A friend told me about a chess game he had seen. At certain moment, the only pieces on board were a Queen at h8, a Rook at g6, and the Kings at h6 and g8. He didn't remember what color was each piece, but it can be worked out... how?

      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   | K | Q | 8
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 7
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   | R | K | 6
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 5
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 4
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 3
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 2
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 1
      +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
        a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

If the Rook had been at g7, what would have been the colors?

There are 8 possible combinations here.

g8 -  b b b b w w w w
g6 -  w w w w b b b b
h8 -  w b w b w b w b
h6 -  w b b w w b b w

Now we have to work out who could have not played last for each of the combinations...

Am I on the right track !?!

Posted by Vishal Baghel on 2004-08-04 11:59:15