A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

A man is surviving on an island along with his friend. They have been starving for four days for food. Suddenly, they find a fisherman. The friend goes with the fisherman in order to catch the fish (if they can find any).

The fisherman returns after some time but he is alone and has some salmon that he had prepared. When asked, the fisherman tells him that his best friend fell off the boat and drowned in the water. Starving for so long, he eats the meal while crying for his friend.

After being rescued, he goes to a diner and orders salmon. When he eats his meal, he jumps and commits suicide. Why did he do it?

A farmer and his neighbour once went to Emperor Akbar"s court with a complaint. "Your Majesty, I bought a well from him," said the farmer pointing to his neighbour, "and now he wants me to pay for the water."
"That"s right, your Majesty," said the neighbour. "I sold him the well but not the water!"?
The Emperor asked Birbal to settle the dispute. How did Birbal solve the dispute?

John bought a new car. He has a habit of eating ice cream from a particular ice cream shop while returning home from office. Whenever, he eats strawberry ice cream, he faces no problem. But whenever, he eats chocolate ice cream, the car starts giving problem. At first, he thinks, it is just a co-incidence but when this awkward incident happens for 3-4 times, he reports this problem to the company.

The mechanic of the company checks but finds no problem at all. The next day, when he stops by to eat chocolate ice cream, the car again starts giving problem.

Can you find the possible reason?

A new Engineering building containing 100 offices had just been completed. John was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will John have to paint the number nine (9)?

A swan sits at the center of a perfectly circular lake. At an edge of the lake stands a ravenous monster waiting to devour the swan. The monster can not enter the water, but it will run around the circumference of the lake to try to catch the swan as soon as it reaches the shore. The monster moves at 4 times the speed of the swan, and it will always move in the direction along the shore that brings it closer to the swan the quickest. Both the swan and the the monster can change directions in an instant.
The swan knows that if it can reach the lake's shore without the monster right on top of it, it can instantly escape into the surrounding forest.

How can the swan successfully escape?

I am a three digit number.
My tens digit is five more than my ones digit.
My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit.
What number am I?

Two friends Smith and Andrew were talking about the bravery of their families. Smith told great stories about his courageous grandfather who fought for Britain in "World War I". Andrew told that his grandfather was so brave that in 1919 just after the war he was honoured with a bravery medal with the words "For our Courageous Soldiers In World War I" embedded into it. Smith knows that his friend is lying. How?

Can you count the number of blocks in the picture below?

Can you count the number of matches in the picture below ?