The Missing Man

smullyan chess problem

A problem by Raymond Smullyan. The diagram above shows the final position in a chess game in which nothing has moved from a white square to a black one or vice versa. One piece has been omitted from the diagram. What color is the square that it stands on?

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Black. In this game the 16 pieces and pawns that started the game on black squares had a war among themselves, which must have left a solitary survivor, the last piece to make a capture on a black square. Where is it? It’s not the black king, which travels only on white squares. And it’s not the white king or pawns, which have never moved and thus never made a capture. So the missing piece must be that survivor — and must stand on a black square. (From The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, 1980.)

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August 5, 2022August 4, 2022 | Puzzles