Across the Board is the definitive work on chessboard problems. It is not simply about chess but the chessboard itself--that simple grid of squares so common to games around the world. And, more importantly, the fascinating mathematics behind it. From the Knight's Tour Problem and Queens Domination to their many variations, John Watkins surveys all the well-known problems in this surprisingly fertile area of recreational mathematics. Can a knight follow a path that covers every square once, ending on the starting square? How many queens are needed so that every square is targeted or occupied by one of the queens? Each main topic is treated in depth from its historical conception through to its status today. Many beautiful solutions have emerged for basic chessboard problems since mathematicians first began working on them in earnest over three centuries ago, but such problems, including those involving polyominoes, have now been extended to three-dimensional chessboards and even chessboards on unusual surfaces such as toruses (the equivalent of playing chess on a doughnut) and cylinders. Using the highly visual language of graph theory, Watkins gently guides the reader to the forefront of current research in mathematics. By solving some of the many exercises sprinkled throughout, the reader can share fully in the excitement of discovery. Showing that chess puzzles are the starting point for important mathematical ideas that have resonated for centuries, Across the Board will captivate students and instructors, mathematicians, chess enthusiasts, and puzzle devotees.

99 puzzles built around the chessboard. Arithmetical and probability problems, chessboard recreations, geometrical puzzles, mathematical amusements and games, more. Solutions.

New Math Chess is a two-player educational and recreational game played on ten Digit pieces (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) and six Operator pieces (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Power (Square & Cube), and Root (Square Root & Cube Root)). The book focuses on the explanation and applications of four fundamental concepts governing the feasibility and the success of the book: (i) Attachment of Digits to an Operator, (ii) Partial Values of an Operator, (iii) Partial Equality of two Partial Values of an Operator, (iv) Partial Equality of an Operator with its Partial Values. The book provides 20 chess games with solutions for the readers to practice. New Math Chess is flexible and suitable for all students from middle and high schools to universities.

Mathematical chess is a two-player educational and entertaining game played on ten digit pieces (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) and six operator pieces (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, power, and root). The chessboard is a grid made up of nine vertical and nine horizontal lines. It is flexible and suitable for all students from middle and high schools to universities. The excessive use of electronic calculators and games has caused a negative impact on the alertness of the minds and the numerical abilities of students at all levels. Dr Ryan said, In numeracy, the young teenage student in 2003 was approximately a quarter of a grade level behind his or her counterpart in 1964. This was reported in the article Grade Worse Than in 1960s (SMH, 11 February 2008). Students love challenges and competitions. Dr Robert C. Ferguson writes, A learning environment organised around games has a positive effect on students attitudes towards learning (Teachers Guide: Research and Benefits of Chess, 11 October 2006). The above statements drive the implementation of this mathematical chess game. Like European chess and Chinese chess, mathematical chess teaches strategy planning, problem-solving, memory improvement, decision-making, concentration, perseverance, observation, analysis, and organisation skill. Mathematical chess itself also promotes numerical abilities, mental alertness, and speedy calculation. The numeracy performance of students in many countries has not improved since 1960, not because of the incompetence of the teachers, but because an educational game interesting and challenging enough to attract students attention did not exist. Mathematical chess can help resolve this drawback. The authors dream is to see mathematical chess become a popular game in all middle and high schools, and to see the love and passion of mathematics flowering in the minds of young people around the world.

The first edition of this book was reprinted eight times. This book introduces and develops some of the important and beautiful elementary mathematics needed for rational analysis of various gambling and game activities. Most of the standard casino games (roulette, blackjack, keno), some social games (backgammon, poker, bridge) and various other activities (state lotteries, horse racing, etc.) are treated in ways that bring out their mathematical aspects. The mathematics developed ranges from the predictable concepts of probability, expectation, and binomial coefficients to some less well-known ideas of elementary game theory. The second edition includes new material on: sports betting and the mathematics behind it; Game theory applied to bluffing in poker and related to the Texas Holdem phenomenon; The Nash equilibrium concept and its emergence in the popular culture; Internet links to games and to Java applets for practice and classroom use. The only formal mathematics background the reader needs is some facility with high school algebra. Game-related exercises are included at the end of most chapters for readers interested in working with and expanding ideas treated in the text. Solutions to some of the exercises appear at the end of the book.

A Most Fascinating Journey! It has long been recognized that there are only three major areas of human endeavor which produce prodigies: music, chess and mathematics. This does not occur by happenstance. There are links on many levels. Now, for the first time, Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa examines the yet unexplored relation of chess to music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that is highlighted accordingly. The thesis of this extraordinarily researched book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music. As becomes clear, this relationship has already been introduced by some legendary players such as Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik . Great artists such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Schönberg, to name but a few, have also been fascinated by the very same idea. Surprisingly, this has not been explored in detail so far – only some sporadic articles exist, by authors specializing in either music or chess. There are chapters that address issues which are specialized in chess and music, while others cover related issues of general, social and artistic nature. Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa can be appreciated by readers who have a good, general, though non-specific background, in both fields. That is, no technical knowledge of music is required, with the only prerequisite to fully appreciate the text being the understanding of standard chess rules. The text could be equally enlightening to students of music or mathematics, as an added intellectual insight into these two disciplines. The text is supplemented by many chess diagrams, charts, and over 50 full-color images. So, turn on the music, set up chessboard, get out the calculator and let the author take you on a most fascinating journey that is Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa.

In the tradition of The Professor and the Madman, Longitude, and The Orchid Thief, Hallman transforms an obsessive quest for obscure things into a compulsively readable and entertaining weaving of travelogue, journalism, and chess history. In the tiny Russian province of Kalmykia, obsession with chess has reached new heights. Its leader, a charismatic and eccentric millionaire/ex--car salesman named Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is a former chess prodigy and the most recent president of FIDE, the world's controlling chess body. Despite credible allegations of his involvement in drug running, embezzlement, and murder, the impoverished Kalmykian people have rallied around their leader's obsession---chess is played on Kalmykian prime-time television and is compulsory in Kalmykian schools. In addition, Kalmyk women have been known to alter their traditional costumes of pillbox hats and satin gowns to include chessboard-patterned sashes. The Chess Artist is both an intellectual journey and first-rate travel writing dedicated to the love of chess and all of its related oddities, writer and chess enthusiast J. C. Hallman explores the obsessive hold chess exerts on its followers by examining the history and evolution of the game and the people who dedicate their lives to it. Together with his friend Glenn Umstead, an African-American chessmaster who is arguably as chess obsessed as Ilyumzhinov, Hallman tours New York City's legendary chess district, crashes a Princeton Math Department game party, challenges a convicted murderer to a chess match in prison, and travels to Kalmykia, where they are confronted with members of the Russian intelligence service, beautiful translators who may be spies, seven-year-old chess prodigies, and the sad blight of a land struggling toward capitalism.