+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |r| | | | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | |A| | | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | | | | | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | |B|D|F| | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | |R|C|E| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | | |I|G| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | | | | | | | |H| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ THE TWO ROOKS. 394.--PUSS IN THE CORNER. No matter whether he plays first or second, the player A, who starts the game at 55, must win. Assuming that B adopts the very best lines of play in order to prolong as much as possible his existence, A, if he has first move, can always on his 12th move capture B; and if he has the second move, A can always on his 14th move make the capture. His point is always to get diagonally in line with his opponent, and by going to 33, if he has first move, he prevents B getting diagonally in line with himself. Here are two good games. The number in front of the hyphen is always A's move; that after the hyphen is B's:-- 33-8, 32-15, 31-22, 30-21, 29-14, 22-7, 15-6, 14-2, 7-3, 6-4, 11-, and A must capture on his next (12th) move, -13, 54-20, 53-27, 52-34, 51-41, 50-34, 42-27, 35-20, 28-13, 21-6, 14-2, 7-3, 6-4, 11-, and A must capture on his next (14th) move. 395.--A WAR PUZZLE GAME. The Britisher can always catch the enemy, no matter how clever and elusive that astute individual may be; but curious though it may seem, the British general can only do so after he has paid a somewhat mysterious visit to the particular town marked "1" in the map, going in by 3 and leaving by 2, or entering by 2 and leaving by 3. The three towns that are shaded and have no numbers do not really come into the question, as some may suppose, for the simple reason that the Britisher never needs to enter any one of them, while the enemy cannot be forced to go into them, and would be clearly ill-advised to do so voluntarily. We may therefore leave these out of consideration altogether. No matter what the enemy may do, the Britisher should make the following first nine moves: He should visit towns 24, 20, 19, 15, 11, 7, 3, 1, 2. If the enemy takes it into his head also to go to town 1, it will be found that he will have to beat a precipitate retreat _the same way that he went in_, or the Britisher will infallibly catch him in towns 2 or 3, as the case may be. So the enemy will be wise to avoid that north-west corner of the map altogether. [Illustration]