What is the largest number of knights that can be put on a $5 \times 5$ chess board so that each knight attacks exactly two other knights? (M Gorelov)

On a chessboard $5 \times 9$ squares, the following game is played. Initially, a number of frogs are randomly placed on some of the squares, no square containing more than one frog. A turn consists of moving all of the frogs subject to the following rules: $\bullet$ Each frog may be moved one square up, down, left, or right; $\bullet$ If a frog moves up or down on one turn, it must move left or right on the next turn, and vice versa; $\bullet$ At the end of each turn, no square can contain two or more frogs. The game stops if it becomes impossible to complete another turn. Prove that if initially $33$ frogs are placed on the board, the game must eventually stop. Prove also that it is possible to place $32$ frogs on the board so that the game can continue forever.

A rook is allowed to move one cell either horizontally or vertically. After $64$ moves the rook visited all cells of the $8 \times 8$ chessboard and returned back to the initial cell. Prove that the number of moves in the vertical direction and the number of moves in the horizontal direction cannot be equal. (A Shapovalov, R Sadykov)

$200 \times 200$ square is colored in chess order. In one move we can take every $2 \times 3$ rectangle and change color of all its cells. Can we make all cells of square in same color ?

Let $n>1$ be a positive integer. Each unit square in an $n\times n$ grid of squares is colored either black or white, such that the following conditions hold: $\bullet$ Any two black squares can be connected by a sequence of black squares where every two consecutive squares in the sequence share an edge; $\bullet$ Any two white squares can be connected by a sequence of white squares where every two consecutive squares in the sequence share an edge; $\bullet$ Any $2\times 2$ subgrid contains at least one square of each color. Determine, with proof, the maximum possible difference between the number of black squares and white squares in this grid (in terms of $n$).

Consider a $7\times7$ chessboard that starts out with all the squares white. We start painting squares black, one at a time, according to the rule that after painting the first square, each newly painted square must be adjacent along a side to only the square just previously painted. The final figure painted will be a connected “snake” of squares. (a) Show that it is possible to paint $31$ squares. (b) Show that it is possible to paint $32$ squares. (c) Show that it is possible to paint $33$ squares.

$1\times 2$ dominoes are placed on an $8 \times 8$ chessboard without overlapping. They may partially stick out from the chessboard but the center of each domino must be strictly inside the chessboard (not on its border). Place on the chessboard in such a way: a) at least $40$ dominoes, (3 points) b) at least $41$ dominoes, (3 points) c) more than $41$ dominoes. (6 points) [i](Mikhail Evdokimov)[/i]

An $8 \times 8$ chessboard consists of $64$ square units. In some of the unit squares of the board, diagonals are drawn so that any two diagonals have no common points. What is the maximum number of diagonals that can be drawn?

Chess piece called [i]skew knight[/i], if placed on the black square, attacks all the gray squares. [img]https://i.ibb.co/HdTDNjN/Kyiv-MO-2021-Round-1-11-2.png[/img] What is the largest number of such knights that can be placed on the $8\times 8$ chessboard without them attacking each other? [i]Proposed by Arsenii Nikolaiev[/i]

Alice plays the following game of solitaire on a $20 \times 20$ chessboard. She begins by placing $100$ pennies, $100$ nickels, $100$ dimes, and $100$ quarters on the board so that each of the $400$ squares contains exactly one coin. She then chooses $59$ of these coins and removes them from the board. After that, she removes coins, one at a time, subject to the following rules: - A penny may be removed only if there are four squares of the board adjacent to its square (up, down, left, and right) that are vacant (do not contain coins). Squares “off the board” do not count towards this four: for example, a non-corner square bordering the edge of the board has three adjacent squares, so a penny in such a square cannot be removed under this rule, even if all three adjacent squares are vacant. - A nickel may be removed only if there are at least three vacant squares adjacent to its square. (And again, “off the board” squares do not count.) - A dime may be removed only if there are at least two vacant squares adjacent to its square (“off the board” squares do not count). - A quarter may be removed only if there is at least one vacant square adjacent to its square (“off the board” squares do not count). Alice wins if she eventually succeeds in removing all the coins. Prove that it is impossiblefor her to win.

We consider the division of a chess board $8 \times 8$ in p disjoint rectangles which satisfy the conditions: [b]a)[/b] every rectangle is formed from a number of full squares (not partial) from the 64 and the number of white squares is equal to the number of black squares. [b]b)[/b] the numbers $\ a_{1}, \ldots, a_{p}$ of white squares from $p$ rectangles satisfy $a_1, , \ldots, a_p.$ Find the greatest value of $p$ for which there exists such a division and then for that value of $p,$ all the sequences $a_{1}, \ldots, a_{p}$ for which we can have such a division. [color=#008000]Moderator says: see [url]https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c6h58591[/url][/color]

An $n\times n$ chessboard is given, where $n$ is an even positive integer. On every line, the unit squares are to be permuted, subject to the condition that the resulting table has to be symmetric with respect to its main diagonal (the diagonal from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner). We say that a board is [i]alternative[/i] if it has at least one pair of complementary lines (two lines are complementary if the unit squares on them which lie on the same column have distinct colours). Otherwise, we call the board [i]nonalternative[/i]. For what values of $n$ do we always get from the $n\times n$ chessboard an alternative board?\\ \\ [i](Alexandru Petrescu and Andra Elena Mircea)[/i]

Eight rooks are placed on a chessboard so that no two rooks attack each other. Prove that one can always move all rooks, each by a move of a knight so that in the final position no two rooks attack each other as well. (In intermediate positions several rooks can share the same square).

