Eight Queens Aboard

“I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be a darling at it”, said Dorothy Parker.

I think it more or less applies to me too, I don’t know much about it now but I am sure one day………

One of many (so many) things I am going to do after I get the moolah is to own a Yatch , some thing like The Rising Sun, owned by Lawrence J. Ellison Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Oracle Corporation and go on a cruise with my queens(Err…queen).

Until then, let us get the queens on a smaller board…the Chess Board. :D

Solving puzzles I think is one of most efficient ways to spend time. One of greatest puzzle is the “Eight Queens on a Board Puzzle”.

The Aim is to place the eight queens on the chessboard such that none of them intercepts other’s path in any way. Now for those of you do not play chess, queen is the strongest piece in chess and the only piece that can move diagonally, horizontally and vertically as well.

Something like this….



You can find all the 12 unique solutions here.

Now I spent around 2 hours yesterday to find an algorithm for this.

The best way to solve the problem is to place the queens moving in a Knight’s way (2 and 1/2 steps) or L shaped ways.

Now I am still working on the algorithm to solve it. There are many algorithms on net, which solve the problem-using math (Permutations) and backtracking. I want develop a program that works on pattern of movement as I mentioned above.

So try the problem, and tell me if you reach any breakthroughs.




Now ,today when I was watching the news/debate on the recent terrorist attack on ayodhya, my mother asked me to change the channel, she felt that there is no point wasting time on politicians who are never going to change. I do not blame her at all, after the whole days’ work, who has time and energy to spend on listening to hypocritical demagogues.

This more or less is the story of many in our country; most of us are so engrossed in our problems that we do not actively follow politics. I strongly believe that our apathy towards politics is major factor behind it's sorry state. However, I think the youth of our country, which is more energetic, should criticize and voice opinions on core Indian issues. Now that we have Blogs as efficient medium to express our views, we can make the politicians more accountable.

I strongly feel that spreading awareness matters, VHP, RSS and Shiv Sena have not survived for anything; they have been able to do so because there is support for them.

So if any of you think I am right, please tell me, I am thinking of a group blog that deals with core Indian issues.

By now you must have read about the Terrorist attack on Ayodhya and VHP‘s plan to organize a week long country wide protest against it.

I do not understand the need of a countrywide protest and instead of showing solidarity BJP is politicizing the issue by asking for Home minister’s resignation.

Ask them who resigned when there was an attack on Indian parliament and in any case this attack was successfully stopped and all terrorists were killed.

A nation wide protest would not just cause more economic problems but might reignite communal tensions.

P.S( This is seriously Post script no make shift..:D): If you are an Indian Blogger living anywhere in the world, you can get yourself listed at the Indian Bloggers Index.