W4: Anne Hoy and Chinese Chess

One thing I've learned in university is that you have to find out how you learn best, and then do it. Unfortunately, I'm still lacking in the latter, but I would like to think that I (mostly) know how I learn best.

So, still confused after reading the A1 instructions a second time, I gave up on my language skills and decided to work-out my spatial ones.

I pulled out my ultimate weapon: a set of Chinese checkers.

Like its European counterpart, the pieces in Chinese checkers have ranks. But the most important feature for my purposes was that they are small, cylindrical blocks that stack well. My very own cheese rounds with different "sizes".

Playing Ann Hoy's game with four "stools" (other chess pieces flipped over), my best has been 7 cheeses in 25 moves.

Now the written instructions make much more, but not complete, sense. It feels nice to do something hands-on, especially when much of lecture is paying attention the professor (and usually, not even writing down very much because most of the content is examples of code).

To anybody else that's stuck: you just have to try something! Good luck to all of us for A1!