's in the diagram that no letter is in line with a similar one horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Thus, no V is in line with another V, no E with another E, and so on. There are a great many different ways of arranging the letters under this condition. The puzzle is to find an arrangement that produces the greatest possible number of four-letter words, reading upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, or diagonally. All repetitions count as different words, and the five variations that may be used are: VEIL, VILE, LEVI, LIVE, and EVIL.

This will be made perfectly clear when I say that the above arrangement scores eight, because the top and bottom row both give VEIL; the second and seventh columns both give VEIL; and the two diagonals, starting from the L in the 5th row and E in the 8th row, both give LIVE and EVIL. There are therefore eight different readings of the words in all.

This difficult word puzzle is given as an example of the use of chessboard analysis in solving such things. Only a person who is familiar with the "Eight Queens" problem could hope to solve it.

304.—BACHET'S SQUARE.

One of the oldest card puzzles is by Claude Caspar Bachet de Meziriac, first published, I believe, in the 1624 edition of his work. Rearrange the sixteen court cards (including the aces) in a square so that in no row of four cards, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, shall be found two cards of the same suit or the same value. This in itself is easy enough, but a point of the puzzle is to find in how many different ways this may be done. The eminent French mathematician A. Labosne, in his modern edition of Bachet, gives the answer incorrectly. And yet the puzzle is really quite easy. Any arrangement produces seven more by turning the square round and reflecting it in a mirror. These are counted as different by Bachet.

Note "row of four cards," so that the only diagonals we have here to consider are the two long ones.

305.—THE THIRTY-SIX LETTER-BLOCKS.



The illustration represents a box containing thirty-six letter-blocks. The puzzle is to rearrange these blocks so that no A shall be in a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally with another A, no B with another B, no C with another C, and so on. You will find it impossible to get all the letters into the box under these conditions, but the point is to place as many as possible. Of course no letters other than those shown may be used.

306.—THE CROWDED CHESSBOARD.



The puzzle is to rearrange the fifty-one pieces on the chessboard so that no queen shall attack another queen, no rook attack another rook, no bishop attack another bishop, and no knight attack another knight. No notice is to be taken of the intervention of pieces of another type from that under consideration—that is, two queens will be considered to attack one another although there may be, say, a rook, a bishop, and a knight between them. And so with the rooks and bishops. It is not difficult to dispose of each type of piece separately; the difficulty comes in when you have to find room for all the arrangements on the board simultaneously.

307.—THE COLOURED COUNTERS.



The diagram represents twenty-five coloured counters, Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Green (indicated by their initials), and there are five of each colour, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The problem is so to place them in a square that neither colour nor number shall be found repeated in any one of the five rows, five columns, and two diagonals. Can you so rearrange them?

308.—THE GENTLE ART OF STAMP-LICKING.

The Insurance Act is a most prolific source of entertaining puzzles, particularly entertaining if you happen to be among the exempt. One's initiation into the gentle art of stamp-licking suggests the following little poser: If you have a card divided into sixteen spaces (4 x 4), and are provided with plenty of stamps of the values 1d., 2d., 3d., 4d., and 5d., what is the greatest value that you can stick on the card if the Chancellor of the Exchequer forbids you to place any stamp in a straight line (that is, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) with another stamp of similar value? Of course, only one stamp can be affixed in a space. The reader will probably find, when he sees the solution, that, like the stamps themselves, he is licked He will most likely be twopence short of the maximum. A friend asked the Post Office how it was to be done; but they sent him to the Customs and Excise officer, who sent him to the Insurance Commissioners, who sent him to an approved society, who profanely sent him—but no matter.

309.—THE FORTY-NINE COUNTERS.



Can you rearrange the above forty-nine counters in a square so that no letter, and also no number, shall be in line with a similar one, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally? Here I, of course, mean in the lines parallel with the diagonals, in the chessboard sense.

310.—THE THREE SHEEP.



A farmer had three sheep and an arrangement of sixteen pens, divided off by hurdles in the manner indicated in the illustration. In how many different ways could he place those sheep, each in a separate pen, so that every pen should be either occupied or in line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) with at least one sheep? I have given one arrangement that fulfils the conditions. How many others can you find? Mere reversals and reflections must not be counted as different. The reader may regard the sheep as queens. The problem is then to place the three queens so that every square shall be either occupied or attacked by at least one queen—in the maximum number of different ways.

311.—THE FIVE DOGS PUZZLE.

In 1863, C.F. de Jaenisch first discussed the "Five Queens Puzzle"—to place five queens on the chessboard so that every square shall be attacked or occupied—which was propounded by his friend, a "Mr. de R." Jaenisch showed that if no queen may attack another there are ninety-one different ways of placing the five queens, reversals and reflections not counting as different. If the queens may attack one another, I have recorded hundreds of ways, but it is not practicable to enumerate them exactly.



The illustration is supposed to represent an arrangement of sixty-four kennels. It will be seen that five kennels each contain a dog, and on further examination it will be seen that every one of the sixty-four kennels is in a straight line with at least one dog—either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Take any kennel you like, and you will find that you can draw a straight line to a dog in one or other of the three ways mentioned. The puzzle is to replace the five dogs and discover in just how many different ways they may be placed in five kennels in a straight row, so that every kennel shall always be in line with at least one dog. Reversals and reflections are here counted as different.

