Futility Closet

“The Mutilated Chessboard”: Solution

Posted in Puzzles by Greg Ross on July 18th, 2007

Solution to The Mutilated Chessboard:

No, it can’t be done.

Each domino covers two squares, a light one and a dark one. Therefore you can tile a board perfectly only if it has an equal number of light and dark squares.

The original board met this requirement, but you’ve removed two squares of the same color (diagonal corners). So the task is impossible.