The Knight's Tour

Chess players find a great deal of interest and amusement in being able to remember the moves necessarily made by the Knight in touring the board, stopping once on each square, and never more than once on any square.

One of our great mathematicians put in a great deal of time working out the proper moves of the Knight in touring the board in this manner. It is a simple matter for the memory student to keep in mind the necessary moves in their proper order. This would be an almost impossible feat without the aid of your number code, as there are sixty-four different moves to be made by the Knight in this tour.

The problem is to call from memory each move of the Knight, beginning either at square No. 1, or in fact any square of the board. Notice that the squares are numbered from 1 to 64, each row of squares always numbering from left to right. The following cut illustrates the method of moves. The Knight always moves two squares in one direction, and one in the other, indicated by a diagonal line drawn from 1 to 11, and from 11 to 5. Thus you will see, beginning with square No. 1 that the move of the Knight will be as follows:

1, 11, 5, 15, 32, 47, 64, 54, 60, 50, 35, 41, 26, 9, 3, 13, 7, 24, 39, 56, 62, 45, 30, 20, 37, 22, 28, 38, 21, 36, 19, 25, 10, 4, 14, 8, 23, 40, 55, 61, 51, 57, 42, 59, 53, 63, 48, 31, 16, 6, 12, 2, 17, 34, 49, 43, 58, 52, 46, 29, 44, 27, 33, 18 and back to 1.

To remember these moves in their proper order is an excellent application of the Hitching Post idea, and use of the Code List representing the moves in consecutive order as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and any word with it that will represent the number of the square to which the Knight is to move. The list following begins with the first square as the starting place:

TieandHutTownandRiot
SnowandDudeDimeandHinge
HomeandOwlDeerandApe
WireandDollTowelandHam
WheelandMaineDitchandTeam
SashandRugDuckandOak
EggandCherryTaffyandSnare
IvyandLawyer DepotandImp
WhipandChessNoseandLatch
ToesandLaceNetandChina
DotandMillNunandReel

Follow on through the sixty-four moves using the code words for the sequence of the move and any words you wish that stand for the number of the squares on the board.

When you have pictured all the objects together, the first object will keep the sequence of the moves clearly in mind, and the second will reveal the number of the square to which the Knight is to move. You can very quickly go over the pictures and give the moves of the Knight. The first move, Tie, begins with Hut or square No. 1. The second move, Snow, is Dude or square 11; the third move, Home, is Owl, or square 5; the fourth move, Wire, is Doll, or square 15; the fifth move, Wheel, is Maine, or square 32. Each move is represented by the picture which you have with the succeeding word of your code list.

As soon as you are familiar with these pictures you can begin with any square designated. If you are asked to begin with square 24 you know that 24 is Snare, which is pictured with Taffy. Taffy is 18, so you begin with the 18th move.