[net.chess] Solution to a Famous Unsolved Problem

wbp@houxq.UUCP (10/27/83)

	I have recently "solved" a problem posed in Chess Life and Review
about 3 years ago by Andy Soltis in his CHESS TO ENJOY column.
	The problem was to place the king, queen, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 
and 2 rooks on the board so that every square is attacked, including those 
occupied by the pieces.  The bishops must be on opposite colored squares.
	I ran an Intel 8086 on the problem for about 750 hours and came
to the conclusion that there was no solution.
	I ran the program on the problem where the bishops were on the
same color and found exactly three solutions:

	. . . . . . . R		Q . . . . . . .		R . . . . . . .
	. . . . . . . .		. . . . . . .		. Q . . . . . .
	. . Q . . B . .		. N . . . K . .		. . . . . . . .
	. . . . N . . .		. . . . B . . .		. . N . . . K .
	. . . N . . . .		. . . B . . . .		. . . . . B . .
	. . B . . K . .		. . . . . . . .		. . . . B . . .
	. . . . . . . .		. R . . . N . .		. . . . . . . .
	R . . . . . . .		. . . . . . . R		. . R . . . N .


	I would appreciate it if anyone out in netland knows of any other
solutions so that the impossibility of the other part is more assured.
(This reminds me of the status of the 4 color "theorem".)

					Wayne Pineault