Here is a little game of solitaire that is quite easy, but not so easy
as to be uninteresting. You can either rule out the squares on a sheet
of cardboard or paper, or you can use a portion of your chessboard. I
have shown numbered counters in the illustration so as to make the
solution easy and intelligible to all, but chess pawns or draughts will
serve just as well in practice.
[Illustration]
The puzzle is to remove all the counters except one, and this one that
is left must be No. 1. You remove a counter by jumping over another
counter to the next space beyond, if that square is vacant, but you
cannot make a leap in a diagonal direction. The following moves will
make the play quite clear: 1-9, 2-10, 1-2, and so on. Here 1 jumps over
9, and you remove 9 from the board; then 2 jumps over 10, and you remove
10; then 1 jumps over 2, and you remove 2. Every move is thus a capture,
until the last capture of all is made by No. 1.