3 bishops, 3 knights, 4 pawns
Unless enemy pieces help by blocking squares. Then the answer is 1 for everything but pawns.
How many pieces of same type needed to Checkmate!?
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Apr 1, 2016
0
#4
0110001101101000 wrote:
Cool thanks :-) , wonder how did u conclude 3 is enough without king. is there any proof or only trial and error.
3 bishops, 3 knights, 4 pawns
Unless enemy pieces help by blocking squares. Then the answer is 1 for everything but pawns.
Apr 1, 2016
0
#5
A little of both. I put a king in the corner and reasoned I need to control a minimum of 4 squares (the 3 around the king and the square of the king itself). At most a bishop or knight can only control 2. So your first bishop or knight can quickly be verified as an optimal placement.
After that you can quickly arrive at the answer by trying to create a mate with only 1 or 2 more pieces.
Hi All,
I was wondering how many pieces of same type (without assistance from our King) would it take to force a checkmate on a lone opponent king all by themselves.
For eg. One Queen cannot mate alone while two of them can. Similarly two rooks alone can checkmate.
Extending this, how many would we need for Bishops and Knights to force checkmate?
Can 3 Bishops (1 W, 2 B) or 3 Knights deliver checkmate or do we need more?.
Would be great if you could share your thoughts please.