A $100 \times100$ chessboard has a non-negative real number in each of its cells. A chessboard is [b]balanced[/b] if and only if the numbers sum up to one for each column of cells as well as each row of cells. Find the largest positive real number $x$ so that, for any balanced chessboard, we can find $100$ cells of it so that these cells all have number greater or equal to $x$, and no two of these cells are on the same column or row. [i]Proposed by CSJL.[/i]

A set $A$ of squares is given on a chessboard which is infinite in all directions. On each square of this chessboard which does not belong to $A$ there is a king. On a command all kings may be moved in such a way that each king either remains on its square or is moved to an adjacent square, which may have been occupied by another king before the command. Each square may be occupied by at most one king. Does there exist such a number $k$ and such a way of moving the kings that after $k$ moves the kings will occupy all squares of the chessboard? Consider the following cases: (a) $A$ is the set of all squares, both of whose coordinates are multiples of $100$. (There is a horizontal line numbered by the integers from $-\infty$ to $+\infty$, and a similar vertical line. Each square of the chessboard may be denoted by two numbers, its coordinates with respect to these axes.) (b) $A$ is the set of all squares which are covered by $100$ fixed arbitrary queens (i.e. each square covered by at least one queen). Remark: If $A$ consists of just one square, then $k = 1$ and the required way is the following: all kings to the left of the square of $A$ make one move to the right.

Consider a checkered board $2m \times 2n$, $m, n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}$. A stone is placed on one of the unit squares on the board, this square is different from the upper right square and from the lower left square. A snail goes from the bottom left square and wants to get to the top right square, walking from one square to other adjacent, one square at a time (two squares are adjacent if they share an edge). Determine all the squares the stone can be in so that the snail can complete its path by visiting each square exactly one time, except the square with the stone, which the snail does not visit.

A chess king tours an entire $8\times 8$ chess board, visiting each square exactly once and returning at last to his starting position. Prove that he made an even number of diagonal moves. (V Proizvolov)

A game is played on an ${n \times n}$ chessboard. At the beginning there are ${99}$ stones on each square. Two players ${A}$ and ${B}$ take turns, where in each turn the player chooses either a row or a column and removes one stone from each square in the chosen row or column. They are only allowed to choose a row or a column, if it has least one stone on each square. The first player who cannot move, looses the game. Player ${A}$ takes the first turn. Determine all n for which player ${A}$ has a winning strategy.

Let $ n$ and $ k$ be positive integers such that $ \frac{1}{2} n < k \leq \frac{2}{3} n.$ Find the least number $ m$ for which it is possible to place $ m$ pawns on $ m$ squares of an $ n \times n$ chessboard so that no column or row contains a block of $ k$ adjacent unoccupied squares.

An $n\times n$ chessboard is given, where $n$ is an even positive integer. On every line, the unit squares are to be permuted, subject to the condition that the resulting table has to be symmetric with respect to its main diagonal (the diagonal from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner). We say that a board is [i]alternative[/i] if it has at least one pair of complementary lines (two lines are complementary if the unit squares on them which lie on the same column have distinct colours). Otherwise, we call the board [i]nonalternative[/i]. For what values of $n$ do we always get from the $n\times n$ chessboard an alternative board?\\ \\ [i](Alexandru Petrescu and Andra Elena Mircea)[/i]

Hugo places a chess piece on the top left square of a $20 \times 20$ chessboard and makes $10$ moves with it. On each of these $10$ moves, he moves the piece either one square horizontally (left or right) or one square vertically (up or down). After the last move, he draws an $X$ on the square that the piece occupies. When Hugo plays the game over and over again, what is the largest possible number of squares that could eventually be marked with an $X$? Prove that your answer is correct.

On a $999\times 999$ board a [i]limp rook[/i] can move in the following way: From any square it can move to any of its adjacent squares, i.e. a square having a common side with it, and every move must be a turn, i.e. the directions of any two consecutive moves must be perpendicular. A [i]non-intersecting route[/i] of the limp rook consists of a sequence of pairwise different squares that the limp rook can visit in that order by an admissible sequence of moves. Such a non-intersecting route is called [i]cyclic[/i], if the limp rook can, after reaching the last square of the route, move directly to the first square of the route and start over. How many squares does the longest possible cyclic, non-intersecting route of a limp rook visit? [i]Proposed by Nikolay Beluhov, Bulgaria[/i]

The squares of a $10 \times 10$ chessboard are labelled with $1,2,...,100 $ in the usual way: the $i$-th row contains the numbers $10i -9,10i - 8,...,10i$ in increasing order. The signs of fifty numbers are changed so that each row and each column contains exactly five negative numbers. Show that after this change the sum of all numbers on the chessboard is zero.

Vitya cut the chessboard along the borders of the cells into pieces of the same perimeter. It turned out that not all of the received parts are equal. What is the largest possible number of parts that Vitya could get?

For $n \ge 3$, it is given an $2n \times 2n$ board with black and white squares. It is known that all border squares are black and no $2 \times 2$ subboard has all four squares of the same color. Prove that there exists a $2 \times 2$ subboard painted like a chessboard, i.e. with two opposite black corners and two opposite white corners.