Placing Mutually Safe Queens
Two players alternately place a queen on an empty square of a 7×7 board so that it does not attack any queen already on the board. Two queens attack each other if they share a row, a column or a diagonal, whether or not other pieces lie between them. The player who cannot place a queen loses. Which player wins with optimal play? Answer 'the first player' or 'the second player'.
Related problems & prerequisites
Worth solving first
- Maker and Breaker on a Grid 4.0/10
- Race to 100 3.0/10
Source: Folklore combinatorial-game variant of the n-queens problem; no traceable original source. Statement written for AxiomIQ.