(This is Borland C++Builder version)

The eight queens puzzle is the problem of placing eight chess queens on an 8×8 chessboard so was originally proposed in 1848 by the chess player Max Bezzel,

and over the years, many mathematicians, including Gauss, have worked on this puzzle and its generalized n-queens problem. The first solutions were provided by Franz Nauck in 1850.

Nauck also extended the puzzle to n-queens problem (on an n×n board—a chessboard of arbitrary size). In 1874, S. Günther proposed a method of finding solutions by using determinants, and J.W.L. Glaisher refined this approach.

Edsger Dijkstra used this problem in 1972 to illustrate the power of what he called structured programming. He published a highly detailed descr iption of the development of a depth-first backtracking algorithm.