Ok, shameless plug. I did a pretty “popular” version of this. https://knight-queen-game.netlify.app/
Man, your's is a lot more fun.
Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
191–200 of 211 posts
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#192I mapped out the structure of the board as a graph of which squares you can get to from which other squares. It's surprisingly stringy without all the squares forbidden by the queen placement. https://i.imgur.com/8OuQcu8.png
Same but with the original board as part of the visualization, and with different parts of the structure highlighted: https://ibb.co/JFY3jm4 It made a lot more sense after doing that, as I'm nowhere near proficient enough at chess to see the board and all its moves in my mind's eye.
Hah, you beat me to it! I drew this very same board by hand, after noticing that many positions were dead ends, and that the options for moving around the top-left were quite limited.
Based on the graph, I also found an optimal route through the whole board: https://gist.github.com/unflxw/b4d21c55c137a9a42fba75bd0cf98...
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
yes, i have an algebraic mind, and I find it easy to visual where the squares are, and if you say "N-KP4", I'm Johnny-on-the-spot! now, what's this a-b-c stuff?
N-KP4 is descriptive notation [1] which was the standard notation used in chess until about 1980. Ne4 is algebraic notation [2] which is the standard notation used in chess today (since 1980). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive_notation [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_notation_(chess)
I'm relieved to see that the following is included at that link:
The term "algebraic notation" may be considered a misnomer, as the system is unrelated to algebra.
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Judging by this thread every single person did the same thing and became equally frustrated (myself included).
How is this #3 on my HN today? Is it supposed to be a lesson on how NOT to write?
Because everyone on HN was totally sucked in? I sure was.
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same but with the original board as part of the visualization, and with different parts of the structure highlighted: https://ibb.co/JFY3jm4 It made a lot more sense after doing that, as I'm nowhere near proficient enough at chess to see the board and all its moves in my mind's eye.
Really living up to your username!
Almost like they were born to do this.
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#196I think the instructions should be: Move to the square indicated below the board without moving to a square the queen can capture and without capturing the queen. Once accomplished a new square will be indicated. Repeat until all possible squares are done.
Better instruction from alt implementation of game linked below:
"Objective: Get to every square of the board that is not attacked by the queen (without capturing it either), right to left, top to bottom."
Clarifies the square indicator tip isn't necessary for the instructions.
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#197For me the instructions are pretty clear: every square "right to left, top to bottom" - except don’t land anywhere the queen can take you, and don’t take the queen. (i.e. somehow move to the upper-right, then one to the left and so forth going through the rows and columns backards and down, like reading right to left down a page.) I gave up after 4 minutes. It's really tough and I only got partway through the second…
Took me a few minutes to understand what exactly I was supposed to do but once I figured it out I reset and did it in 13:15. Pretty neat game. I'm not sure I could do it faster a second time, just because my approach is a bit trial-and-error. Some patterns were surprisingly elusive this way. I actually think I would enjoy it more if the UI helped a bit more, like by marking the squares that were forbidden because of…
Thanks. Regarding marking forbidden squares, apparently the whole point of the game is to develop visualization skills for chess (under Help, it references a grandmaster who recommends this exercise), so if it marked forbidden squares it would defeat the purpose a bit, I think!
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is learning to generalize the sequence of moves, and that's why it doesn't give any visual cue.
In a real chess position, where the knight must go is the easy part because there something interesting to do there (like capturing a piece). The problem here is that the chessboard is empty, so it's difficult to remember where you should go. The interesting part is finding the knight trajectory, reading the notation is boring and easy. (If the point of the exercise was to read the notation, it should be a different…
> where the knight must go is the easy part because there something interesting to do there (like capturing a piece)
The aim is to build an intuition for where the knight can traverse without getting captured in N moves. If you can see further into the future than your opponent, you may notice a pattern before they have a chance to stop it. This intuition isn’t fundamentally tied to notation. But having intuition for the notation facilitates it since that’s how discussion and literature will interface with you.
Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#199Felt like writing a solver for it: https://github.com/rubenvannieuwpoort/funnyhowtheknightmoves...
How elegant:
abs(x - 4) != abs(y - 3)Re: Ain't it funny how the knight moves?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I don't think text instructions are even necessary here if you make enough visual suggestions.
I think the text is useful for describing the ultimate goal , but agree that visual suggestions would make it easier to figure out what the problem is about. For example, I read this as a variation of the knight's tour but was confused as to why they didn't highlight the visited squares. (Answer: it isn't a knight's tour since each square will be visited more than once.) Another example, the description itself didn't…
> I think the text is useful for describing the ultimate goal
No, text is not needed if the next target block is marked - after the first three acquisitions of the first three target blocks, the game is very clear.