312.—THE FIVE CRESCENTS OF BYZANTIUM.

When Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, found himself confronted with great difficulties in the siege of Byzantium, he set his men to undermine the walls. His desires, however, miscarried, for no sooner had the operations been begun than a crescent moon suddenly appeared in the heavens and discovered his plans to his adversaries. The Byzantines were naturally elated, and in order to show their gratitude they erected a statue to Diana, and the crescent became thenceforward a symbol of the state. In the temple that contained the statue was a square pavement composed of sixty-four large and costly tiles. These were all plain, with the exception of five, which bore the symbol of the crescent. These five were for occult reasons so placed that every tile should be watched over by (that is, in a straight line, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally with) at least one of the crescents. The arrangement adopted by the Byzantine architect was as follows:—



Now, to cover up one of these five crescents was a capital offence, the death being something very painful and lingering. But on a certain occasion of festivity it was necessary to lay down on this pavement a square carpet of the largest dimensions possible, and I have shown in the illustration by dark shading the largest dimensions that would be available.

The puzzle is to show how the architect, if he had foreseen this question of the carpet, might have so arranged his five crescent tiles in accordance with the required conditions, and yet have allowed for the largest possible square carpet to be laid down without any one of the five crescent tiles being covered, or any portion of them.

313.—QUEENS AND BISHOP PUZZLE.

It will be seen that every square of the board is either occupied or attacked. The puzzle is to substitute a bishop for the rook on the same square, and then place the four queens on other squares so that every square shall again be either occupied or attacked.



314.—THE SOUTHERN CROSS.



In the above illustration we have five Planets and eighty-one Fixed Stars, five of the latter being hidden by the Planets. It will be found that every Star, with the exception of the ten that have a black spot in their centres, is in a straight line, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, with at least one of the Planets. The puzzle is so to rearrange the Planets that all the Stars shall be in line with one or more of them.

In rearranging the Planets, each of the five may be moved once in a straight line, in either of the three directions mentioned. They will, of course, obscure five other Stars in place of those at present covered.

315.—THE HAT-PEG PUZZLE.

Here is a five-queen puzzle that I gave in a fanciful dress in 1897. As the queens were there represented as hats on sixty-four pegs, I will keep to the title, "The Hat-Peg Puzzle." It will be seen that every square is occupied or attacked. The puzzle is to remove one queen to a different square so that still every square is occupied or attacked, then move a second queen under a similar condition, then a third queen, and finally a fourth queen. After the fourth move every square must be attacked or occupied, but no queen must then attack another. Of course, the moves need not be "queen moves;" you can move a queen to any part of the board.



316.—THE AMAZONS.



This puzzle is based on one by Captain Turton. Remove three of the queens to other squares so that there shall be eleven squares on the board that are not attacked. The removal of the three queens need not be by "queen moves." You may take them up and place them anywhere. There is only one solution.

317.—A PUZZLE WITH PAWNS.

Place two pawns in the middle of the chessboard, one at Q 4 and the other at K 5. Now, place the remaining fourteen pawns (sixteen in all) so that no three shall be in a straight line in any possible direction.

Note that I purposely do not say queens, because by the words "any possible direction" I go beyond attacks on diagonals. The pawns must be regarded as mere points in space—at the centres of the squares. See dotted lines in the case of No. 300, "The Eight Queens."

318.—LION-HUNTING.



My friend Captain Potham Hall, the renowned hunter of big game, says there is nothing more exhilarating than a brush with a herd—a pack—a team—a flock—a swarm (it has taken me a full quarter of an hour to recall the right word, but I have it at last)—a pride of lions. Why a number of lions are called a "pride," a number of whales a "school," and a number of foxes a "skulk" are mysteries of philology into which I will not enter.

Well, the captain says that if a spirited lion crosses your path in the desert it becomes lively, for the lion has generally been looking for the man just as much as the man has sought the king of the forest. And yet when they meet they always quarrel and fight it out. A little contemplation of this unfortunate and long-standing feud between two estimable families has led me to figure out a few calculations as to the probability of the man and the lion crossing one another's path in the jungle. In all these cases one has to start on certain more or less arbitrary assumptions. That is why in the above illustration I have thought it necessary to represent the paths in the desert with such rigid regularity. Though the captain assures me that the tracks of the lions usually run much in this way, I have doubts.

The puzzle is simply to find out in how many different ways the man and the lion may be placed on two different spots that are not on the same path. By "paths" it must be understood that I only refer to the ruled lines. Thus, with the exception of the four corner spots, each combatant is always on two paths and no more. It will be seen that there is a lot of scope for evading one another in the desert, which is just what one has always understood.

319.—THE KNIGHT-GUARDS.



The knight is the irresponsible low comedian of the chessboard. "He is a very uncertain, sneaking, and demoralizing rascal," says an American writer. "He can only move two squares, but makes up in the quality of his locomotion for its quantity, for he can spring one square sideways and one forward simultaneously, like a cat; can stand on one leg in the middle of the board and jump to any one of eight squares he chooses; can get on one side of a fence and blackguard three or four men on the other; has an objectionable way of inserting himself in safe places where he can scare the king and compel him to move, and then gobble a queen. For pure cussedness the knight has no equal, and when you chase him out of one hole he skips into another." Attempts have been made over and over again to obtain a short, simple, and exact definition of the move of the knight—without success. It really consists in moving one square like a rook, and then another square like a bishop—the two operations being done in one leap, so that it does not matter whether the first square passed over is occupied by another piece or not. It is, in fact, the only leaping move in chess. But difficult as it is to define, a child can learn it by inspection in a few minutes.

