Editing Eight queens puzzle (section)

==History==
[[Chess composer]] [[Max Bezzel]] published the eight queens puzzle in 1848. [[Franz Nauck]] published the first solutions in 1850.<ref name="rouse_ball_1960">[[W. W. Rouse Ball]] (1960) "The Eight Queens Problem", in ''Mathematical Recreations and Essays'', Macmillan, New York, pp. 165–171.</ref> Nauck also extended the puzzle to the ''n'' queens problem, with ''n'' queens on a chessboard of ''n''×''n'' squares.

Since then, many [[mathematician]]s, including [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]], have worked on both the eight queens puzzle and its generalized ''n''-queens version. In 1874, [[Siegmund Günther|S. Günther]] proposed a method using [[determinant]]s to find solutions.<ref name="rouse_ball_1960"/> [[James Whitbread Lee Glaisher|J.W.L. Glaisher]] refined Gunther's approach.

In 1972, [[Edsger Dijkstra]] used this problem to illustrate the power of what he called [[structured programming]]. He published a highly detailed description of a [[Depth-first search|depth-first]] [[Backtracking|backtracking algorithm]].<ref>[[Ole-Johan Dahl|O.-J. Dahl]], [[E. W. Dijkstra]], [[C. A. R. Hoare]] ''Structured Programming'', Academic Press, London, 1972 {{ISBN|0-12-200550-3}}, pp.&nbsp;72–82.</ref>