Hello Steamgifters !

Enter here with no fear this is just a puzzle like others.
Xmas is coming os it's a perfect time for a gift.
And making a puzzle is perfect cause gifts are things for people who try their best.
Do this puzzle also for your own pride and for the fun to solve things.
Enjoy it, solve it and share your thoughts on this puzzle after you solved it to help me to improve my skill.
Claim your reward too after solving to join my whitelist.

It's time now for things that can help you :
Maybe read some guides can I help you( Zelgh's guide is like a Bible)
Also read things carefully and take your time. This is not a rush you have 2 weeks.

Let's go !


Here's something you will need to advance later : 424b425142425751425257425752574b0d0a

So now you'll have to solve the mysteries of this chess board with the hints below and access the final test before you can enter the GA.

1) There is 8 pieces to place on the board : White King, Black King, White Queen, Black Queen, White Bishop, Black Bishop, White Rook, Black Rook. All of them are on a black square.
2) Rooks are the pieces with the highest line number for their color.
3) Queens always come before kings in the alphabet when we refer to columns. And you won't find a rook in g column.
4) Three of the black pieces are on the lines 5 to 8 and three are on the columns a to d. At least King and Rook share those 2 properties.
5) None of the pieces you must place share the same line or column.
6) The white pawn is not near another piece.The piece you have to place in the first column is white.
7) There is a piece in e4 and f1 and they have the same color. The bishop of this color is in a lane between those 2.

There is no level restriction and the GA is in the top 20 wishlisted games by the steamgifts community.

Ga will end the 4/12/2016

Good luck !

Solution:

Step 1:
You have a chain of characters to decrypt 424b425142425751425257425752574b0d0a with hexadecimal. Hint for that was the first letters of the first part of my post (if you didn't realize already it was hexadecimal). Decryption give BKBQBBWQBRWBWRWK who is an order of chess pieces you have to place in step 2.

Step 2:
It's a logic puzzle that you can solve by following those steps:
a) Eliminate all white squares as pieces position. (hint 1)
b) place a piece in e4 and the piece in f1 (hint 7) and deduce there is also a pîece in d5 because D4 and F1 black squares are no longer possibilities (hint 5)
c) use (hint 6) to remove 2 other black squares. You now have only a6 as a viable position in first column and the same thing for b2.
d) You know from (hint 6) the first column piece (a6) is white so b,c,d are black and 5,7,8 are black too. With (hint 7) you also know e' and f1 pieces share the same color so they can't be black but are white. And the white bishop being in a row between those 2 pieces can only be in h3. And you als can deduce the 2 last pieces positions c8 and g7
e) (hint 2) mentionning rooks are the highest row number and knowing all white pieces you can deduce a6 is the white rook and c8 the black rook.
f) using second part of (hint 4) you can place black king in d5 and then using (hint 3) you can place the black queen in b2 and the white queen in e4. White king being in f1. Last piece is the black bishop in g7.

so we have now with the order:

BK in d5
BQ in b2
BB in g7
WQ in h3
BR in c8
WB in h3
WR in a6
WK in f1

Step 3:

Now you are searching how to access the final stage of this puzzle with no more real clue guiding you. Since you are here to solve the mysteries of this chessboards who have squares pretty messed up. Chessboard is an 8 by 8 squares so 8 characters for the ITH crypted in binary with black (0) and white (1) squares. so you had to convert all the chessboards in 0 and 1 and read your lines in the order you find starting from the piece position to the right side of the board and then from the left side of the board to the piece position. (that was the reading tricky part of the puzzle).

That give you:

00110010
01100011
00110110
01001000
01011000
01101011
01011001
01100001

you decrypt it and find 2c6HXkYa
And then you access here http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/2c6HXkYa to the final step.

Step 4:

The question is 1+0x1-0= ? a math equation with the 1 and 0 being the clues you had to use.
After using binary to come here you just have to count the number of 0 ( 36 black squares) and 1 ( 28 white squares) and then convert your equation

28+36x28-36= 1 000 (don't forget multiplication has the priority on addition and soustraction)

And you finally solve this puzzle. I hope you enjoyed it.

View attached image.
7 years ago*

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reserved

7 years ago
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Bump for game revealed! Only 3 solvers yet.

7 years ago
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HINT 1: To access the final stage you don't need to use the coordinates of the pieces you palced. Remember that you need to solve The mysteries of the chess board.

For the final question numbers here are not the numbers you need!

7 years ago
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HINT 2: in the last stage there is no hexadecimal reference (it caused trouble to a part of the solver so it's good to be mentionned)

7 years ago
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Bump for one week remaininig.

7 years ago
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bump for last 2 days

7 years ago
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Hmm... top 20 not clear enough

7 years ago
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But you don't really need to know the game to solve a puzzle!

