The trainees in the camp in Chens Sur Leman were (clockwise) GM P. Iniyan, GM R. Praggnanandhaa, GM D. Gukesh, IM Leon Mendonca, IM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Prithu Gupta, all in their very early teens. The session is described by Sagar Shah here.
2025 Christmas Puzzle 14
Most of the puzzles I gave the super talents did not involve chess, but a couple did. Here is the first. I had a chessboard and a box of domino pieces, each of which could cover two squares of the board. I asked the boys to try to cover the entire board with dominoes. They looked puzzled: isn't that absurdly simple? One even started placing the domino pieces on the board – on a1b1, c1d1, e1f1, etc. "I need 32 pieces to complete the task," he said.
Okay, so now I placed two kings on the board, one on a1 and one on h8. "Can you now cover the board with 31 dominos?" I asked. And some of the kids actually started working on the task. After some minutes, their faces lit up, and I was given the correct answer to the problem. Can you, dear reader, figure it out?
Now that is a pretty famous puzzle, one you might know. In Chens Sur Leman I gave the boys another similar problem which you probably don't.
2025 Christmas Puzzle 15
On an empty chessboard there is a rook on a1. It can only move one square at a time. Can it move onto every square on the board just once and end on the squares 1) a8 and on 2) h8?
Yes, that's babies Pragg and Gukesh getting this problem from me. They worked it out.
2025 Christmas Puzzle 16
My problem chess mentor Werner Keym gave me the following problem (original):
What is the greatest number of different mates in one move that can be delivered in a position with only the two kings and two white queens on the board?
Please do not post any solutions in our feedback section below. Let other readers enjoy them. Please submit your solution feedback here. We will reveal the solutions to all Christmas Puzzle in the first week of January 2026.
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