What is the largest number of horses that you can put on a chessboard without there being two horses that can beat each other? a. Describe an arrangement with that maximum number. b. Prove that a larger number is not possible. (A chessboard consists of $8 \times 8$ spaces and a horse jumps from one field to another field according to the line "two squares vertically and one squared horizontally" or "one square vertically and two squares horizontally") [asy] unitsize (0.5 cm); int i, j; for (i = 0; i <= 7; ++i) { for (j = 0; j <= 7; ++j) { if ((i + j) % 2 == 0) { if ((i - 2)^2 + (j - 3)^2 == 5) { fill(shift((i,j))*((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle), red); } else { fill(shift((i,j))*((0,0)--(1,0)--(1,1)--(0,1)--cycle), gray(0.8)); } } }} for (i = 0; i <= 8; ++i) { draw((i,0)--(i,8)); draw((0,i)--(8,i)); } label("$a$", (0.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$b$", (1.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$c$", (2.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$d$", (3.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$e$", (4.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$f$", (5.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$g$", (6.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$h$", (7.5,-0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$1$", (-0.5,0.5), fontsize(10)); label("$2$", (-0.5,1.5), fontsize(10)); label("$3$", (-0.5,2.5), fontsize(10)); label("$4$", (-0.5,3.5), fontsize(10)); label("$5$", (-0.5,4.5), fontsize(10)); label("$6$", (-0.5,5.5), fontsize(10)); label("$7$", (-0.5,6.5), fontsize(10)); label("$8$", (-0.5,7.5), fontsize(10)); label("$P$", (2.5,3.5), fontsize(10)); [/asy]

Two players play a game on an $8$ by $8$ chessboard according to the following rules. The first player places a knight on the board. Then each player in turn moves the knight , but cannot place it on a square where it has been before. The player who has no move loses. Who wins in an errorless game , the first player or the second one? (The knight moves are the normal ones. ) (V . Zudilin , year 12 student , Beltsy (Moldova))

A $T$-tetromino is a non-convex as well as non-rotationally symmetrical tetromino, which has a maximum number of outside corners (popularly also "Tetris Stone "called). Find all natural numbers $n$ for which, a $n \times n$ chessboard is found that can be covered only with such $T$-tetrominos.

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]

On an $8 \times 8$ chessboard, $17$ cells are marked. Prove that one can always choose two cells among the marked ones so that a Knight will need at least three moves to go from one of the chosen cells to the other. (R Zhenodarov)

Given a chessboard that is infinite in all directions. Is it possible to place an infinite number of queens on it so that on each horizontally, on each vertical and on each diagonal of both directions (i.e. on a set of cells located at an angle of $45^o$ or $135^o$ to the horizontal) was exactly one queen?

What is the smallest number of squares of a chess board that can be marked in such a manner that (a) no two marked squares may have a common side or a common vertex, and (b) any unmarked square has a common side or a common vertex with at least one marked square? Indicate a specific configuration of marked squares satisfying (a) and (b) and show that a lesser number of marked squares will not suffice. (A. Andjans, Riga)

Majid wants to color the cells of an $n\times n$ chessboard into white and black so that each $2\times 2$ subsquare contains two white cells and two black cells. In how many ways can Majid color this $n\times n$ chessboard?

What is the minimum number of movements that a horse must carry out on chess, on an $8\times 8$ board, to reach the upper right square starting at the lower left? Remember that the horse moves in the usual $L$-shaped manner.

[u]Chessboards [/u] Joe B. is playing with some chess pieces on a $6\times 6$ chessboard. Help him find out some things. [b]p1.[/b] Joe B. first places the black king in one corner of the board. In how many of the $35$ remaining squares can he place a white bishop so that it does not check the black king? [b]p2.[/b] Joe B. then places a white king in the opposite corner of the board. How many total ways can he place one black bishop and one white bishop so that neither checks the king of the opposite color? [b]p3.[/b] Joe B. now clears the board. How many ways can he place $3$ white rooks and $3$ black rooks on the board so that no two rooks of opposite color can attack each other? [b]p4.[/b] Joe B. is frustrated with chess. He breaks the board, leaving a $4\times 4$ board, and throws $3$ black knights and $3$ white kings at the board. Miraculously, they all land in distinct squares! What is the expected number of checks in the resulting position? (Note that a knight can administer multiple checks and a king can be checked by multiple knights.) [b]p5.[/b] Suppose that at some point Joe B. has placed $2$ black knights on the original board, but gets bored of chess. He now decides to cover the $34$ remaining squares with $17$ dominos so that no two overlap and the dominos cover the entire rest of the board. For how many initial arrangements of the two pieces is this possible? Note: Chess is a game played with pieces of two colors, black and white, that players can move between squares on a rectangular grid. Some of the pieces move in the following ways: $\bullet$ Bishop: This piece can move any number of squares diagonally if there are no other pieces along its path. $\bullet$ Rook: This piece can move any number of squares either vertically or horizontally if there are no other pieces along its path. $\bullet$ Knight: This piece can move either two squares along a row and one square along a column or two squares along a column and one square along a row. $\bullet$ King: This piece can move to any open adjacent square (including diagonally). If a piece can move to a square occupied by a king of the opposite color, we say that it is checking the king. If a piece moves to a square occupied by another piece, this is called attacking.

In chess, a king threatens another king if, and only if, they are on neighboring squares, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally . Find the greatest amount of kings that can be placed on a $12 \times 12$ board such that each king threatens just another king. Here, we are not considering part colors, that is, consider that the king are all, say, white, and that kings of the same color can threaten each other.

(a) Decide whether the fields of the $8 \times 8$ chessboard can be numbered by the numbers $1, 2, \dots , 64$ in such a way that the sum of the four numbers in each of its parts of one of the forms [list][img]http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/download/file.php?id=28446[/img][/list] is divisible by four. (b) Solve the analogous problem for [list][img]http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/download/file.php?id=28447[/img][/list]

$N^2$ pieces are placed on an $N \times N$ chessboard. Is it possible to rearrange them in such a way that any two pieces which can capture each other (when considered to be knights) after the rearrangement are on adjacent squares (i.e. squares having at least one common boundary point)? Consider two cases: (a) $N = 3$. (b) $N = 8$ (S Stefanov)

Some squares of an $n \times n$ chessboard have been marked ($n \in N^*$). Prove that if the number of marked squares is at least $n\left(\sqrt{n} + \frac12\right)$, then there exists a rectangle whose vertices are centers of marked squares.