Treebeard's Stumper 4 February 2000

Peaceful Queens and Warriors

It's been fun eavesdropping in Jesse's afternoon chess class at Dunn Middle School. And I get to ask a classic chess stumper. Chess queens can move in a straight line any distance up, down, across, or diagonally. Can you arrange eight peaceful queens on a chessboard so that no queen can attack any other? Eight peaceful queens will threaten every square on the board, but it's overkill. What's the smallest number of warrior queens that can threaten every square? (Hint: It's ok to experiment with pawns or checkers. Think how the knight moves!)

DMS students playing chess in the science room.

Answer

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