Sandy Wood
Brain Game: When I’m 64
by Sandy Wood - February 11, 2009 - 7:30 AM

THE SOLUTION:

9 or 10.

The numbers represent the classic scoring system in the game of chess. Pawns are worth 1 point, Bishops and Knights (always marked as N instead of K to avoid confusion with the King) are worth 3 points each, and Rooks are worth 5 points. The Queen, the most valuable piece, is worth 9 points when discounting pawns, or 10 points when including them.

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Comments (9)

  1. The Queen is work 9 points, not 10.
    See Wikipedia article on Chess

    posted by aucobalt on 2-11-2009 at 7:38 am

  2. Aucobalt, I adjusted the answer to include both numbers, based on whether or not pawns are part of the equation.

    I was taught that every piece is worth something, so I was made to value the Queen at 10 points (although I admittedly haven’t played chess regularly in many years).

    posted by Sandy Wood on 2-11-2009 at 8:42 am

  3. I completely missed this. The most embarrassing thing is that I used to play tournament chess.

    posted by Kyle on 2-11-2009 at 8:50 am

  4. Kyle – You’re not the only one… And I missed the 64 reference completely.

    posted by Chicago ExPat on 2-11-2009 at 11:29 am

  5. Wow, good thing I did not spend too much time on this, I would never have gotten it.

    posted by jso on 2-11-2009 at 1:33 pm

  6. Shouldn’t it be K, not N for the good old Knight?

    posted by Steve on 2-11-2009 at 8:27 pm

  7. Damn, I just used the A=1, B=3, C=5, D=1, E=3, F=5, and so on. Chess from that!

    posted by Mark on 2-11-2009 at 11:29 pm

  8. Steve – N is used instead of K for knights because K is used for kings.

    posted by Antony on 2-15-2009 at 6:44 pm

  9. I did what Mark had done (A=1, B=1, C=5, D=3…) and it happened to work for the other letters (B,N=3; R=5; P=1), so I guessed that Q was 3. I’ve never really played chess though…

    posted by Madcal on 2-9-2010 at 9:41 pm

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