The diagram shows a restricted chess board with three black knights and three white knights. Your goal is to move the pieces so that the same squares are occupied but the colors are reversed. Your first move must use a black piece.

Pieces may move only as a normal chess knight, from one corner of a 2×3 rectangle to the opposite corner. No more than one piece may occupy a single square at a time. No piece may move onto a darkened square. No other rules of chess apply.

One turn is a sequence of moves made by a single piece. Find a solution with the minimum number of turns.

Here's one of 4 solutions that have 13 turns. It has 30 moves.  That is the minimum number of turns found when checking for solutions of fewer than 32 moves.

The first move of a turn is marked with the turn number.

A4-B2 1
E2-C3 2
C3-A4
B1-C3 3
C3-E2
E2-D4
D5-C3 4
C3-B1
B4-D5 5
D5-C3
C3-E2
B1-C3 6
C3-D5
D5-B4
E2-C3 7
C3-D5
D2-B1 8
B1-C3
C3-E2
D5-C3 9
C3-B1
B1-D2
A4-C3 10
C3-B1
B2-A4 11
A4-C3
C3-D5
E2-C3 12
C3-A4
D4-E2 13

 

Posted by Charlie on 2004-12-11 02:00:37