7 years ago
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You need to know the game to decide IF you want to solve the puzzle.
I don't know about the poster, but I have 3 of the top 20 wishlist, and I'm only interested in 4 to 5 of the remaining games. If the puzzle is too hard, I don't want to waste my time trying it. (Looking at it, finding where the pieces should be is relatively straightforward. Once this is done, I have a few ideas on how to combine the answers, but this is usually the part where I fail)

7 years ago
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Not really some of the people here will try to solve puzzles just for fun and the game as a bonus reward. I solved some of them already too knowing that I already own the game. Investing time in a puzzle is your own choice.

7 years ago
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I agree, I'm only interested in 3 of the top 20 and none of them I can play, until I get a new computer.
Then again, I'm mostly here for puzzles anyway. :P

7 years ago
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I know! I see you often around here :D

7 years ago
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I've stated this several times before but there are several prominent site members that can't accept that people will come and solve puzzles regardless of knowing what the "prize" is or whether they already have it.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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View attached image.
7 years ago
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My head hurts now.

7 years ago
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Do you want some aspirin?

7 years ago
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Some of your hints conflict with each other. Can we talk abut it on Steam?
-Edit- The hints are fine. I just misunderstood them.

7 years ago*
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yes of course!

7 years ago
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Hey, for me the rules also seem contradicting. I've added you on Steam to talk and clarify if you're willing to :)

7 years ago
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You are added.

7 years ago
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Solved the something and the chess problem, now thinking what to do next^^

7 years ago
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I think you must solve the next step! :D
I'm sure you'll figure out what to do. Even if it can be a little tricky.

7 years ago
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It was :P
Now thinking the next step

7 years ago
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I'm there as well.

7 years ago
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You'll find the solution I'm sure of that. Just reconsider all the elements you have and how to use them or what they can be.

7 years ago
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There too. Staring at the chessboard...

7 years ago
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You are at the tricky part. Why are you staring at my chessboard like that he is a shy one!

But indeed the base to the problem is to figure out the mysteries of this chessboard :D

7 years ago
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I don't get it p.p

7 years ago
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Don't worry nobody gets all of it at the moment. Take your time and do it step by step!

7 years ago
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HINT : going limbo to get all the pieces of this puzzle damn .. and now im dead and OP is responsible for it xDD

good puzzle, too bad im not good at these but i will try..

7 years ago
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Cheers for you! Try your best and I'm sure you will progress step by step.

7 years ago
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I think the chess part has two possible solutions.

7 years ago
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Or maybe I misunderstood the rule 3. Does any queen goes before both kings or only before the king of the same color?

7 years ago
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This is what I want to know as well.

7 years ago
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This does not matter in case you re-drew the diagram correctly. There only exists a single solution for this problem and you have enough information to find it.

7 years ago
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Yeah, I'm there as well, I got all the positions right but can't figure out what to do next.

7 years ago
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Ho i'll see that this evening with you after I end my work. :D
I hope I didn't mess up.

7 years ago
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My bad, I made a mistake when re-drawing your diagram. Now, the puzzle has a unique solution indeed. And I feel that I know what to do next, however it does not work.. Will try to come up with something else later.

7 years ago
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One more misake in re-drawing, stupid me...

7 years ago
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you lack the dot to dot challenge experience for redrawing! :D

7 years ago
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Solved the pieces locations, solved the something, Got stuck.
Well, connected dots at least look pretty :)

7 years ago
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Last part is proving to be too cryptic for the moment. :)

7 years ago
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I see that and didn't think it would cause so much trouble. Seems a bit trickier than i thought but it still linked to the previous parts!

7 years ago
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Can you tell us which are the coordinates of each corner?
is it this:?
a1|h1
a8|h8

Solved chess part I think.

7 years ago*
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classic chessboard coordinates :D

7 years ago
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You could have rotated it, but ok.

View attached image.
7 years ago*
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6) The white pawn is not near another piece.The piece in the first column is white.

Does this mean that there is only one piece in the first column?

7 years ago
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It means the piece you must place in first column. The pawn does not count as a piece you have to place cause it's already there.

7 years ago
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Same for the other rules?

Can I place a rook on the first row?

7 years ago
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Yes just don't consider pawn as a piece :D

7 years ago
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Ok. Maybe you should re-write this:

6) The white pawn is not near another piece.The piece in the first column is white.

Also on rule 3:

Do both queens go before both kings or only before the king of the same color?

7 years ago*
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Solved for bump & bump for solved!
Thanks for the puzzle and especially for the chess part :)

7 years ago
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Did you tried to mate black king in 3? :D

7 years ago
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Actually, I understood what to do at once, but I tried to be consistent and instead of following the initial correct idea, I indeed tried to mate the black king in 1 :)

7 years ago
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Solved the mystery code, solved the chess position, solved the third step. Not sure what to do next.
That's the first puzzle I'm solving here. It's interesting but also frustrating for noob like me :) Good one, OP.

