Squares – Answer: MONTANO – By Kenny Young

 

This board represents the final position of a game of Othello.

 

The first task is to reconstruct the exact sequence of moves that produced this final position. Note that the moves are presented in order (1’s, then 2’s, then 3’s, etc.), except that it doesn’t say which move was by Black and which move was by White. Except for some deep tree searching around move 16, this is reasonably straightforward to execute once you know what to do. Note that in official Othello rules, Black plays first.

 

W30 W	B16 E	W14 H	W15 A	B15 L	B14 I	W26 T	B26 F
W21 R	B31 O	W16 E	B9 M	W13 I	B8 T	W20 E	W18 S
B22 S	B10 H	W6 L	B3 E	W4 C	W12 K	W11 I	B27 A
B18 S	B11 P	B7 E	W1 L	B1 C	B5 A	B20 I	B12 N
W17 Y	W7 N	W3 O	B2 U	W2 B	B6 L	W10 E	W23 D
B13 G	B17 I	W5 N	B4 S	W8 T	W9 O	B23 R	B21 T
W22 C	B33 E	B19 R	W28 N	W25 I	B24 O	B25 L	W29 A
W32 T	B32 O	W19 S	B28 Q	B30 U	W24 E	B29 L	W27 A

 

Next step is to note which squares in the final board match the color that was originally placed on that square. These matches are colored in blue in the board above. These letters spell out “What from the cape can you discern at sea?” which is a quote from Shakespeare’s Othello, spoken by MONTANO.