What is the fewest number of White chess pieces from the start of a game, that can be placed on a standard chessboard in order to make it impossible to place a Black piece on the board that is not under attack?
Remember,
The final answer must be a subset of the original starting pieces, i.e. only 1 queen, 2 rooks, etc.
Bishops should be on different colour squares.
It is not necessary to attack squares with white pieces on them, as the black piece cannot share a square.
I disagree with the posted solution's placement of the pawn at H1. If one is not allowed to have two bishops on the same colored square, I don't think one should be allowed to place a pawn on the first rank since it could not legally be moved there.
I've come up with MANY, MANY 8-piece solutions, but I've yet to come up with a 7-piece solution (still trying).
Reply to the posted solution
