THE SCIENTIFIC SKATER.
(
The Guarded Chessboard)
It will be seen that this skater has marked on the ice sixty-four points
or stars, and he proposes to start _from his present position_ near the
corner and enter every one of the points in fourteen straight lines. How
will he do it? Of course there is no objection to his passing over any
point more than once, but his last straight stroke must bring him back
to the position from which he started.
It is merely a matter of taking your pencil and starting from the spot
on which the skater's foot is at present resting, and striking out all
the stars in fourteen continuous straight lines, returning to the point
from which you set out.
Answer:
In this case we go beyond the boundary of the square. Apart from that,
the moves are all queen moves. There are three or four ways in which it
can be done.
Here is one way of performing the feat:--
It will be seen that the skater strikes out all the stars in one
continuous journey of fourteen straight lines, returning to the point
from which he started. To follow the skater's course in the diagram it
is necessary always to go as far as we can in a straight line before
turning.
