Cover a grid square with squares and L-shapes of three unit cells so that the number of L-shapes is least possible.

Cover a grid square with squares and L-shapes of three unit cells so that the number of L-shapes is least possible.

Let a square board be covered as in the statement with squares and shapes L. Denote by the cell in row , column , and color black all cells with both and odd. Thus black cells are obtained. Observe that wherever a square is placed, it covers exactly one black cell; and wherever an L-shape is placed, it covers at most one black cell. To have the whole board covered it is necessary that the total number of figures be at least , i.e. .
All figures cover cells, which equals , the total number of cells on the board. On the other hand implies . Hence , yielding . In summary each admissible covering has at least shapes L and at most squares .
A board corresponds to the case , so the number of L-shapes is at least ; the number of squares is at most . The example in the figure shows a covering with 22 squares and 27 shapes L. Hence the minimum number of L-shapes is 27.
