All thinkers

Max Black: 2 puzzles worth knowing

2 puzzles from Max Black, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Cover a chessboard missing two corners with dominoes — it can't be done

  Take a standard 8x8 chessboard and cut off two diagonally opposite corner squares, leaving 62 squares. You have 31 dominoes, each covering exactly two adjacent squares. Can you til…

  — Max Black, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method

• Remove two opposite corners from a chessboard. Can dominoes still cover it?

  Take a standard 8x8 chessboard and cut off two opposite corner squares, leaving 62 squares. You have 31 dominoes, each covering exactly two adjacent squares. Can you tile the whole…

  — Max Black, Critical Thinking

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