Chessboard (Courtesy: pixabay.com) Once upon a time, there lived a brilliant sage in a faraway country. One day, inspired by a vision, the sage developed the game of chess. Brimming with euphoria, he went to the king to explain the game. After listening to the sage, the king was intrigued. “I will give you anything you want,” the King declared excitedly, “Chess is marvelous!” The sage, however, shook his head and told the king that he didn’t need anything. The King was not happy; he insisted that the sage asks for a reward. The sage gave up and told the king that he would be happy with some grains of rice distributed in a specific way: one grain of rice on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the forth, and so on for all the 64 squares on the chessboard. The number of grains, in other words, would double on the adjacent square. The king, baffled by this strange request, summoned his treasury to calculate the number of grains the sage would get. After som...