Chess Part XII Trivia Quiz

Answer: 44

It takes 5 moves to promote a pawn, so it takes Black 20 moves to promote four pawns to same-color bishops. It would take 20 more moves to promote the last four pawns, but there are only four dark squares on White's back rank, so Black must spend 4 extra moves moving his promoted bishops out of the way to get 4 new dark-squared bishops.
20 + 20 + 4 = 44 moves to get nine dark squared bishops. My example is too long to put here, but the problem isn't really that hard if you think about it logically.

Answer: 4

It cannot be done in less than 4 moves because it takes Black at least two moves to develop his bishop, at least one move to get another piece to accompany the bishop in the mate, and another move to deliver checkmate. If you try to mate White with only the bishop, then it will take White a lot more moves to set himself up for mate.
One possible game is 1. e3 d5 2. Ke2 Qd6 3. Kf3 Nf6 4. a3 Bg4#

Answer: 3

The 2-move checkmate can only be done if White advances his kingside pawns, so 3 has to be correct.
(1.d4 e5 2.Bg5 Qxg5 3.Qc1 Qxc1#)

Answer: knight or rook

Neither a bishop nor a queen can take all 3 major pieces in just 5 moves. It takes at least 6 moves for a bishop or queen to do it. Because of the squares the queen or bishop controls at the beginning, White cannot hang his major pieces on those squares quick enough.
Examples of how a knight or rook can do it are:
(1.e4 Nf6 2.Qg4 Nxg4 3.a4 Nxf2 4.Ra3 Nxh1 5.Rg3 Nxg3)
(1.e4 h5 2.Qxh5 Rxh5 3.a4 Rxh2 4.Ra3 Rxh1 5.Rh3 Rxh3)

Answer: 47

The White king needs to be somewhere where it can avoid the most queens. Let's just say the White king is on h1 even though it can be in any corner. There are 21 squares a queen move away from h1. Including the White king's square, there are 22 squares a queen cannot be. 64 minus 22 is 42, so you can place 42 queens on the board where none of them attack a specific corner. Most people would answer 42, but you can actually place 5 more queens on the board. If you put the Black king on f1, h3, or f3, then five new squares can now have queens since the Black king is blocking them from checking the White king.

Answer: rook and bishop

Consider the mated king to be on a1 in these scenarios.
Ka1 Ra2 Nc3 is mate with rook and knight.
Ka1 Bc3 Bb3 Bd3 is mate with three bishops.
Ka1 Nc3 Nb3 Nd3 is mate with three knights.
It's physically impossible to mate with just a rook and bishop, even if the king is trying to be mated.

Answer: 50

You can place 49 rooks in a 7x7 square with corners (a1, a7, g1, and g7). The square h8 will not be threatened. You can then place 1 more rook on h8.
Or you can just consider the fact that rooks always have 14 move options on an empty board, and just subtract 14 from 64 squares.

Answer: 61

If the White king is in the corner, then there are only 2 squares a knight move away from it. One of the squares should be empty and the other square contains the Black king. The remaining 61 squares can have knights.

Answer: c2

It takes a knight at least 4 moves to get from e4 to c2. (e4-f6-d5-e3-c2)

It takes a knight only 1 move to get to c5 from e4, and 3 moves to get to e3 (e4-f6-d5-e3) or e7 (e4-d6-f5-e7).

Answer: 1

The bishop has 7 move options when it's in a corner. The rook always has 14 move options no matter what. The king can have 8, 5, or 3 depending on where it is. The pawn will always have less than 7 move options, while the queen will always have more than 7. The knight can have 8, 6, 4, 3 or 2, but never 7.