Retrograde analysis

Retrograde analysis is like playing a game of "guess who" but backwards. Instead of looking at all the possible people and trying to guess who your opponent has, you start with the end and try to figure out how you got there.

For example, if you're trying to solve a chess puzzle where you need to checkmate your opponent in three moves, you might start by looking at the board and working backwards from the potential checkmate. You would try to figure out what moves your opponent made in the previous moves to set up the board in that way.

Retrograde analysis is useful in a lot of different types of puzzles, not just chess. It's often used in logic puzzles, where you need to figure out what happened based on a set of clues or information.

Overall, retrograde analysis is a way to solve puzzles by starting with the end and working backwards to figure out how you got there.