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.
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!