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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.27

Completing the Complexity Classification of 2-Solo Chess: Knights and Kings Are Hard

Authors: Kolja Kühn and Wendy Yi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 366, 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)

Abstract

We extend the study of the 2-Solo Chess problem which was first introduced by Aravind, Misra, and Mittal in 2022. 2-Solo Chess is a single-player variant of chess in which the player must clear the board via captures such that only one piece remains, with each piece capturing at most twice. It is known that the problem is solvable in polynomial time for instances containing only pawns, while it becomes NP-complete for instances restricted to rooks, bishops, or queens. In this work, we complete the complexity classification by proving that 2-Solo Chess is NP-complete if the instance contains only knights or only kings.

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Kolja Kühn and Wendy Yi. Completing the Complexity Classification of 2-Solo Chess: Knights and Kings Are Hard. In 13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 366, pp. 27:1-27:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{kuhn_et_al:LIPIcs.FUN.2026.27,
  author =	{K\"{u}hn, Kolja and Yi, Wendy},
  title =	{{Completing the Complexity Classification of 2-Solo Chess: Knights and Kings Are Hard}},
  booktitle =	{13th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2026)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-417-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{366},
  editor =	{Iacono, John},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-257464},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2026.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Solo chess, puzzle games, board games, NP-completeness}
}

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Completing the Complexity Classification of 2-Solo Chess: Knights and Kings Are Hard

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