How many pieces does it take so that a lone enemy king would be in 'check' anywhere he were placed on the board?  Try to get the least number of pieces you can. Rules: you can only use pieces from the starting 16, no promotions.  Pawns have to be in legal positions - none in the 1st or 8th ranks, and if you use both bishops, they have to be on opposite colors.  (The enemy king will not be placed on top of one of your pieces, so he doesn't have to be in checkmate at every place on the board, just check.

Answers in diagram form.

of course, this is only

if pieces don't have to be gaurded

Think I have everything covered? but it's a lot of pieces....

By defenition, if the Black king is in check on every square it will be mate, won't it? Mine falls flat, my c2 rook and g7 pawn could be captured, I could add a pawn on h6, but how to protect the rook?.....

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I had intended the problem to not include mate so every piece wouldn't have to be defended, so your solution is ok.  It is possible to do it in at least one less piece though (the solution I found), and it may be possible to do it with even less.