I have shown in the diagram how twelve knights (the fewest possible that will perform the feat) may be placed on the chessboard so that every square is either occupied or attacked by a knight. Examine every square in turn, and you will find that this is so. Now, the puzzle in this case is to discover what is the smallest possible number of knights that is required in order that every square shall be either occupied or attacked, and every knight protected by another knight. And how would you arrange them? It will be found that of the twelve shown in the diagram only four are thus protected by being a knight's move from another knight.

THE GUARDED CHESSBOARD.

On an ordinary chessboard, 8 by 8, every square can be guarded—that is, either occupied or attacked—by 5 queens, the fewest possible. There are exactly 91 fundamentally different arrangements in which no queen attacks another queen. If every queen must attack (or be protected by) another queen, there are at fewest 41 arrangements, and I have recorded some 150 ways in which some of the queens are attacked and some not, but this last case is very difficult to enumerate exactly.

On an ordinary chessboard every square can be guarded by 8 rooks (the fewest possible) in 40,320 ways, if no rook may attack another rook, but it is not known how many of these are fundamentally different. (See solution to No. 295, "The Eight Rooks.") I have not enumerated the ways in which every rook shall be protected by another rook.

On an ordinary chessboard every square can be guarded by 8 bishops (the fewest possible), if no bishop may attack another bishop. Ten bishops are necessary if every bishop is to be protected. (See Nos. 297 and 298, "Bishops unguarded" and "Bishops guarded.")

On an ordinary chessboard every square can be guarded by 12 knights if all but 4 are unprotected. But if every knight must be protected, 14 are necessary. (See No. 319, "The Knight-Guards.")

Dealing with the queen on n squared boards generally, where n is less than 8, the following results will be of interest:—

1 queen guards 2 squared board in 1 fundamental way.

1 queen guards 3 squared board in 1 fundamental way.

2 queens guard 4 squared board in 3 fundamental ways (protected).

3 queens guard 4 squared board in 2 fundamental ways (not protected).

3 queens guard 5 squared board in 37 fundamental ways (protected).

3 queens guard 5 squared board in 2 fundamental ways (not protected).

3 queens guard 6 squared board in 1 fundamental way (protected).

4 queens guard 6 squared board in 17 fundamental ways (not protected).

4 queens guard 7 squared board in 5 fundamental ways (protected).

4 queens guard 7 squared board in 1 fundamental way (not protected).

NON-ATTACKING CHESSBOARD ARRANGEMENTS.

We know that n queens may always be placed on a square board of n squared squares (if n be greater than 3) without any queen attacking another queen. But no general formula for enumerating the number of different ways in which it may be done has yet been discovered; probably it is undiscoverable. The known results are as follows:—

Where n = 4 there is 1 fundamental solution and 2 in all.

Where n = 5 there are 2 fundamental solutions and 10 in all.

Where n = 6 there is 1 fundamental solution and 4 in all.

Where n = 7 there are 6 fundamental solutions and 40 in all.

Where n = 8 there are 12 fundamental solutions and 92 in all.

Where n = 9 there are 46 fundamental solutions.

Where n = 10 there are 92 fundamental solutions.

Where n = 11 there are 341 fundamental solutions.

Obviously n rooks may be placed without attack on an n squared board in n! ways, but how many of these are fundamentally different I have only worked out in the four cases where n equals 2, 3, 4, and 5. The answers here are respectively 1, 2, 7, and 23. (See No. 296, "The Four Lions.")

We can place 2n-2 bishops on an n squared board in 2^{n} ways. (See No. 299, "Bishops in Convocation.") For boards containing 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 squares, on a side there are respectively 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 20, 36 fundamentally different arrangements. Where n is odd there are 2^{1/2(n-1)} such arrangements, each giving 4 by reversals and reflections, and 2^{n-3} - 2^{1/2(n-3)} giving 8. Where n is even there are 2^{1/2(n-2)}, each giving 4 by reversals and reflections, and 2^{n-3} - 2^{1/2(n-4)}, each giving 8.

We can place 1/2(n squared+1) knights on an n squared board without attack, when n is odd, in 1 fundamental way; and 1/2n squared knights on an n squared board, when n is even, in 1 fundamental way. In the first case we place all the knights on the same colour as the central square; in the second case we place them all on black, or all on white, squares.

THE TWO PIECES PROBLEM.

On a board of n squared squares, two queens, two rooks, two bishops, or two knights can always be placed, irrespective of attack or not, in 1/2(n^{4} - n squared) ways. The following formulae will show in how many of these ways the two pieces may be placed with attack and without:—

With Attack. Without Attack.

2 Queens 5n cubed - 6n squared + n 3n^{4} - 10n cubed + 9n squared - 2n —————————- ——————————————— 3 6

2 Rooks n cubed - n squared n^{4} - 2n cubed + n squared ——————————— 2

2 Bishops 4n cubed - 6n squared + 2n 3n^{4} - 4n cubed + 3n squared - 2n —————————— ——————————————- 6 6

2 Knights 4n squared - 12n + 8 n^{4} - 9n squared + 24n —————————— 2

(See No. 318, " Lion Hunting.")



