345.—­THE TWO PAWNS.

[Illustration]

Here is a neat little puzzle in counting.  In how many different ways may the two pawns advance to the eighth square?  You may move them in any order you like to form a different sequence.  For example, you may move the Q R P (one or two squares) first, or the K R P first, or one pawn as far as you like before touching the other.  Any sequence is permissible, only in this puzzle as soon as a pawn reaches the eighth square it is dead, and remains there unconverted.  Can you count the number of different sequences?  At first it will strike you as being very difficult, but I will show that it is really quite simple when properly attacked.

VARIOUS CHESS PUZZLES.

“Chesse-play is a good and wittie exercise of
the minde for some kinde of men.” 
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.

346.—­SETTING THE BOARD.

I have a single chessboard and a single set of chessmen.  In how many different ways may the men be correctly set up for the beginning of a game?  I find that most people slip at a particular point in making the calculation.

347.—­COUNTING THE RECTANGLES.

Can you say correctly just how many squares and other rectangles the chessboard contains?  In other words, in how great a number of different ways is it possible to indicate a square or other rectangle enclosed by lines that separate the squares of the board?

348.—­THE ROOKERY.

[Illustration]

The White rooks cannot move outside the little square in which they are enclosed except on the final move, in giving checkmate.  The puzzle is how to checkmate Black in the fewest possible moves with No. 8 rook, the other rooks being left in numerical order round the sides of their square with the break between 1 and 7.

349.—­STALEMATE.

Some years ago the puzzle was proposed to construct an imaginary game of chess, in which White shall be stalemated in the fewest possible moves with all the thirty-two pieces on the board.  Can you build up such a position in fewer than twenty moves?

350.—­THE FORSAKEN KING.

[Illustration]

Set up the position shown in the diagram.  Then the condition of the puzzle is—­White to play and checkmate in six moves.  Notwithstanding the complexities, I will show how the manner of play may be condensed into quite a few lines, merely stating here that the first two moves of White cannot be varied.

351.—­THE CRUSADER.

The following is a prize puzzle propounded by me some years ago.  Produce a game of chess which, after sixteen moves, shall leave White with all his sixteen men on their original squares and Black in possession of his king alone (not necessarily on his own square).  White is then to force mate in three moves.

352.—­IMMOVABLE PAWNS.

Starting from the ordinary arrangement of the pieces as for a game, what is the smallest possible number of moves necessary in order to arrive at the following position?  The moves for both sides must, of course, be played strictly in accordance with the rules of the game, though the result will necessarily be a very weird kind of chess.