Don't Look Down

Okay, time for the new puzzler. This is an automotive puzzler. Here we go.

A long time ago, there was a Grand Prix race car driver. Let's call him Neal. And he had been facing the same nightmare, race after race.

His crew would work night and day fine tuning his sleek black GT race car, but no amount of mechanical skill or driving courage could make the nightmare go away. In every race, he would find himself inches behind his arch nemesis, a race car driver named Crusty, of course.

Crusty would always beat him, in every race. He was unable to slip by him on the track.

Then one day during a race, he was surprised to find he was neck and neck with his rival. Neal was so happy to see he was finally pulling ahead. Then, Crusty was in his rear view mirror. He had pulled ahead.

At that moment, when he was finally beating his rival, some instinct told him to look down. So he looks down and says, "Oh, no!"

He realized there was an immediate need for a pit stop.

What did he see?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Last Move

Puzzler time.

This one is not automotive in nature. This is a chess puzzler. Gotta throw in some variety now and again.

Okay, here we go.

So, you have a chess board. Imagine it is in front of you.

In the bottom left-hand corner, closest to your left side, there is a white rook.

Two squares to the right of the rook, place a white bishop.

Then two squares to the right of the bishop, place the white king.

Okay, now go back to the rook in the left corner, the first piece. Go two squares up from that and place the black king.

Okay, so to recap, you have a white rook in the left corner nearest you, then two squares to the right, you have the white bishop, and then two squares to the right, the white king, and then two squares up from the rook, you have the black king.

So, obviously, the black king is in some trouble, if the pieces are placed like this.

So, the last player to move is white.

And the puzzler question is, what was his move?

If you look at the board this way, the black king is in check by the rook and by the bishop. So the black king is in check from two different pieces, so how did that happen? What was the last move made by the player of the white pieces?