58
votes
Can a knight move through all squares from its original position?
Yes, it can
This particular knight's tour is closed, meaning that it starts and finishes in the same square. Therefore, the knight can start at any square on the board and finish on the same square, ...
- 2,061
32
votes
Accepted
Is there an equivalent to “a knight on the rim is dim” in other languages?
German
Ein Springer am Rand bringt Kummer und Schand.
= (lit.): A knight on the rim brings sorrow and shame.
- 426
30
votes
How to move knights so that black moves first?
It's impossible. Knights require an even number of moves to reach a square of the same color as where they started, or correspondingly an odd number of moves to reach the opposite color. Both sides ...
- 7,378
28
votes
How to describe two knights defending each other?
They're connected knights.
As the other answers said, this isn't typically that smart a thing for knights. OTOH, rooks are very often made stronger by connecting them (it allows them to thwart any ...
- 681
25
votes
Accepted
What is the least number of knights needed to cover the entire board?
Depending on whether occupied squares need to be covered as well, the number is:
[Title " 12 knights, Without Covering Occupied Squares"]
[FEN "8/5N2/1NN1NN2/2N5/5N2/2NN1NN1/2N5/8 w - - 0 1"]
[Title ...
- 20.3k
24
votes
KBN vs K checkmate on nonstandard boards
Actually, the bishop and knight mate is not as slippery as it appears. I have checked this on a tablebase program I wrote. On a 10x10 board, the side with the bishop and knight (say white) can force ...
- 341
24
votes
Accepted
Why does a knight combine better with the queen than a bishop does?
It is a fairly short and simple explanation:
They can combine to attack any square, not just squares on one color. As part of that they can also shift the attack better from one square to another.
- 31.9k
22
votes
Accepted
How do you hold a draw with a knight against a rook?
The weaker side needs to keep Knight close to his King in order to achieve draw.
There are some special cases where the stronger side wins even in those situations, like when Knight is cornered or ...
- 11.7k
20
votes
Accepted
A case where Bishop for knight isn't a good trade
it's a bishop for knight in my favor
So what? You will have moved the knight 3 times to your opponent's bishop 1 move and you will have improved your opponent's position by opening the f file for him....
- 73.9k
20
votes
Accepted
Maximum number of knights populating a chess board so that no knights are attacking one another
14 non-attacking bishops
We may consider the white-square bishops and the black-square bishops separately.
At most 7 bishops can be placed on white squares, namely, at most one bishop on each of the 7 ...
- 3,226
17
votes
Is there an equivalent to “a knight on the rim is dim” in other languages?
Russian
Конь на краю — позор на голову твою.
Literally, "a knight on the rim is a shame onto your head".
Transliterated: "kon' na krayu — pozor na golovu tvoyu".
The Russian ...
- 271
16
votes
Accepted
Why should I try to put knights on weak squares when they can be taken easily?
It is true, that sometimes occupying weak squares with your pieces will just lead to exchanges and no advantage whatsoever. But there is a well known dictum in chess, that "the threat is stronger than ...
- 18.8k
16
votes
Accepted
Can a King and a Knight force stalemate against a lone King?
An exhaustive computer search shows that as expected K+N cannot in general
force stalemate against a lone K.
In fact, the defending King can avoid stalemate as long as it's not on
one of the six-...
- 5,421
16
votes
Accepted
Chess.com insufficient material draw
Well, simply put, they chose to follow the USCF "Article 14: The Drawn Game rule 14E: Insufficient material to win on time, 14E3: King and two knights."
While it is not a forced mate, there is a ...
- 31.9k
16
votes
Why does a knight combine better with the queen than a bishop does?
One of the ways I teach kids how knights move is to put the queen and the knight on the same square. The knight can go to the nearest squares that the queen can't go to.
It is this unique ...
- 73.9k
15
votes
Why is exposing my queen for capture better in this position (According to computer analysis)?
Your description of the computer's suggestions doesn't quite match the position, but if you mean the computer suggests Nxe5, that is correct, as Bxd1 leads to a variation of Legal's Mate.
Nxe5 Bxd1
...
- 3,924
15
votes
How to describe two knights defending each other?
I've seen the term "redundant knights". In general, redundant pieces are pieces can get in each other's way. Here's a quote I could find about the general principle, but not specifically ...
- 10.2k
15
votes
Why does a knight combine better with the queen than a bishop does?
John Watson's "Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy" contains a section titled "Folklore or Reality? Queens and Knights" John lists some folks that say Queen and Knight are better
Capablanca
Shirov
...
- 3,858
15
votes
Is there an equivalent to “a knight on the rim is dim” in other languages?
The Spanish version is not the most elegant one, but there it goes:
"Con los caballos por los rincones
vas a ganar por los cojones"
Perfect consonant rhyme, which can be (liberally) ...
- 1,613
15
votes
Is there an equivalent to “a knight on the rim is dim” in other languages?
In French, I have heard "Cavalier au bord, cavalier mort" ("a knight on the rim is a dead knight").
- 251
13
votes
Accepted
endgame with single Bishop or single Knight?
If given the choice should I opt for an endgame with a single Bishop or a single Knight?
In order to properly answer this question I must point out differences between bishop and knight:
Bishop is a ...
- 11.7k
13
votes
Maximum number of knights populating a chess board so that no knights are attacking one another
For knights, the maximum is 32. Since knights can only attack the color opposite of the square they’re on, placing one on 32 squares of the same color is therefore optimal.
[FEN "N1N1N1N1/...
- 15.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Can the "bishop pair advantage" be supported by statistics?
Download all games from top players. Around 341k games excluding the duplicates.
Use pgn-extract to get BBvNB, BBvNN and BNvNN games.
Run bayeselo to get the stats.
Results
Table 1
Rank Name: Elo ...
- 1,864
12
votes
Arrange 5 non-attacking knights on a 5x5 toroidal board
I noticed a simplification of @RosieF's solution:
Label the squares with two-number labels as follows:
4,2 0,3 1,4 2,0 3,1
1,0 2,1 3,2 4,3 0,4
3,3 4,4 0,0 1,1 2,2
0,1 1,2 2,3 3,4 4,0
2,4 3,0 4,1 0,...
- 339
12
votes
What is a "monster knight"?
The concept of a knight which is so powerfully placed (generally on e6/e3) that the game wins itself dates, according to Winter, from:
An observation by Zukertort after 26 Ne6 in the simultaneous ...
- 73.9k
12
votes
Is there an equivalent to “a knight on the rim is dim” in other languages?
Italian
Cavallo sul bordo,
Spettacolo balordo
Literally, “a knight on the rim is an awkward spectacle”
- 221
11
votes
Five Knights Problem
You must be thinking of this classic Korolkov study (I-II Prize "64" 1937, according to Chernev's Chessboard Magic!; P1288537 in PDB). It's not a problem, nor in 7 moves, but seems to match ...
- 5,421
11
votes
Why would one promote a pawn to a knight?
There are even positions where one promotes R or B to save a draw by getting stalemated (rather than win by avoiding stalemate). One example is the Traxler-Dedrle setup:
[FEN "4rN1K/5qP1/8/8/8/8/k7/...
- 5,421
11
votes
Can a King and Queen mate a King and Knight or is this a drawn game?
Without any pawns Queen vs Knight endgame is a theoretical win for the Queen.
Actually, most chess sites that have checkmates practice offer this very problem as one of them, along side many other ...
- 693
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