Interesting chess problem?

Question

Find a way for a knight which starts from a1 to cover all the squares of the board and return to a1 without stepping on or jumping over a square more than once.

If the knight moves from a1 to b3, squares a1, a2, a3 and b3 are all considered covered.

It's not as hard as it looks.

Answer 1

Ah the knights tour is already answered.

Heres one back at you;

making moves for both sides, get a white rook in the black rooks starting square and a black rook in the white rooks starting square in only 5 moves for each side. Impossible ? No. Remember, this is a puzzle and pieces must work in coordination not adversary action.

There are three different possible methods to achieve the out come.

Good luck. hehehehe

Answer 2

The late International Master,George Kowtanowski, used to do it blindfold in his 90's!

..............Here is how it is done:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KnightsTour...

Answer 3

An interesting variation is to estimate the number of unique "Knight Tours" that exist.  Obviously any closed Knight Tours (starting and finishing on the same square are also interesting as is the symmetry.  An A1 tour is the same as an A8, H1, and H8 tour, etc..  It is a great diversion to be sure.  There are some applets out there...

http://web.telia.com/~u85905224/knight/e...

that let you play w/o a board on hand.  Cool stuff.

-Fred

EDIT:  jj: Great puzzle.  I see the obvious one...still looking for the second and third ones  :)