DYNAMICAL CHESS PUZZLES.

"Push on—keep moving." THOS. MORTON: Cure for the Heartache.

320.—THE ROOK'S TOUR.



The puzzle is to move the single rook over the whole board, so that it shall visit every square of the board once, and only once, and end its tour on the square from which it starts. You have to do this in as few moves as possible, and unless you are very careful you will take just one move too many. Of course, a square is regarded equally as "visited" whether you merely pass over it or make it a stopping-place, and we will not quibble over the point whether the original square is actually visited twice. We will assume that it is not.

321.—THE ROOK'S JOURNEY.

This puzzle I call "The Rook's Journey," because the word "tour" (derived from a turner's wheel) implies that we return to the point from which we set out, and we do not do this in the present case. We should not be satisfied with a personally conducted holiday tour that ended by leaving us, say, in the middle of the Sahara. The rook here makes twenty-one moves, in the course of which journey it visits every square of the board once and only once, stopping at the square marked 10 at the end of its tenth move, and ending at the square marked 21. Two consecutive moves cannot be made in the same direction—that is to say, you must make a turn after every move.



322.—THE LANGUISHING MAIDEN.

[Illustration:

- - - - - - - Kt + + + + + + M + +

]

A wicked baron in the good old days imprisoned an innocent maiden in one of the deepest dungeons beneath the castle moat. It will be seen from our illustration that there were sixty-three cells in the dungeon, all connected by open doors, and the maiden was chained in the cell in which she is shown. Now, a valiant knight, who loved the damsel, succeeded in rescuing her from the enemy. Having gained an entrance to the dungeon at the point where he is seen, he succeeded in reaching the maiden after entering every cell once and only once. Take your pencil and try to trace out such a route. When you have succeeded, then try to discover a route in twenty-two straight paths through the cells. It can be done in this number without entering any cell a second time.

323.—A DUNGEON PUZZLE.

[Illustration:

+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ ............. ....... ............. . . . . . . + . + + . + . + . + . + + . + . . . . . . ....... ....... ....... ....... . . + + . + + + + + . + + . . ....... ....... ....... ....... . . . . . . + . + + . + . + . + . + + . + . . . . . . ............. ....... . ....... . . + + + + + + . + . + + . . ............. ....... . ....... . . . . . . + . + + . + . + . + . + + . + . . . . . . ....... ....... ....... ....... . . + + . + + + + + . + + . . ....... ....... ....... ....... . . . . . . + . + + . + . + . + . + + . + . . . . . . ............. . P ............. + + + + + + + + +

]

A French prisoner, for his sins (or other people's), was confined in an underground dungeon containing sixty-four cells, all communicating with open doorways, as shown in our illustration. In order to reduce the tedium of his restricted life, he set himself various puzzles, and this is one of them. Starting from the cell in which he is shown, how could he visit every cell once, and only once, and make as many turnings as possible? His first attempt is shown by the dotted track. It will be found that there are as many as fifty-five straight lines in his path, but after many attempts he improved upon this. Can you get more than fifty-five? You may end your path in any cell you like. Try the puzzle with a pencil on chessboard diagrams, or you may regard them as rooks' moves on a board.

324.—THE LION AND THE MAN.

In a public place in Rome there once stood a prison divided into sixty-four cells, all open to the sky and all communicating with one another, as shown in the illustration. The sports that here took place were watched from a high tower. The favourite game was to place a Christian in one corner cell and a lion in the diagonally opposite corner and then leave them with all the inner doors open. The consequent effect was sometimes most laughable. On one occasion the man was given a sword. He was no coward, and was as anxious to find the lion as the lion undoubtedly was to find him.

[Illustration:

+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ L + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + C + + + + + + + + +

]

The man visited every cell once and only once in the fewest possible straight lines until he reached the lion's cell. The lion, curiously enough, also visited every cell once and only once in the fewest possible straight lines until he finally reached the man's cell. They started together and went at the same speed; yet, although they occasionally got glimpses of one another, they never once met. The puzzle is to show the route that each happened to take.

325.—AN EPISCOPAL VISITATION.

The white squares on the chessboard represent the parishes of a diocese. Place the bishop on any square you like, and so contrive that (using the ordinary bishop's move of chess) he shall visit every one of his parishes in the fewest possible moves. Of course, all the parishes passed through on any move are regarded as "visited." You can visit any squares more than once, but you are not allowed to move twice between the same two adjoining squares. What are the fewest possible moves? The bishop need not end his visitation at the parish from which he first set out.

326.—A NEW COUNTER PUZZLE.

Here is a new puzzle with moving counters, or coins, that at first glance looks as if it must be absurdly simple. But it will be found quite a little perplexity. I give it in this place for a reason that I will explain when we come to the next puzzle. Copy the simple diagram, enlarged, on a sheet of paper; then place two white counters on the points 1 and 2, and two red counters on 9 and 10, The puzzle is to make the red and white change places. You may move the counters one at a time in any order you like, along the lines from point to point, with the only restriction that a red and a white counter may never stand at once on the same straight line. Thus the first move can only be from 1 or 2 to 3, or from 9 or 10 to 7.



327.—A NEW BISHOP'S PUZZLE.



This is quite a fascinating little puzzle. Place eight bishops (four black and four white) on the reduced chessboard, as shown in the illustration. The problem is to make the black bishops change places with the white ones, no bishop ever attacking another of the opposite colour. They must move alternately—first a white, then a black, then a white, and so on. When you have succeeded in doing it at all, try to find the fewest possible moves.

