Dilworth's theorem: the minimum number of chains covering a finite poset equals its width

For $n\ge 1$, let $Q(n)$ assert that every nonempty poset of cardinality at most $n$ has a chain cover with as many members as its width. The assertion $Q(1)$ holds because a nonempty poset of cardinality at most $1$ is a one-element chain of width $1$.

Assume $Q(n)$, and let $P$ be a poset of cardinality $n+1$ and width $w$. Proving the required cover for this $P$ will prove $Q(n+1)$, since posets of cardinality at most $n$ are already covered by the induction hypothesis.

Every chain contains at most one member of an antichain of cardinality $w$, so every chain cover of $P$ has at least $w$ members.

If there exists a maximum antichain $A$ that is neither the set of all minimal elements nor the set of all maximal elements, choose such an $A$. By [L1], the induced subposets $P^{-}$ and $P^{+}$ are nonempty, have width $w$, and have cardinality at most $n$. The induction hypothesis gives each a chain cover of size its width, and [L1] splices these into a chain cover of $P$ with $w$ chains.

Suppose instead that every maximum antichain is the set of all minimal elements or the set of all maximal elements. Extend any element downward and upward, which terminates because $P$ is finite, to obtain a maximal chain $C$ containing a minimal and a maximal element.

Put $Q:=P\setminus C$. If $Q$ is empty, then $P=C$ is one chain and $w=1$. If $Q$ is nonempty, then $w(Q)\le w-1$: otherwise $Q$ would contain an antichain $B$ of cardinality $w$, making $B$ a maximum antichain of $P$ disjoint from $C$; but every such antichain is, by the present case, all minimal elements or all maximal elements, and $C$ contains an element of each kind.

When $Q$ is nonempty it has cardinality at most $n$, so the induction hypothesis covers it by $w(Q)\le w-1$ chains. Adding the chain $C$ gives a cover of $P$ by at most $w$ chains; it cannot use fewer, because a maximum antichain of cardinality $w$ meets each covering chain in at most one element.

Steps 2.1 and 4.1 prove $Q(n+1)$ in the two exhaustive cases. Thus [L3] proves $Q(n)$ for every $n\ge 1$, and hence gives a width-sized chain cover for the original finite poset. Step 1.3 proves minimality, so the minimum chain-cover number equals the width.