Unbeatable Pawns Puzzle

Does anyone know why a player who has six pawns all in a vertical line
can never be beaten?

Rhymester

Is this a "known" riddle? Consider the "a" column, and suppose the
farthest a pawn must travel is 5 columns, with the remaining 4,3,2,
and 1 column. To traverse that distance requires 15 captures. After
which, there is no way for a king to stop the momentum, save for the
king at one end of the vertical line (stalemate, possibly.) The method
to achieve that state would be tough, but since 15 captures would only
leave the opponent's king, that is my answer.

That's right... 15 captures needed to reach that position so player
could never be beaten by the just the remaining enemy King.

You can get six pawns in the d column with only nine captures.
It is easy to arrange for four pawn captures and five piece captures.

I agree. I didn't count that type of move.

I WENT TO THE LAST PAGE I COULD UTTERLY FIND - AND FOUND THE OLDEST POST IN RHP'S 'GENERAL' HISTORY!
yes i know i am a sad sod who has nothing better to do...
but you gotto admit - it's kind of cool seing one of the earliest posts of rhp history in front of you...
for any othere sad people like me, click the yellow triangle next to page select 171 times (to page 172) and be on the last page there 🙂

Originally posted by padfoot
I WENT TO THE LAST PAGE I COULD UTTERLY FIND - AND FOUND THE OLDEST POST IN RHP'S 'GENERAL' HISTORY!
yes i know i am a sad sod who has nothing better to do...
but you gotto admit - it's kind of cool seing one of the earliest posts of rhp history in front of you...
for any othere sad people like me, click the yellow triangle next to page select 171 times (to page 172) and be on the last page there 🙂

Originally posted by Varg
Or you could just alter the number in the location bar:
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/threadlist.php?forumid=1
to jump straight there!

...and Rhymester and Tim Robinson are still going strong 🙂

Originally posted by padfoot
I WENT TO THE LAST PAGE I COULD UTTERLY FIND - AND FOUND THE OLDEST POST IN RHP'S 'GENERAL' HISTORY!
yes i know i am a sad sod who has nothing better to do...
but you gotto admit - it's kind of cool seing one of the earliest posts of rhp history in front of you...
for any othere sad people like me, click the yellow triangle next to page select 171 times (to page 172) and be on the last page there 🙂

Originally posted by Exy
I did something similar in the Clan Forum last week but nobody else got excited about it. 😳

Originally posted by dfm65
i guess because clans were added well after the genesis of RHP, so the history isn't so ancient...

Originally posted by padfoot
yup - this is possibly THE oldest thread on rhp!