The Queen's Walk

by
Erik Oosterwal




There is an old puzzle about fitting eight Queens on a chess board where no Queen is allowed to 'take' any other queen on the board.  If you haven't seen it before, try Part 1 of this puzzle before going on to the next part.

Part 1

In chess, the Queen is allowed to move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in any direction for the entire span of the board, like this:


Can you place eight Queens on the board so that no Queen can take any other?  That means that no two Queens can be in the same row, column, or diagonal.

I give up, show me the Answer




Part 2

In part two, the trick is to see if you can place any even number of Queens on a square board that has the same number of squares per side as the number of Queens you have. For instance: Can you place 4 Queens on a 4x4 board so that no Queen can take any other Queen? Can you do it with 6 Queens on a 6x6 board? How about 10 Queens on a 10x10 board?

Is there a pattern that can be used for any even number of Queens on a square board of comparative size?

I give up, show me the Answer



Copyright E. Oosterwal - 2004
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