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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, ...
Aric's user avatar
  • 2,081
34 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.
starrin's user avatar
  • 446
31 votes
Accepted

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 ...
Cleveland's user avatar
  • 7,504
30 votes

How many moves does it take a knight to move 1 square forward?

Depends on whether the square is diagonal (2 moves) or not (3) as shown in the diagram below:
db_max's user avatar
  • 787
27 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 ...
leftaroundabout's user avatar
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 ...
user1583209's user avatar
  • 20.7k
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.
PhishMaster's user avatar
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20 votes
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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....
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
bof's user avatar
  • 3,762
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 ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 271
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-...
Noam D. Elkies's user avatar
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 ...
PhishMaster's user avatar
  • 32.4k
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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
16 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").
Ilia Smilga's user avatar
16 votes

How many moves does it take a knight to move 1 square forward?

Not to detract from db_max's answer with its marvellous picture, but here's another way to arrive at the answer. When a knight moves, it moves from a white square to a black square or vice versa. You ...
Rosie F's user avatar
  • 6,265
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 ...
Herb's user avatar
  • 4,187
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 ...
itub's user avatar
  • 10.5k
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 ...
Michael West's user avatar
  • 5,096
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) ...
emdio's user avatar
  • 2,114
13 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 ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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/...
Rewan Demontay's user avatar
13 votes
Accepted

Why did Andrea Botez ask Magnus Carlsen “How does the knight move?” after a game in the 2021 World Chess Championship?

During one of the Botez streams, Magnus jokingly asked how the knight moves. Andrea explains in her recent YouTube video. To answer your question: yes, it is a joke!
odinchess.com's user avatar
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 ...
ferdy's user avatar
  • 3,885
13 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”
Maiaux's user avatar
  • 231
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,...
Brilliand's user avatar
  • 349
12 votes

Why exchange bishop for knight in this endgame?

Easy. Exchange BOTH pairs of light officers (BxN, then NxB) and you have an almost trivial won pure king/pawn endgame. General Principle: If you are material up in the endgame, exchange officers. If ...
Hauke Reddmann's user avatar
12 votes

Why exchange bishop for knight in this endgame?

After Kf5 white replies with Nc4 and the only way to avoid losing the a pawn is to play the knight back to the poor square b7 and it is very difficult to see how black can make progress. If the ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
  • 94.5k
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 ...
Noam D. Elkies's user avatar
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/...
Noam D. Elkies's user avatar

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