ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.
(
The Guarded Chessboard)
Here is a little puzzle on a reduced chessboard of forty-nine squares.
St. George wishes to kill the dragon. Killing dragons was a well-known
pastime of his, and, being a knight, it was only natural that he should
desire to perform the feat in a series of knight's moves. Can you show
how, starting from that central square, he may visit once, and only
once, every square of the board in a chain of chess knight's moves, and
end by capturing the dragon on his last move? Of course a variety of
different ways are open to him, so try to discover a route that forms
some pretty design when you have marked each successive leap by a
straight line from square to square.
Answer:
We select for the solution of this puzzle one of the prettiest designs
that can be formed by representing the moves of the knight by lines from
square to square. The chequering of the squares is omitted to give
greater clearness. St. George thus slays the Dragon in strict accordance
with the conditions and in the elegant manner we should expect of him.
[Illustration: St. George and the Dragon.]