If you leave out the bishops standing on black squares, and only play on the white squares, you will discover my last puzzle turned on its side.

328.—THE QUEEN'S TOUR.

The puzzle of making a complete tour of the chessboard with the queen in the fewest possible moves (in which squares may be visited more than once) was first given by the late Sam Loyd in his Chess Strategy. But the solution shown below is the one he gave in American Chess-Nuts in 1868. I have recorded at least six different solutions in the minimum number of moves—fourteen—but this one is the best of all, for reasons I will explain.

[Illustration:

+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ ............................. . . +-.-+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+-.-+ . . . .......................... . . . +-.-+ -. -+ -+ -+ -+ -+..-+ . . . . . ................. . . . . . . . . +-.-+ -. -. -+ -. -+. +-.-+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . +-.-+-.-. -. -. -+. .-.-+-.-+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . +-.-+-.-+ -. -.. . -+-.-+-.-+ . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . +-.-+-.-. -+. . -. -.-.-+-.-+ . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . +-.-.-.-+. . -+ -. -.-.-.-.-+ .. . . . . .. .. . .. ............. . . . + -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+ -+

]

If you will look at the lettered square you will understand that there are only ten really differently placed squares on a chessboard—those enclosed by a dark line—all the others are mere reversals or reflections. For example, every A is a corner square, and every J a central square. Consequently, as the solution shown has a turning-point at the enclosed D square, we can obtain a solution starting from and ending at any square marked D—by just turning the board about. Now, this scheme will give you a tour starting from any A, B, C, D, E, F, or H, while no other route that I know can be adapted to more than five different starting-points. There is no Queen's Tour in fourteen moves (remember a tour must be re-entrant) that may start from a G, I, or J. But we can have a non-re-entrant path over the whole board in fourteen moves, starting from any given square. Hence the following puzzle:—



Start from the J in the enclosed part of the lettered diagram and visit every square of the board in fourteen moves, ending wherever you like.

329.—THE STAR PUZZLE.



Put the point of your pencil on one of the white stars and (without ever lifting your pencil from the paper) strike out all the stars in fourteen continuous straight strokes, ending at the second white star. Your straight strokes may be in any direction you like, only every turning must be made on a star. There is no objection to striking out any star more than once.

In this case, where both your starting and ending squares are fixed inconveniently, you cannot obtain a solution by breaking a Queen's Tour, or in any other way by queen moves alone. But you are allowed to use oblique straight lines—such as from the upper white star direct to a corner star.

330.—THE YACHT RACE.

Now then, ye land-lubbers, hoist your baby-jib-topsails, break out your spinnakers, ease off your balloon sheets, and get your head-sails set!

Our race consists in starting from the point at which the yacht is lying in the illustration and touching every one of the sixty-four buoys in fourteen straight courses, returning in the final tack to the buoy from which we start. The seventh course must finish at the buoy from which a flag is flying.

This puzzle will call for a lot of skilful seamanship on account of the sharp angles at which it will occasionally be necessary to tack. The point of a lead pencil and a good nautical eye are all the outfit that we require.



This is difficult, because of the condition as to the flag-buoy, and because it is a re-entrant tour. But again we are allowed those oblique lines.

331.—THE SCIENTIFIC SKATER.



It will be seen that this skater has marked on the ice sixty-four points or stars, and he proposes to start from his present position near the corner and enter every one of the points in fourteen straight lines. How will he do it? Of course there is no objection to his passing over any point more than once, but his last straight stroke must bring him back to the position from which he started.

It is merely a matter of taking your pencil and starting from the spot on which the skater's foot is at present resting, and striking out all the stars in fourteen continuous straight lines, returning to the point from which you set out.

332.—THE FORTY-NINE STARS.



The puzzle in this case is simply to take your pencil and, starting from one black star, strike out all the stars in twelve straight strokes, ending at the other black star. It will be seen that the attempt shown in the illustration requires fifteen strokes. Can you do it in twelve? Every turning must be made on a star, and the lines must be parallel to the sides and diagonals of the square, as shown. In this case we are dealing with a chessboard of reduced dimensions, but only queen moves (without going outside the boundary as in the last case) are required.

333.—THE QUEEN'S JOURNEY.



Place the queen on her own square, as shown in the illustration, and then try to discover the greatest distance that she can travel over the board in five queen's moves without passing over any square a second time. Mark the queen's path on the board, and note carefully also that she must never cross her own track. It seems simple enough, but the reader may find that he has tripped.

334.—ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.



Here is a little puzzle on a reduced chessboard of forty-nine squares. St. George wishes to kill the dragon. Killing dragons was a well-known pastime of his, and, being a knight, it was only natural that he should desire to perform the feat in a series of knight's moves. Can you show how, starting from that central square, he may visit once, and only once, every square of the board in a chain of chess knight's moves, and end by capturing the dragon on his last move? Of course a variety of different ways are open to him, so try to discover a route that forms some pretty design when you have marked each successive leap by a straight line from square to square.

335.—FARMER LAWRENCE'S CORNFIELDS.

