chess answer
so to answer yesterday's question: which pieces cannot take which opposing pieces in a legally played game of chess? stop reading if you haven't thought about it yet. ready? okay. good. on we go. there are three parts to the answer. first, the bishop cannot capture the bishop that started on the other color. duh! second, no piece can capture the king. the game ends when the king is in checkmate. ie right before the king is actually captured. yeah yeah. technicality. call the foul. third, the pawns on the left cannot capture the pawns on the right. when they shift enough files by capturing pieces to be in adjacent files, they have passed the target pawns. there are six such combinations. the rook pawn cannot capture the opposite side rook pawn nor knight pawn. the knight pawn cannot capture the opposite side rook pawn.