Across the Board: The Mathematics of Chessboard Problems

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press April 16, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691130620
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691130620
• Book Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 ounces

From Booklist
Here is a chess book that homes in on the properties of the chessboard itself. College professor Watkins informs readers that the chessboard and chess pieces can be analyzed in terms of graph theory, which has real-world relevance--to the structure of communications networks, for example. And Watkins indeed sets up his tour of chess-qua-graph theory as a collection of problems to be solved, and theorems to be proven, all on the difficulty level one encounters in Scientific American's popular feature "Mathematical Games." When he was a teenager, comments Watkins, that column alerted him to the chessboard's mathematical intricacies, which encompass the number of squares a piece can move to or control, with variations extending to boards of different sizes and shapes. Torus-shaped boards, three-dimensional boards, a shape called the Klein bottle--the simple checkerboard pattern proves to be creatively malleable when Watkins puts his mind to his hobbylike subject. Watkins' invitational tone ensures attention from the finite but enthusiastic audience for mathematical recreation. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Review
This book is extremely well written and is, no doubt, the best exposition of the connection between the chessboard problems and recreational mathematics. The author surveys all the well-known problems about chess and the chessboard The problems are treated in depth from their beginnings through to their status today. -- Mohammed Aassila MAA Review Torus-shaped boards, three-dimensional boards, a shape called the Klein bottle--the simple checkerboard pattern proves to be creatively malleable when Watkins puts his mind to his hobbylike subject. Watkins' invitational tone ensures attention from the finite but enthusiastic audience for mathematical recreation. Booklist Watkins offers an great invitation to serious mathematics. Choice