Eight by Eight Kings and Queens

Chess puzzles often feel best on an eight by eight board, even though not all great chess variants are played on one.  In today's puzzle we are again placing kings and queens, this time so that two queens and six kings are in each row and each column.  The numeric imbalance is necessary to keep the queens from being spotted immediately due to their attacking power, but it also has a second consequence.  Anyone who is familiar with the game Minesweeper may note that some of the strategies you can use for this puzzle feel awfully familiar.

Since having say, a six in a square with a king indicates two nearby squares aren't kings, and since kings attack the same distance as information is given in Minesweeper, we would know that there are two squares which diagonally or orthogonality are not kings.  We find that due to the number of King occupied spaces this may seem similar to hunting for mines in a field.  Of course, here you now have the added information from our queens, which do attack at distance but it might be interesting to take note of what carries over.

Click Here for a Higher Quality PDF

If you're new to this type of puzzle, visit the six by six puzzle I posted a few weeks ago.  Not only is the puzzle there much easier, but I also include a solved four by four sample square, which might help.


Comments

Popular Posts