41–50 of 79 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That assumes you can place the king on the board and move immediately. I think the puzzle assumes you can’t do that; that placing your king on the board is your move, thus ending your turn.
There's no legal way to reach a chess position where a king is in check or checkmate and it's not the king's turn to move.
Really nice but I wish I didn't have to click "Check" every time after moving the pieces. It could do that automatically.
...Q....
.......Q
........
........
..Q.....
......Q.
........
B.......
> The task is to place four black queens and one black bishop on the chessboard so that there is no square not under their attack. In other words, after arranging the five black pieces, it must be impossible to place the white king anywhere without it being in checkmate. That last word should be "check". not "checkmate". A king next to an unprotected queen will be in check but not checkmate as it can capture the quee…
That assumes you can place the king on the board and move immediately. I think the puzzle assumes you can’t do that; that placing your king on the board is your move, thus ending your turn.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That assumes you can place the king on the board and move immediately. I think the puzzle assumes you can’t do that; that placing your king on the board is your move, thus ending your turn.
The wording is very unambiguous, it means something very specific in chess. In every legal chess position either White is checkmated or Black is checkmated or (by far the most common except in film and TV!) neither side is checkmated. So the wording is crystal clear, you should be able to freely place the White king on any of the unoccupied 59 squares and the position will be one of those in which White is checkmated…
> The task is to place four black queens and one black bishop on the chessboard so that there is no square not under their attack. In other words, after arranging the five black pieces, it must be impossible to place the white king anywhere without it being in checkmate. That last word should be "check". not "checkmate". A king next to an unprotected queen will be in check but not checkmate as it can capture the quee…
However let us suppose that you can place it on the board and have it be in either check or checkmate.
If it has been placed on the board and it is in check, since it cannot move into check it follows that it is the king's move. If it can move out of check by taking a piece or another way of moving it is not in checkmate, this seems a pretty weird trick then, because it is not so interesting that you can place the king on the board and it will be in check and it is the king's move to get out of check.
If it can get out of check by taking an unprotected queen then it is again not very interesting, and why would I not just put the king on one of those positions and take the queen from the first.
If I cannot put it on the board without it being in checkmate, it must mean that the placing it on the board is itself the move, and you cannot move into checkmate, but if placing it on the board is the move then it follows you can take a queen with that move if you can place the king anywhere on the board.
The phrasing of the puzzle is inadequate, it seems.
The trick for me was to place a queen (most anywhere, but start with a corner it’s easier), then check and look for the spot with the most reds around it (eg 9, or 8, or 7), place the next queen there, repeat. Then place the bishop as needed. The key was realizing the proximal spaces next to the placed queen are the most important to cover. Forget about trying to have a long reach, it comes naturally.