Inspired by the hit TV show The Queen’s Gambit, we tackled a chess puzzle in February’s evening meeting. Sophie shared a problem from one of Alex Bellos’s recent Monday Math Puzzles. Here it is:
Before we went into our breakout rooms, we spent a bit of time clarifying the ways that a Queen can move on the board, and making sure we agreed about which squares were “unattacked” or “safe.” (We had some debate about the square that the Queen is sitting on. In the end, we decided that this was not a safe square.)
Check out the Jamboard to see some of the work we did (or don’t, if you don’t want any spoilers!) One question we found intriguing was, “how do you know when you’ve found the best answer?”
Since then, many of us have been playing chess on chess.com. We’re even thinking about starting a CAMI chess club. Want to play? Send us a message and we’ll loop you in.
The answer is zero amount of spaces. Whatever direction the queen goes, another queen can attack either diagonally or horizontally.