The White pawns may be arranged in 40,320 ways, the White rooks in 2
ways, the bishops in 2 ways, and the knights in 2 ways. Multiply these
numbers together, and we find that the White pieces may be placed in
322,560 different ways. The Black pieces may, of course, be placed in
the same number of ways. Therefore the men may be set up in 322,560 x
322,560 = 104,044,953,600 ways. But the point that nearly everybody
overlooks is that the board may be placed in two different ways for
every arrangement. Therefore the answer is doubled, and is
208,089,907,200 different ways.
347.--COUNTING THE RECTANGLES.
There are 1,296 different rectangles in all, 204 of which are squares,
counting the square board itself as one, and 1,092 rectangles that are
not squares. The general formula is that a board of n squared squares
contains ((n squared + n) squared)/4 rectangles, of which (2n cubed + 3n squared + n)/6 are
squares and (3n^4 + 2n cubed - 3n squared - 2n)/12 are rectangles that are not
squares. It is curious and interesting that the total number of
rectangles is always the square of the triangular number whose side is
n.
348.--THE ROOKERY.
The answer involves the little point that in the final position the
numbered rooks must be in numerical order in the direction contrary to
that in which they appear in the original diagram, otherwise it cannot
be solved. Play the rooks in the following order of their numbers. As
there is never more than one square to which a rook can move (except on
the final move), the notation is obvious--5, 6, 7, 5, 6, 4, 3, 6, 4, 7,
5, 4, 7, 3, 6, 7, 3, 5, 4, 3, 1, 8, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 8, 2, 1, and rook
takes bishop, checkmate. These are the fewest possible
moves--thirty-two. The Black king's moves are all forced, and need not
be given.
349.--STALEMATE.
Working independently, the same position was arrived at by Messrs. S.
Loyd, E.N. Frankenstein, W.H. Thompson, and myself. So the following may
be accepted as the best solution possible to this curious problem :--
White. Black.
1. P--Q4 1. P--K4
2. Q--Q3 2. Q--R5
3. Q--KKt3 3. B--Kt5 ch
4. Kt--Q2 4. P--QR4
5. P--R4 5. P--Q3
6. P--R3 6. B--K3
7. R--R3 7. P--KB4
8. Q--R2 8. P--B4
9. R--KKt3 9. B--Kt6
10. P--QB4 10. P--B5
11. P--B3 11. P--K5
12. P--Q5 12. P--K6
And White is stalemated.
We give a diagram of the curious position arrived at. It will be seen
that not one of White's pieces may be moved.
[Illustration]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|r|n| | |k| |n|r|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |p| | | | |p|p|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | | |p| | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|p| |p|P| | | | |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|P|b|P| | |p| |q|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |b| | |p|P|R|P|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |P| |N|P| |P|Q|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| | |B| |K|B|N|R|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
350.--THE FORSAKEN KING.
Play as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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