One of the most beautiful districts within easy distance of London for a summer ramble is that part of Buckinghamshire known as the Valley of the Chess—at least, it was a few years ago, before it was discovered by the speculative builder. At the beginning of the present century there lived, not far from Latimers, a worthy but eccentric farmer named Lawrence. One of his queer notions was that every person who lived near the banks of the river Chess ought to be in some way acquainted with the noble game of the same name, and in order to impress this fact on his men and his neighbours he adopted at times strange terminology. For example, when one of his ewes presented him with a lamb, he would say that it had "queened a pawn"; when he put up a new barn against the highway, he called it "castling on the king's side"; and when he sent a man with a gun to keep his neighbour's birds off his fields, he spoke of it as "attacking his opponent's rooks." Everybody in the neighbourhood used to be amused at Farmer Lawrence's little jokes, and one boy (the wag of the village) who got his ears pulled by the old gentleman for stealing his "chestnuts" went so far as to call him "a silly old chess-protector!"

One year he had a large square field divided into forty-nine square plots, as shown in the illustration. The white squares were sown with wheat and the black squares with barley. When the harvest time came round he gave orders that his men were first to cut the corn in the patch marked 1, and that each successive cutting should be exactly a knight's move from the last one, the thirteenth cutting being in the patch marked 13, the twenty-fifth in the patch marked 25, the thirty-seventh in the one marked 37, and the last, or forty-ninth cutting, in the patch marked 49. This was too much for poor Hodge, and each day Farmer Lawrence had to go down to the field and show which piece had to be operated upon. But the problem will perhaps present no difficulty to my readers.



336.—THE GREYHOUND PUZZLE.

In this puzzle the twenty kennels do not communicate with one another by doors, but are divided off by a low wall. The solitary occupant is the greyhound which lives in the kennel in the top left-hand corner. When he is allowed his liberty he has to obtain it by visiting every kennel once and only once in a series of knight's moves, ending at the bottom right-hand corner, which is open to the world. The lines in the above diagram show one solution. The puzzle is to discover in how many different ways the greyhound may thus make his exit from his corner kennel.



337.—THE FOUR KANGAROOS.



In introducing a little Commonwealth problem, I must first explain that the diagram represents the sixty-four fields, all properly fenced off from one another, of an Australian settlement, though I need hardly say that our kith and kin "down under" always do set out their land in this methodical and exact manner. It will be seen that in every one of the four corners is a kangaroo. Why kangaroos have a marked preference for corner plots has never been satisfactorily explained, and it would be out of place to discuss the point here. I should also add that kangaroos, as is well known, always leap in what we call "knight's moves." In fact, chess players would probably have adopted the better term "kangaroo's move" had not chess been invented before kangaroos.

The puzzle is simply this. One morning each kangaroo went for his morning hop, and in sixteen consecutive knight's leaps visited just fifteen different fields and jumped back to his corner. No field was visited by more than one of the kangaroos. The diagram shows how they arranged matters. What you are asked to do is to show how they might have performed the feat without any kangaroo ever crossing the horizontal line in the middle of the square that divides the board into two equal parts.

338.—THE BOARD IN COMPARTMENTS.



We cannot divide the ordinary chessboard into four equal square compartments, and describe a complete tour, or even path, in each compartment. But we may divide it into four compartments, as in the illustration, two containing each twenty squares, and the other two each twelve squares, and so obtain an interesting puzzle. You are asked to describe a complete re-entrant tour on this board, starting where you like, but visiting every square in each successive compartment before passing into another one, and making the final leap back to the square from which the knight set out. It is not difficult, but will be found very entertaining and not uninstructive.

Whether a re-entrant "tour" or a complete knight's "path" is possible or not on a rectangular board of given dimensions depends not only on its dimensions, but also on its shape. A tour is obviously not possible on a board containing an odd number of cells, such as 5 by 5 or 7 by 7, for this reason: Every successive leap of the knight must be from a white square to a black and a black to a white alternately. But if there be an odd number of cells or squares there must be one more square of one colour than of the other, therefore the path must begin from a square of the colour that is in excess, and end on a similar colour, and as a knight's move from one colour to a similar colour is impossible the path cannot be re-entrant. But a perfect tour may be made on a rectangular board of any dimensions provided the number of squares be even, and that the number of squares on one side be not less than 6 and on the other not less than 5. In other words, the smallest rectangular board on which a re-entrant tour is possible is one that is 6 by 5.

A complete knight's path (not re-entrant) over all the squares of a board is never possible if there be only two squares on one side; nor is it possible on a square board of smaller dimensions than 5 by 5. So that on a board 4 by 4 we can neither describe a knight's tour nor a complete knight's path; we must leave one square unvisited. Yet on a board 4 by 3 (containing four squares fewer) a complete path may be described in sixteen different ways. It may interest the reader to discover all these. Every path that starts from and ends at different squares is here counted as a different solution, and even reverse routes are called different.

339.—THE FOUR KNIGHTS' TOURS.



I will repeat that if a chessboard be cut into four equal parts, as indicated by the dark lines in the illustration, it is not possible to perform a knight's tour, either re-entrant or not, on one of the parts. The best re-entrant attempt is shown, in which each knight has to trespass twice on other parts. The puzzle is to cut the board differently into four parts, each of the same size and shape, so that a re-entrant knight's tour may be made on each part. Cuts along the dotted lines will not do, as the four central squares of the board would be either detached or hanging on by a mere thread.

340.—THE CUBIC KNIGHT'S TOUR.

