The Chrysalis OFA Polyurath THE KNIGHT'S TOUR “The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden from us.” - Thomas Huxley -13--14-ane the Knight’s Tour | lwave always been a lover of chess. From a young age the pieces and the board conveyed to me a true sense of majesty. with age I started to understand the game and began playing it rerqularly. When I couldn’t find anyone to play with me I would Inmiow a chess book from the library and try to solve the puzzles that it contained. I am adamant that it was the difficult juizzles within these books that installed in me the true lesson: there are times when swearing is both appropriate and required! A number of chess puzzle books later and I came across a vuizzle known as The Knight’s Tour. Essentially, this is where a night is placed on the empty board and, moving according to (he rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. la do this one draws an 8 x 8 grid and numbers each square. this is what such a grid looks like: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |10/11|12/|13)| 14/15/16 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54/55 | 56 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 As each square is landed on it is marked off (via a scribble) until all of the numbers have been scribbled out. -15-Dh Ct yale CP A Polyersadly For those readers who are not overly tanita with thie qame of chess, the Knight is the piece that resembles. a horse and ds the only piece that does not move in a straight line. It moves cither two squares horizontally and one square vertically, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally. Therefore, the move resembles the letter ‘L’. Well, to a young upstart in the world of chess this sounded like it may take a few days, at the very most, to complete. In point of fact, the solution eluded me for such a long time that, after untold months, I gave up the attempt. I would revisit it from time to time. However, the constant failure slowly garrotted my zealous ambition for the solution. Every time that I met a chess player who had played for any serious amount of time, I would ask him if he knew of The Knight’s Tour. Many times the answer was “yes”, with the player having tried to find the answer for years but to no avail. Seldom did I meet anyone who had successfully completed the feat. Of the successful puzzle-solvers, most had completely given up attempting it a second time. The mere fact that they had completed the puzzle just once seemed to give them complete closure on the subject. I completely empathized with this feeling. Like any good puzzle, it pulls you back until you have ‘beaten’ it, if only once. There came a time when I simply decided that I would do something better with my free time. But, from time to time, I would still grab a pen and pad and draw up a chessboard, always to be disappointed. On the whole I considered myself a beaten man. Sometime later, and completely unrelated, I found myself immersed in a strange new world of Mentalism. One of my preliminary ports of call was a highly recommended title, 13 Steps to Mentalism. Imagine my surprise when, making my way through this tome of knowledge, I saw a heading that intrigued, fascinated and excited me in a single instant. -16-tle Olay What wear the heading? lust three simple but very beautiful weil. THE KNIGHT'S TOUR Ilow, 1 had read a good portion of the book at this point and rvilleed that deception was at the very core of every effect. I lected’ to calm myself down somewhat, just in case it was too quod to be true and that it all was a trick. However, I found that I just couldn’t calm down. My body was teuse and my heart raced in my chest as though it were towering a locomotive. This is what I had been looking for over tle years. A solution was it right here, in my hands. Or was it a Vitede? | took a deep breath and once again unsuccessfully attempted ta calm down a little. In a moment that would have indicated pure insanity to any outside observer I proclaimed, loud and proud, “Screw it!” My eyes moved faster than I ever recall them ever moving as I iead the dry, witty words of Corinda. I soon realised that the “olution was summed up in just more than one page of the hook! llalf of the entry was used to describe what the actual effect was, and why it was so impressive. I had a firm and annoyed «rasp on both of these concepts already. the solution to this astonishing puzzle was, shamefully, rather simple. One must follow a planned route around the board by writing this number sequence down and hiding it from view: 1 60 37 53 23 32 62 49 11 45 20 43 8 47 52 34 21 39 26 33 14 64 58 17 4 29 36 27 24 54 41 2 10 12 30 44 7 48 51 19 25 6 13 61 22 63 57 9 35 16 28 55 5 46 42 3 50 31 38 40 15 56 59 18 -17-tha Claysde. OFA Polyrsatls The wonderful thing about this sequence f thal tenable the performer to start at any given point. This is what 1 liter came to discover is known as a closed tour. All that this means is one ends up finishing on a square that would allow one to move back to the square of origin. Whilst I read about the sequence to the Tour I became concerned that the performer may have to start on a certain number each time. The closed tour, in point of fact, allows the performer to begin on any square. This gives the perfect illusion that memorising a path is impossible unless one can remember a sequence for each starting