# Lead the way to this Literary Knight to its final “DESTINATION”

As this Literary Knight (only chess move allowed) hops along, picks up a letter each time to make it to final

$$DESTINATION$$

Starting from a cell containing right D, ride the Knight picking up each successive letter on each hop to complete full journey.

You can get lost if you don’t take the right path.

Document the journey in chess notation

For example...A1, C2.......so on

In text form:

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A  D S I O E S O D
B  E A N T I T N E
C  T E O D O S I N
D  I D N I T T D S
E  S S D S D N S A
F  E E I N E T E E
G  N T E E A I N E
H  D O N S I D I O

• Can the knight be placed at the same place more than 1 time ? – Ak19 Jun 14 '19 at 17:04
• As Knight journeys along, successive letters have to correspond to the exact order of letters in “DESTINATION”...otherwise it is on the wrong path..has to try another path. – Uvc Jun 14 '19 at 17:07
• Why "literary"? – Rand al'Thor Jun 15 '19 at 11:33
• I just wanted to bring out that it is more alphabets than Digits..Prime Knight is coming in the next one which will be bit more harder – Uvc Jun 15 '19 at 11:40

This is the answer, here you go :)

Method:

Start from left corner D. Try every path possible till I reach a dead end. If all possibilities fail, go to next D. Saw some other users trying to backtrack and finding pairs and relations. That was an effective search method, but perhaps finding the relations took more time than an exhaustive search in this small case?

• Great..how was it done – Uvc Jun 14 '19 at 17:10
• @Uvc added explanation. btw, i recommend you awarding the check later so as to grab more puzzlers' attention to your hard work :) – Omega Krypton Jun 14 '19 at 17:11
• Sure....I will wait till at least tomorrow . – Uvc Jun 14 '19 at 17:12
• my method was rot13(gb tb onpxjneqf. gurer jrer zhpu srjre snyfr genvyf gung jnl). but on the other hand, I still wasn't fast enough! – SteveV Jun 14 '19 at 17:13
• @SteveV my method was: always keep the recently active tab open. check every new question. solve them if i can. :) – Omega Krypton Jun 14 '19 at 17:14

I was not the first, but my answer is

 D  E  S  T  I  N  A  T  I  O  N
H1 F2 E4 F6 H5 G7 E8 D6 B5 A7 C8
Reasoning: A7 must be the O used because it is the only O that leads from an I to a N. I then worked backwards from there, along a unique path.

Edit: I later spotted two solutions:

The first E can be either F2 or G3, so the two solutions are

 D  E  S  T  I  N  A  T  I  O  N
H1 F2 E4 F6 H5 G7 E8 D6 B5 A7 C8
H1 G3 E4 F6 H5 G7 E8 D6 B5 A7 C8

P.S. I arrived at my answer independently.

• @Uvc were you expecting two paths to be found? – Weather Vane Jun 14 '19 at 18:05
• No..when I constructed it, I missed that..by blocking with another letter, I could have made it fully unique. – Uvc Jun 14 '19 at 19:10
• @Uvc I find it amazing that the check mark was given to the person who only found one solution, and who did not post the answer in the required chess notation. – Weather Vane Jun 15 '19 at 18:50
• Similar problems I have faced before...after consulting with editors, I have to be fair...if I didn’t ask for full details and didn’t ask for 2nd route, I have to go with one who answered first...regarding chess notation, once line is drawn, all possible move connections, that is good enough..I am as impartial Ivan be sticking to the spirit of the puzzle...I applaud you for finding the alternate route – Uvc Jun 15 '19 at 19:54
• Ah I see, but the check mark can go to the best answer, not necessarily the one who rushes to submit a poor solution first. – Weather Vane Jun 15 '19 at 19:56

The only O connected to both an I and an N is in square A7. Working backwards,

the correct path is

H1, F2, E4, F6, H5, G7, E8, D6, B5, A7, C8.

Image:

• sorry, ninja'd you by 2 mins 45 seconds... good game! :) – Omega Krypton Jun 14 '19 at 17:12