This is a very interesting problem I discovered today while trying to prepare for a Mathematical Circles lesson organized by Alok Mittal, where he is teaching a group of children mathematics through puzzles. The puzzle is also from the book “Mathematical Circles”, by Dmitri Fomin, Sergey Genkin and Ilia Itenberg. Chapter 5.

Starting Point

Destination Point

Several knights are situated on a 3×3 chessboard as shown in Starting Point. Can they move, using the usual chess knight’s move, to the position shown in Destination Point?

For those looking for a hint….think graph theory!

As always, please send your answers directly to me at alokgoyal_2001@yahoo.com. If you like the puzzle, please share it with others. If you have interesting puzzles to share, please send them to me at my e-mail given above.

Happy knighting!