How many Wazirs can be placed on an N×N Chessboard?
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Try it online!

By the way, here is a proof that the ⌈n²/2⌉ formula is correct.


We can always place at least ⌈n²/2⌉ wazirs: just lay them out in a checkerboard pattern! Assuming the top-left tile is white, there are ⌈n²/2⌉ white tiles and ⌊n²/2⌋ black tiles on the n × n board. And if we place wazirs on the white tiles, no two of them are attacking each other, as every wazir only “sees” black tiles.

Here’s how we place 13 wazirs on a 5 × 5 board (each W is a wazir).

　　　　　　　　　　
We can’t do any better: let’s arbitrarily tile the checkerboard with 2 × 1 domino pieces, optionally using a 1 × 1 piece for the final corner of an odd-length chessboard, like so:

　　　　　　　　　　

We need ⌈n²/2⌉ dominoes to cover the chessboard. Clearly, putting two wazirs on one domino makes it so that they can attack one another! So each domino can only contain at most one wazir, meaning we can’t possibly place more than ⌈n²/2⌉ wazirs on the board.