The Chess Club

Corvin Chess Club · Saturday evening · the last round of the championship · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

The last round of the Corvin Chess Club championship, Saturday evening. At nine the chief arbiter stopped the clocks for the prize-giving announcement – and in the Library, where the top board was being played, Vladimir, the reigning champion, was found dead beside his chessboard, the position still on the board. Sixteen people were in the club: eight players in four unfinished games, two officials, two members of the café staff and four spectators. Nobody saw who sat across from the champion. Read every statement, work out which four boards were in play, find everyone’s square on the plan and unmask the murderer – the opponent who was alone with Vladimir in the Library.

Rules

Four games: eight chessboards stand in the club, and exactly four games were in progress. Beside a board in play there were exactly two people – the two opponents; beside every other board there was nobody. Every player was beside a chessboard; the officials, the café staff and the spectators were never beside one.
Across the board: since every row and column holds one person, the two opponents at a board always take its row and its column – one of them is beside the board in its row, the other in its column. So two boards in the same row or column cannot both be in play. In a statement, “my opponent” is the other person beside the same board.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (chessboards, tables, bookcases, the counter, the screens…) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the stool, the benches, the armchairs and the sofa can. A corner of an area is a square of that area that borders the outside (another area or the edge of the board) on one horizontal and one vertical side.
“Right beside an area where nobody was” = on a square that touches an empty area directly – left, right, above or below, across the wall.
Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a woman” = the person in the row directly above is a woman, in any column; “north of Adrian” = in a row further up, in any column.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Adrian (junior champion): He was in the Tournament Hall.
Bernadette (club secretary): There was no bench in her area.
Casimir (the veteran): A chessboard was somewhere in his row. His opponent was a man.
Denise (correspondence champion): She was alone with a man.
Emmett (blitz specialist): There was a man in his area.
Francesca (the challenger): There was an official in her area. She was right beside an area where nobody was.
Gerald (the club’s oldest member): He was south of Bernadette. He was not beside a chair.
Hermione (chief arbiter): She was not alone in her area.
Irving (tournament director): A bookcase was somewhere in his area. He and Kevin were on the same diagonal.
Joanna (barista): She was in the Café.
Kevin (waiter): He was sitting in a chair.
Lena (Adrian’s mother): She was in a corner of her area. A chair was somewhere in her row.
Miriam (chess columnist): She was beside the fountain.
Nicholas (club treasurer): A painting was somewhere in his column.
Ophelia (chess student): She was sitting on a seat (an armchair, a bench, a chair, a sofa or the stool). Exactly one row north of her was a woman.
Vladimir (the reigning champion): The victim. He was found in the Library, beside the chessboard – alone with the murderer.

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