Rook's Tour

"Maneuver a rook about an otherwise unoccupied chess board in such a way that it lands on every square once and only once.   The rook may not pass through a previously occupied square."  -- from the Chess Tours PDF that you'll find here.

Here's an easy Rook's Tour puzzle (fill in the remaining squares):

And here's one that's not easy:

I'll post solutions in a few days.

NOW THIS IS A PUZZLE BY ME:

WHITE TO PLAY AND STALEMATE

Qb3+!!

Obvious stalemates are a dime a dozen in these forums. Rook's Tours, on the other hand... yeah, just throwing that out there.

Anyway, remember when I solved those Bishop's Tour puzzles from awhile ago?  Well, as you might have expected, I came up with a solution for both Rook's Tour puzzles as well ('cause I'm just that hardcore  ).

For the "easy" one:  c6, h6, d6, d1, d5, a5, c5, b5, b4, d4, c4, c1, c3, b3, b1, a1, a4, a3, a2, g2, f2, b2, c2, d2, e2, e1, f1, g1, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, f5, f8, b8, a8, a7, a6, b6, b7, c7, c8, e8, d8, d7, e7, e6, f6, f7, h7, h8, g8, g7, g6, g5, g3, f3, d3, e3, e5, e4, g4, f4   :P

And for the "not-so-easy" one:  b8, a8, a1, a2, c2, c4, c8, c5, a5, a6, a7, h7, h8, e8, f8, f4, g4, g8, g7, b7, f7, e7, c7, c6, b6, b5, b2, b1, h1, g1, g3, f3, f1, c1, e1, d1, d2, d8, d7, d6, h6, h4, h3, h2, g2, f2, e2, e3, a3, a4, b4, b3, c3, d3, d4, d5, h5, g5, g6, e6, f6, f5, e5, e4  

Your name is quite appropriate.

cobra91,

Yes, those work.  Your solutions are quite different from mine.  There are, as you know, some forced moves, and our solutions agree on those.  Thanks.

this is hard

"this is hard"  Glad to read that!  Some suggestions for solving:

Try to keep far away from the assigned squares until it's time to enter them.

Every square except #64 has to have both an entry square and an exit one (obvious, I know).  As soon as you see a dead end, locate the error and try something else.

Try solving it backwards!  That's how I solved the harder one.  For the easy one, I solved #58 through #64 first, then I did #1 through #7, then I let the R go where it wanted to for the rest.

Here are diagrams of my solutions and cobra91's...

Easy, Cobra91:

Easy, Frezco:

Not easy, Cobra91:

Not easy, Frezco:

I am sure this is how Marzolo sent his encrypted move suggestions

im sorry but did rook tour's puzzle help us to improve our chess skill?

this is the first time i see this puzzle..

tell me what i have to know.. tq..

You just hijacked somebody else's thread with your puzzle.

You can make your own thread for that.

@ sen_kwan:

"im sorry but did rook tour's puzzle help us to improve our chess skill?"  You should expect your rating to improve by 4.2%.  (I'm joking.)  Seriously, it may increase a player's confidence and problem solving ability a bit.  Every move in chess can be viewed as a puzzle (what should I do now?).  Chess related puzzles can't hurt.

"this is the first time i see this puzzle.."  As far as I can tell, I'm the inventor of this version, with the requirement that the rook can't pass through previously occupied squares (this works for the bishop and queen as well).  The related knight's tour has been around for ages.

"tell me what i have to know.. tq.."  As far as the rook's tour goes, you don't really need to know about it.  If you find it interesting, that's good.  If you'd prefer not to toy with it, that's OK.