Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Greetings! I'm going to be running a game later this week and my players will be encountering a sort of 'gauntlet'. The gauntlet will have physical traps, but also mental challenges, and I'd like for one of these challenges to be an in-progress game of chess. The goal is to have the chessboard set up in such a way that the next move will either spell victory (checkmate of the enemy king) or crushing defeat (checkmate of the player's own king). As this is a puzzle, I'd also like it if the winning move were unconventional or otherwise difficult to pick out.

Sadly, my Google-fu has failed to turn up any relevant examples of such a scenario. I'm willing to compromise it up to two moves required for a victory, but 3 is iffy - the chess puzzle is simply one obstacle in their path and I don't want to devote a lot of game time to it. If anyone has any relevant examples they can link to me that would be lovely. I'm also open to other suggestions for mental challenges - I'm opposed to riddles on general principle, but I'm willing to entertain other ideas. Bonus points if the mental challenges have multiple paths that can be undertaken to arrive at a solution.