Logic Problem - The Chess Tournament

[Ghost Post]

Four married couples - the Kings, the Queens, the Castles and the Bishops - decided to have a chess tournament. In Round 1 they each played one of the others, with the winners progressing to Round 2. The winners of Round 2 played the final.

From the following clues can you reconstruct their tournament and work out who won?

1. As it turned out, every game was contested by a man and a woman but nobody ever played their own spouse.
2. None of the people have the same first and last initial.
3. In Round 1, Mr Queen defeated Carol.
4. In Round 2, Chuck's wife defeated Denise's husband. Chuck and Denise, however, did not play each other.
5. Ken's wife won more games than Betty's husband. Ken and Betty are not married to each other.
6. Ironically, of the seven games played and looking only at the people's last names, the less powerful chess piece was triumphant in most of the games.
7. The names which have so far not been mentioned are Joanne, Neil and Quincy.

[CrystyB]

Do i mistake some names here?
Mrs's: Carol Denise Betty Joanne
Mr's: Chuck Ken Neil Quincy

>the less powerful chess piece
Order is KBCQ, right?

Ow and i'm NOT thinking about this anymore. I'll just make a computer program.

[robichelli]

The order of chess pieces is Bishop, Castle (rook), Queen, then King.
The king is THE piece the whole point of chess is to kill the other guy's king.

[CrystyB]

But it's "the less powerful", it's ranked like a pawn!

[robichelli]

I think I know the answer: Ken, Mr. Queen

[CrystyB]

ok i'll do it both cases then

[Ghost Post]

Sorry, the order is Bishop, Castle, Queen, King from least powerful to most powerful (at least for the purposes of this puzzle)

[cubestudent]

robi:

i don't think the champion's spouse could have won a game.
since Ken's wife won at least one game (per rule #5), he couldn't have won.

[Ghost Post]

It's not really appropriate to confirm guesses in this type of puzzle because then you would have additional information from that provided.

This is a logic problem. The unique solution can be obtained without any guesswork. When you have the correct answer you won't need to ask if it is right - just check back through the clues and if your answer doesn't contradict any of them it's right.

Unless anybody requests more time I'll post the answer and the working sometime on Monday night GLtime.

[ralphmerridew]

I'd say that the king is the least powerful, but most valuable, piece.

[Ghost Post]

From reply 6

[ralphmerridew]

Four married couples - the Kings, the Queens, the Castles and the Bishops - decided to have a chess tournament. In Round 1 they each played one of the others, with the winners progressing to Round 2. The winners of Round 2 played the final.

From the following clues can you reconstruct their tournament and work out who won?

1. As it turned out, every game was contested by a man and a woman but nobody ever played their own spouse.
2. None of the people have the same first and last initial.
3. In Round 1, Mr Queen defeated Carol.
4. In Round 2, Chuck's wife defeated Denise's husband. Chuck and Denise, however, did not play each other.
5. Ken's wife won more games than Betty's husband. Ken and Betty are not married to each other.
6. Ironically, of the seven games played and looking only at the people's last names, the less powerful chess piece was triumphant in most of the games.
7. The names which have so far not been mentioned are Joanne, Neil and Quincy.

Okay:
From the clues we can put together the structure: (each paren has (woman whowon man)
(Chuck's wife > ??) ( ?? < Denise's Husband) (Ken's Wife > ??) (?? < ??)
(Chuck's wife > Denise's Husband) (Ken's Wife < ??)
(Chuck's wife ? ??)

A) Chuck isn't married to Denise (1 and 4) or Carol (3 and 4). That means he's married to Betty or Joanne.
B) Suppose Denise is married to Ken. Then in the first round, Chuck didn't play his wife (1), he's not Denise's husband, and he didn't play Ken's wife Denise (4), so he must be the man in the fourth set. But then he played Denise in the second round.
C) Ken isn't married to Carol (3 and 5), Betty (5) or Denise (B). He must be married to Joanne.
D) Chuck is married to Betty (A, C)
E) Ken's wife won one game, so Betty's husband Chuck lost his first round (5). He also didn't play his wife (1), so he must be the man in the third parens.
F) Chuck lost his first round, so he isn't Mr. Queen (3), Mr. Castle (2) or Mr. Bishop (2, D); he's Mr. King.
G) Denise wasn't in the first or third game round 1 (Betty & Joanne are), and she didn't play her husband in the second; therefore she was in the fourth game.
H) Carol is in game 2 round 1, so is Mr. Queen (who ist thf Denise's husband.)
I) Mr. Queen isn't Quicny (2), and he isn't Ken or Chuck; he must be Neil.
J) By elim, Quincy is married to Carol. Their surname isn't Castle, Queen, King, so it is Bishop.
K) The man who beat Joanne in round two isn't Neil (who played Betty rd 2), Chuck (who lost round 1) or Ken (her husband). That leaves Quincy Bishop.
K) Betty King won two games against weaker pieces, and Mr. Queen won a game vs Mrs. Bishop. That accounts for three games when the more powerful piece won; that's all of them. (6) That means that the last round (Betty King vs. Quincy Bishop) had to have the weaker piece win.


Quincy Bishop won.


Full table:
(Betty King > Ken Caslte) (Carol Bishop < Neil Queen) (Joanne Castle > Chuck King) (Denise Queen < Quincy Bishop)
(Betty King > Neil Queen) (Joanne Catle < Quincy Bishop)
(Betty King < Quincy Bishop)


[This message has been edited by ralphmerridew (edited 03-31-2002 04:58 PM).]

[Ghost Post]

Nice work!