What is the least number of knights needed to cover the entire board? I’ve seen the solutions to the lowest amount of queens, bishops, and rooks are needed to cover an entire board, as in they can attack all squares and are the only type of piece on the board. What is the solution for this with knights?
Depending on whether occupied squares need to be covered as well, the number is:



[Title " 12 knights, Without Covering Occupied Squares"]
[FEN "8/5N2/1NN1NN2/2N5/5N2/2NN1NN1/2N5/8 w - - 0 1"]




[Title " 14 knights, With Covering Occupied Squares"]
[FEN "8/2N1NN2/2N1N3/2N3N1/2N1N3/1NN1NNN1/8/8 w - - 0 1"]




Problems like this are called domination problems and solutions for knights and other pieces as well as a reference are given on the wikipedia page on mathematical chess problems