Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Things I learn from beginners' books

Or in this case, a CD for beginners, the incredibly good Chess Tutor - Step 1.

Can you answer these three questions in less than five seconds?
  • How many ranks does a chessboard have?  (I bet you know that.)
  • How many files does a chessboard have?  (I bet you know that, too.)
  • How many diagonals does a chessboard have?  (I had no idea!)

2 comments:

Chris Falter said...

The diagonal question is more a math problem than a chess problem. Knowing that the chessboard has 26 diagonals doesn't really help me play better chess. But it is a fun question!

Bill Brock said...

At least I didn't ask a Knight's Tour question.

Put the two bishops on the center of the empty board (say e4 and d4). Together, they control 26 squares, the same number as the number of diagonals on the board.

But the rook on e4 only controls 14 squares: why not 16 (8 ranks plus 8 files)?