Some few years ago I happened to read somewhere that Abnit Vandermonde, a clever mathematician, who was born in 1736 and died in 1793, had devoted a good deal of study to the question of knight's tours. Beyond what may be gathered from a few fragmentary references, I am not aware of the exact nature or results of his investigations, but one thing attracted my attention, and that was the statement that he had proposed the question of a tour of the knight over the six surfaces of a cube, each surface being a chessboard. Whether he obtained a solution or not I do not know, but I have never seen one published. So I at once set to work to master this interesting problem. Perhaps the reader may like to attempt it.

341.—THE FOUR FROGS.



In the illustration we have eight toadstools, with white frogs on 1 and 3 and black frogs on 6 and 8. The puzzle is to move one frog at a time, in any order, along one of the straight lines from toadstool to toadstool, until they have exchanged places, the white frogs being left on 6 and 8 and the black ones on 1 and 3. If you use four counters on a simple diagram, you will find this quite easy, but it is a little more puzzling to do it in only seven plays, any number of successive moves by one frog counting as one play. Of course, more than one frog cannot be on a toadstool at the same time.

342.—THE MANDARIN'S PUZZLE.

The following puzzle has an added interest from the circumstance that a correct solution of it secured for a certain young Chinaman the hand of his charming bride. The wealthiest mandarin within a radius of a hundred miles of Peking was Hi-Chum-Chop, and his beautiful daughter, Peeky-Bo, had innumerable admirers. One of her most ardent lovers was Winky-Hi, and when he asked the old mandarin for his consent to their marriage, Hi-Chum-Chop presented him with the following puzzle and promised his consent if the youth brought him the correct answer within a week. Winky-Hi, following a habit which obtains among certain solvers to this day, gave it to all his friends, and when he had compared their solutions he handed in the best one as his own. Luckily it was quite right. The mandarin thereupon fulfilled his promise. The fatted pup was killed for the wedding feast, and when Hi-Chum-Chop passed Winky-Hi the liver wing all present knew that it was a token of eternal goodwill, in accordance with Chinese custom from time immemorial.

The mandarin had a table divided into twenty-five squares, as shown in the diagram. On each of twenty-four of these squares was placed a numbered counter, just as I have indicated. The puzzle is to get the counters in numerical order by moving them one at a time in what we call "knight's moves." Counter 1 should be where 16 is, 2 where 11 is, 4 where 13 now is, and so on. It will be seen that all the counters on shaded squares are in their proper positions. Of course, two counters may never be on a square at the same time. Can you perform the feat in the fewest possible moves?



In order to make the manner of moving perfectly clear I will point out that the first knight's move can only be made by 1 or by 2 or by 10. Supposing 1 moves, then the next move must be by 23, 4, 8, or 21. As there is never more than one square vacant, the order in which the counters move may be written out as follows: 1—21—14—18—22, etc. A rough diagram should be made on a larger scale for practice, and numbered counters or pieces of cardboard used.

343.—EXERCISE FOR PRISONERS.

The following is the plan of the north wing of a certain gaol, showing the sixteen cells all communicating by open doorways. Fifteen prisoners were numbered and arranged in the cells as shown. They were allowed to change their cells as much as they liked, but if two prisoners were ever in the same cell together there was a severe punishment promised them.



Now, in order to reduce their growing obesity, and to combine physical exercise with mental recreation, the prisoners decided, on the suggestion of one of their number who was interested in knight's tours, to try to form themselves into a perfect knight's path without breaking the prison regulations, and leaving the bottom right-hand corner cell vacant, as originally. The joke of the matter is that the arrangement at which they arrived was as follows:—

8 3 12 1 11 14 9 6 4 7 2 13 15 10 5

The warders failed to detect the important fact that the men could not possibly get into this position without two of them having been at some time in the same cell together. Make the attempt with counters on a ruled diagram, and you will find that this is so. Otherwise the solution is correct enough, each member being, as required, a knight's move from the preceding number, and the original corner cell vacant.

The puzzle is to start with the men placed as in the illustration and show how it might have been done in the fewest moves, while giving a complete rest to as many prisoners as possible.

As there is never more than one vacant cell for a man to enter, it is only necessary to write down the numbers of the men in the order in which they move. It is clear that very few men can be left throughout in their cells undisturbed, but I will leave the solver to discover just how many, as this is a very essential part of the puzzle.

344.—THE KENNEL PUZZLE.



A man has twenty-five dog kennels all communicating with each other by doorways, as shown in the illustration. He wishes to arrange his twenty dogs so that they shall form a knight's string from dog No. 1 to dog No. 20, the bottom row of five kennels to be left empty, as at present. This is to be done by moving one dog at a time into a vacant kennel. The dogs are well trained to obedience, and may be trusted to remain in the kennels in which they are placed, except that if two are placed in the same kennel together they will fight it out to the death. How is the puzzle to be solved in the fewest possible moves without two dogs ever being together?

345.—THE TWO PAWNS.



Here is a neat little puzzle in counting. In how many different ways may the two pawns advance to the eighth square? You may move them in any order you like to form a different sequence. For example, you may move the Q R P (one or two squares) first, or the K R P first, or one pawn as far as you like before touching the other. Any sequence is permissible, only in this puzzle as soon as a pawn reaches the eighth square it is dead, and remains there unconverted. Can you count the number of different sequences? At first it will strike you as being very difficult, but I will show that it is really quite simple when properly attacked.



