Ep. 13: Lesson One

Checkmaya · 16 of 27

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1

Real Chess Corner

How the knight moves: Two squares in a straight line, then one to the side - an L-shape. From d4 a knight can reach eight squares: b3, b5, c2, c6, e2, e6, f3 and f5. It's the only piece that can jump over others.

The knight's tour: Can a knight visit every square of the board exactly once? Yes! The mathematician Leonhard Euler studied the puzzle in 1759, and there are trillions of different tours.

Try it yourself: Number the squares 1 to 64 as you go. A handy trick (Warnsdorff's rule): always jump to the square that has the fewest onward moves left.

Everyone starts somewhere - even future champions.

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