square. After a moment of pure elation at discovering that a solution existed, I decided to put it into practice. I grabbed a sticky label and a pen and jotted down this miraculous sequence. Full of joy I called up a friend of mine to whom I had introduced the Tour many years ago. I played it cool and made it seem as though I just wanted to meet up, not mentioning The Tour. A few hours later I was with my friend, the victim of my first ever mental feat. If truth be told, I could think of no other man who deserved to see this first. Ever since I had introduced the puzzle to him, we had struggled together at a solution to free us from its relentless grasp. Sedated only with vast amounts of alcohol, we had shared many moments of torment at its hands. This was the man who deserved to see what would soon be my very spectacular party piece. I say ‘party piece’ as I was not performing professionally at this time. As I sat down with him I opened up my bag, removing my diary, a notepad and a pencil. The sticker containing the sequence was stuck to the outer spine of my diary, in full view of my eyes, yet completely hidden from those of my friend. Opening up my notepad I drew a rudimentary 8 x 8 grid. As I did so my friend asked, “The Tour?” -18-The Cheysalis Of A Polymath Flid’t wieh ta seem: too eager, lest | betrayed the fact that 1 knew the solution, so | let him go first. After a valiant but all loo familiar fail, my friend came to the usual dead end. Now it was my turn! t jested, “As you look at the grid, what number looks tuvourable, oh wise one?” | had devised this subtle way of ‘tarting at any number on the way to the meeting. A square wits Chosen and, with a modicum of acting, I was away. ! was doing it, giving out the numbers that would see me «merge victorious. A+ with all people who have attempted The Tour, one works though a few steps mentally before making them. I was about flve moves away from completion when my friend's mouth opened and he let out a gasp. “PAUL! PAUL! You're going to do it, Paul!" Ihe excitement in his face was legendary. As if he was setting his eyes upon a mythical creature, his fervour only escalated as the puzzle came to its successful conclusion. Jumping to his feet he spun himself around the table and grappled me into a bear hug. As he embraced me he started jumping up and down, celebrating. Anyone watching would have thought that I had won the lottery. All too suddenly I became aware of the fact that my hidden crib was now in full view. If my friend were to simply glimpse downwards he would discover the secret to this false miracle. I positioned myself to block the view of the book from his eyes, should he look in that direction. I then reached behind myself furtively, opening up the diary at a random page and swiftly burying my crib into the face of the table. My friend’s reaction was far greater than I had ever expected. I had planned to tell him about the sequence but to do so now, after his outburst, would have only served to make a fool of -19-Vite Cdn yecates, Ct A Baboon ate him. It would be over a year before bo would ode with hind what actually happened that day. In the moment, however, I feigned excitement while secretly feeling ashamed of myself. I was ashamed of lying to my friend and ashamed at not persevering with the puzzle until I solved it myself. After leaving my friend I mulled over the event in my mind and, despite the emotional low that I was feeling, one single glimmer of light shone through the darkness. That light, for me, was the cathartic reaction of my friend. I was too wrapped up to have noticed the reaction this feat had received. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that the way my friend reacted would have been the same way that I would have reacted if the tables had been turned. Corinda mentions that the reaction is incredible, but that word had transferred \ittle meaning to me when I had read it in the book. In the same way, it may mean little to you. I now fully understood why he had chosen that word. It embodies the reaction of my friend perfectly and I was sure that it would have the exact same reaction with others. With this idea in my mind, I planned over the next couple of months to see every chess player I knew. After I was finished I had seen around seventeen people and performed The Tour, apparently impromptu, with each person. My suspicions were correct, it was an utterly incredible feat of intelligence. The reactions were, in modern parlance, ‘through the roof’. In my mind there was one certainty. This was entertaining and could, therefore, be sold as a service for people to buy. However, I was not going to sell something that I had not refined, and I really needed to practice my acting. With this in mind I decided to perform The Tour at a friend’s upcoming party. It was only after the performance at the party that two very important aspects of The Tour were revealed to me. One of -20-Wy Cte cate Ce beet we whteh Conida had already hinted at, while the other he had neglected to mentiont tindly, chess puzzles are only interesting to people who actually have an understanding of chess, or can comprehend wht is happening. Corinda had mentioned this but I had ioiqotten all about it in my excitement. ‘wcondly, using a crib to perform this feat was an amateur mistake of the highest order. The very pinnacle of a school boy error —_ -21-mH -22-