7 years ago*
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Did you access the final step or are you searching for it?

7 years ago
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I'm not sure. I ended up with some kind of 'code' that is maybe not a code but something I don't understand how to use.

7 years ago
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Well, now I'm going mad! I have to work but my thoughts are still on the puzzle.

7 years ago
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You can add me on steam we'll discuss of this later in the day. After work!

7 years ago
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Deal!

7 years ago
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Thank you for the puzzle.

This was pretty hard to go through, and I got a code at the end that I can't decode into anything.Was left confused.

Does rule 3 apply to Queens of the same color as the Kings? Hopefully I didn't spoil anything.

7 years ago*
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Best to remove the end of your message :D. Maybe pieces position are not something to decrypt but to use in an other way.

7 years ago
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Now I am completly confused, can you give me one more good hint?

7 years ago
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It was a good hint if it confuse you! :D

For rule 3. Yes it's for queens and kings of the same color. And for the things you removed cause it was a spoil you need to use it only one time and it contain no g or h :D

7 years ago
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Can I add you to discuss? I hope this isn't cheating, but I'm pretty sure I'm almost there.

7 years ago
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Hey, do i need to be using a sophisticated photo editing software (Photoshop) in order to solve any of these?

7 years ago
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No you can just use pen and paper if it helps you.

7 years ago
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I find Google spreadsheets to be perfect software for such puzzles.

7 years ago
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Am I the only one who solved the chess part using the actual chess board? :)

7 years ago
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I guess you are :))

7 years ago
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It was fun and enjoyable that way, actually. I haven't used my chessboard for years.

7 years ago
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No, you aren't :P

7 years ago
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Not for this puzzle, but I did for ercalotes puzzles. :)

7 years ago
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Bump for need hints to find the last part...

7 years ago*
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The king of mysterious things need a hint (box, tablet, pavillion, etc ...! Last part is also one of the mysteries.

7 years ago
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Aaah, shutup ;P

7 years ago
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???

7 years ago
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Finally had some time to get back on the puzzle. However still stuck on finding the access to the last stage. So Bump.

7 years ago
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And I'll need to find some for your Lascaux Puzzle :D

7 years ago
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Do you need to use black/white squares on the chessboard for anything else than figuring out the pieces' placement?

7 years ago
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It's a possibility since it's a mysterious chess board.

7 years ago
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I think I understood how all this works.. but I keep making errors with the chessboard (and ofc I only find out when I'm putting the last piece.. everytime... xD)

7 years ago
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You must be close to find the solution with the positions so :D

7 years ago
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well, I'm pretty sure I solved the chessboard, but now I'm not that sure about next step.. :S

7 years ago
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mmh.. nope.. ._.

7 years ago
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I don't know chess and I am not very good at english, so I am really hopeless here :)

7 years ago
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Looking at the board, one can assume that knowledge of chess is not needed here.

7 years ago
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Found the last part, I thought I already tried that, but apparently not. :s

7 years ago
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But you solved this part that's all that matter! Good luck with the last part.

7 years ago
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Now only the "easy" part remains...

7 years ago
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I thought it was easy but it's not so easy :D

7 years ago
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Bump because I need a hint.
I figured out where the chess pieces go. (That was fun, reminded me of sudoku.)
I figured out what to do with the code that "was needed to advance later"
I also understood what the translation of that code was trying to tell me.
Now I'm lost. I have tried various methods of "combining" the end result of the pieces with the translated code but nothing seems to give me a new step or a giveaway link.

7 years ago
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Remember that you must find the mysteries of the chessboard! Combining things together is also a good way to start this step.

7 years ago
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Hi Jonnie, I seem to be stuck at the same step.
I've added you on steam maybe we can figure this out together :)

7 years ago
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I'm not sure, if you're aware, but puzzles here should be solved individually and not as a group (unless the puzzle creator explicitly allows it)!

7 years ago
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Well, I wasn't aware.
yukulele, can you clarify?

7 years ago
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Yeah puzzles have to been solved alone. Hints will be posted a bit later because there is few solvers at the moment. The game will also be revealed later.

7 years ago
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Ok, I'll respect that :)

7 years ago
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I didn't know I was that bad at simple math. :P

7 years ago
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It is simple math! With the right numbers.

7 years ago
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Guess I haven't found the right numbers yet.
I have tried several already, but still some ideas left.

7 years ago
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I'll be curious to know what you already tried :D

7 years ago
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Ooh

7 years ago
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Good job perrolijo :D

7 years ago
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Solved it.
Did not bump it before.

7 years ago
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Closed 7 years ago by yukulele53.