TRAININg: First Quarter Puzzles
Chess
Level 1: Unrated-700 USCF
GM Mariya Muzychuk vs. WIM Iris Mou (FIDE Women’s World Blitz Championship 2024), 0-1
Black to Play and Win!
Level 2: 600-1200 USCF
IM Alina Kashlinskaya vs. WIM Iris Mou (FIDE Women’s World Blitz Championship 2024), 0-1
Black to Play and Win!
Level 3: 1200 USCF+
WIM Iris Mou vs. Alisher Podavanov (Spring 2024 IM C Scheveningen), 1-0
White to Play and Win!
Math
Level 1:
How many triangles are in the following image?
(Hint: It’s a bit of a trick question… count carefully!)
Level 2:
Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German mathematician, proved that the sum of 1+2+3+…+n where n is any positive integer can be found with the following formula: [n*(n+1)]/2.
What is the sum of numbers 1+2+3+…+200?
(Hint: Use Gauss’s formula! For example: the sum of 1+2+3+…+10 = [10*(10+1)]/2 = 55).
Level 3:
Audrey flips a coin five times (the result is either heads or tails with equal probability of either). What is the probability she will flip at least four heads?
(Hint 1: Search up a probability tree.)
(Hint 2: How many heads does she need to flip out of five to get at least four? Search up casework.)
SuBMit your answers!
There's no pressure or stakes at all here - we hope that these puzzles are just a fun monthly tradition for practice! In the future, we hope to branch out to embedding interactive puzzles on this site.
As you may know, submissions to these puzzles are counted as an entry for a small raffle prize that we will distribute at our weekly workshops. Just by submitting an answer, you can earn up to two entries - one per discipline (chess/math). For each correct solution, we’ll give you another entry, for a maximum of four entries per person.
We encourage you to work on these puzzles with friends, siblings, etc. Looking forward to your answers!