VARIOUS CHESS PUZZLES.

"Chesse-play is a good and wittie exercise of the minde for some kinde of men." Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

346.—SETTING THE BOARD.

I have a single chessboard and a single set of chessmen. In how many different ways may the men be correctly set up for the beginning of a game? I find that most people slip at a particular point in making the calculation.

347.—COUNTING THE RECTANGLES.

Can you say correctly just how many squares and other rectangles the chessboard contains? In other words, in how great a number of different ways is it possible to indicate a square or other rectangle enclosed by lines that separate the squares of the board?

348.—THE ROOKERY.



The White rooks cannot move outside the little square in which they are enclosed except on the final move, in giving checkmate. The puzzle is how to checkmate Black in the fewest possible moves with No. 8 rook, the other rooks being left in numerical order round the sides of their square with the break between 1 and 7.

349.—STALEMATE.

Some years ago the puzzle was proposed to construct an imaginary game of chess, in which White shall be stalemated in the fewest possible moves with all the thirty-two pieces on the board. Can you build up such a position in fewer than twenty moves?

350.—THE FORSAKEN KING.



Set up the position shown in the diagram. Then the condition of the puzzle is—White to play and checkmate in six moves. Notwithstanding the complexities, I will show how the manner of play may be condensed into quite a few lines, merely stating here that the first two moves of White cannot be varied.

351.—THE CRUSADER.

The following is a prize puzzle propounded by me some years ago. Produce a game of chess which, after sixteen moves, shall leave White with all his sixteen men on their original squares and Black in possession of his king alone (not necessarily on his own square). White is then to force mate in three moves.

352.—IMMOVABLE PAWNS.

Starting from the ordinary arrangement of the pieces as for a game, what is the smallest possible number of moves necessary in order to arrive at the following position? The moves for both sides must, of course, be played strictly in accordance with the rules of the game, though the result will necessarily be a very weird kind of chess.



353.—THIRTY-SIX MATES.



Place the remaining eight White pieces in such a position that White shall have the choice of thirty-six different mates on the move. Every move that checkmates and leaves a different position is a different mate. The pieces already placed must not be moved.

354.—AN AMAZING DILEMMA.

In a game of chess between Mr. Black and Mr. White, Black was in difficulties, and as usual was obliged to catch a train. So he proposed that White should complete the game in his absence on condition that no moves whatever should be made for Black, but only with the White pieces. Mr. White accepted, but to his dismay found it utterly impossible to win the game under such conditions. Try as he would, he could not checkmate his opponent. On which square did Mr. Black leave his king? The other pieces are in their proper positions in the diagram. White may leave Black in check as often as he likes, for it makes no difference, as he can never arrive at a checkmate position.



355.—CHECKMATE!



Strolling into one of the rooms of a London club, I noticed a position left by two players who had gone. This position is shown in the diagram. It is evident that White has checkmated Black. But how did he do it? That is the puzzle.

356.—QUEER CHESS.

Can you place two White rooks and a White knight on the board so that the Black king (who must be on one of the four squares in the middle of the board) shall be in check with no possible move open to him? "In other words," the reader will say, "the king is to be shown checkmated." Well, you can use the term if you wish, though I intentionally do not employ it myself. The mere fact that there is no White king on the board would be a sufficient reason for my not doing so.

357.—ANCIENT CHINESE PUZZLE.



My next puzzle is supposed to be Chinese, many hundreds of years old, and never fails to interest. White to play and mate, moving each of the three pieces once, and once only.

358.—THE SIX PAWNS.

In how many different ways may I place six pawns on the chessboard so that there shall be an even number of unoccupied squares in every row and every column? We are not here considering the diagonals at all, and every different six squares occupied makes a different solution, so we have not to exclude reversals or reflections.

359.—COUNTER SOLITAIRE.

Here is a little game of solitaire that is quite easy, but not so easy as to be uninteresting. You can either rule out the squares on a sheet of cardboard or paper, or you can use a portion of your chessboard. I have shown numbered counters in the illustration so as to make the solution easy and intelligible to all, but chess pawns or draughts will serve just as well in practice.



The puzzle is to remove all the counters except one, and this one that is left must be No. 1. You remove a counter by jumping over another counter to the next space beyond, if that square is vacant, but you cannot make a leap in a diagonal direction. The following moves will make the play quite clear: 1-9, 2-10, 1-2, and so on. Here 1 jumps over 9, and you remove 9 from the board; then 2 jumps over 10, and you remove 10; then 1 jumps over 2, and you remove 2. Every move is thus a capture, until the last capture of all is made by No. 1.

360.—CHESSBOARD SOLITAIRE.



Here is an extension of the last game of solitaire. All you need is a chessboard and the thirty-two pieces, or the same number of draughts or counters. In the illustration numbered counters are used. The puzzle is to remove all the counters except two, and these two must have originally been on the same side of the board; that is, the two left must either belong to the group 1 to 16 or to the other group, 17 to 32. You remove a counter by jumping over it with another counter to the next square beyond, if that square is vacant, but you cannot make a leap in a diagonal direction. The following moves will make the play quite clear: 3-11, 4-12, 3-4, 13-3. Here 3 jumps over 11, and you remove 11; 4 jumps over 12, and you remove 12; and so on. It will be found a fascinating little game of patience, and the solution requires the exercise of some ingenuity.