What does an Island and the letter T have in common?

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?

There are five people. One of them shot and killed one of the other five.
We know following clues:
1. Dan ran in the NY City Marathon yesterday with one of the innocent men.
2. Mike consider being a farmer before he moved to the city.
3. Jeff is a top notch computer consultant and wants to install Ben new computer next week.
4. The murderer had his leg amputated last month.
5. Ben met Jack for the first time six months ago.
6. Jack has been in seclusion since the crime.
7. Dan used to drink heavily.
8. Ben and Jeff built their last computers together.
9. The murderer is Jack's brother. They grew up together in Seattle.

Consider yourself to be a famous detective "Sherlock Homles", Can you find the killer?

An equation has been laid down using a few matchsticks. However, as you can see, the equation is not correct. Can you correct the equation if you are allowed to add or remove 5 matchsticks?

What jumps when it walks and sits when it stands?

Place the numbers from 1 to 9 in the circles in a manner that each side of the triangle sums up to 17.

You were playing ping pong with your friend. Suddenly the ball fell into a narrow metal pipe that was imbedded in the concrete surface of the floor one foot deep. Now you don't have any other ball and you desperately want to take it out and play. You and your friend have your shoelaces, your tennis paddle and a plastic water bottle. However, the bottle cannot fit into the pipe.

How will you take the ball out?

This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary, you'd think nothing was wrong with it. Actually, nothing IS wrong with it. But it is not as ordinary as you might think. If you think about it for a bit, you will find out why it is truly so unusual. So what is it? What is so unordinary about this paragraph?

Can you count the number of squares in the figure below?

I am a ten letters word
The first four letters have the power to rule,
Next, four-letter can be eaten.
The next three-letter represents a lady.
I can fly as well

what am I looking for?