Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/138 - The Four Draughtsmen

Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $138$

The Four Draughtsmen

Here is a queer new puzzle that I know will interest my readers considerably.

The four draughtsmen are shown exactly as they stood on a square chequered board --

not necessarily eight squares by eight --

but the ink with which the board was drawn was evanescent,

so that all the diagram except the men has disappeared.

How many squares were there in the board and how am I to reconstruct it?

I know that each man stood in the middle of a square,

one on the edge of each side of the board and no man in a corner.

It is a real puzzle, until you hit on the method of solution.

and then to get the correct answer is absurdly easy.

Linguistic Note

Non-British readers may need to know that draughtsmen (pronounced drafts-men) are the playing pieces in a game of checkers, known as draughts in Britain.

Sources

• 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Geometrical Problems: Various Geometrical Puzzles: $138$. -- The Four Draughtsmen
• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Geometrical Problems: Triangle, Square & Other Polygon Puzzles: $265$. The Four Checkers