You have a square 5 x 5 board with four rooks in the corners:

Note: for reference, assume the rooks are labeled A, B, C, D as follows: A    B C    D

You can move the rooks horizontally or vertically. The only problem is that when you move a rook, it will keep going in the same direction until it hits another rook or the edge of the board.

You want to move a rook into the darkened square on the board.

How can this be done in no more than 10 moves?

(In reply to re: the Sliding Rooks in 4 moves by Brian Smith)

Strictly speaking, the requirement of the solution is that a rook move "into" the darkened square, not that it finish its move there.  It's not elegant, but in these four-move scenarios the rook does indeed move into the darkened square, says hi, then just keeps right on going.

Posted by Miles on 2004-04-29 18:29:40