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There is a problem (again) in the Chess Kingdom. His Majesty White King got lost in a series of vast and dangerous dungeons - probably tried to get some wine for dinner - and now he's not able to find his way out and take care of ruling. His Majesty Black King stated They aren't involved in the issue.
Lovely logic chess game was created by Ethan Medeiros and it is 20+ levels (plus hidden bonus levels) puzzle game spin with the controls and characters from the arcade classic known as "Chess".
At the beginning of each level you are a mere Pawn with responsibility (almost) surpassing him but in more complicated levels you get help of Tower, Bishop or Knight, and sometimes, under certain conditions - chess players know - you turn into powerful Queen! All chess pieces move as in a real chess game and the game indicates their moves. You can play with one chess piece at one time and to swap between two pieces they need to be be in contact - and the game lets you know whether the swap is possible. Your goal in each level is to get nearby White King, usually brooding in some niche or corner of dark dungeon, and by swaping set him free. He's able to escape on his own then.
The game has nice retro looks and undisturbing enjoyable tune, and isn't stereotypical - levels in the game's second half are situated at rather angular fresh green islands and new sorts of barriers and puzzles occur. And later on in the most dangerous missions you need to avoid lava streams! If you play in Widows, the whole game is controlled by mouse only. The game has autosave. Under the game screen you find download button to get access to more files.
P.S Do you remember Knight-errant from the last year? Enjoyable!
Have a good time with another great puzzle game!
Chesscourt Mission (hints)
(V2/Sep 2, 2020)
General tips:
Read the help menu before and during the game.
Make sure "Move preview" is turned on in the options. This may expose some bugs but it is greatly helpful.
Signposts indicate bonus levels, at most one for each main level. You can trigger them with any piece. You will progress regardless of whether you complete the main level or its bonus level, so after you've found the solution to the main level you may want to backtrack/undo to visit the bonus.
General strategy:
You only control one piece at a time. You can move it, changing your position but not your piece, or "capture" (actually swapping in) another piece, changing your piece but not your position.
Since bishops only move diagonally, they can only access white squares or black squares depending on where they're swapped to. Thus, sometimes it's not just important what you capture, it's where you capture it from.
It helps to think of piece-occupied squares. Only the one you start in is controlled, the others are just holding pieces for you to use. (I'll call those other squares "spots".)
Notation
Throughout this, I'll use arrows (or directions, or compass directions) to describe piece movement, optionally followed by a number for distance. For each knight move, I will use a pair of arrows.
The common abbreviations for chess pieces (in the order of the help menu) are PKRBNQ.
Also, regardless of pattern, I'll call squares white or black according to the checkerboard, white always being the lighter color.
Level 0: Escort
Move the pawn ↑3 and capture the king.
Now that you control the king, move it ↓4 to the exit.
Level 1: A dangerous place
After you capture the rook, the game gives you a hint as you approach the bishop.
You can use the bishop to get the king (and then extricate the king), or use it for the bonus level.
Level 1+: Mizerable
The exit is sealed off to the king, so you'll need to pull the king into that area.
Remember when I mentioned the occupied spots don't move? Only one of them is accessible from the bottom area.
Use the bishop to pick up the rook, to pick up the king, and then swap the king with the knight.
Swap the knight for the rook, move that to the exit area, and swap the king in.
Level 2: Undone
This isn't as hard as the message might have you believe. Notice that the king has a clear path to the exit when you capture him.
P>B>R>K.
Level 3: Diagonally
If you're using a bishop to rescue the king, you'll need to put it on a white square. That means you need to capture it from a white square.
You can avoid trapping the bishop by swapping it to the right side.
P>B>R>B>K.
But perhaps you don't need the bishop. Sure is weird that they just left a rook in the corner…
Level 4: Double spaced
Hopefully after this level you won't feel so claustrophobic with the pawn and knight.
Surprisingly, the bonus is easier to reach than the main exit.
As with level 1, there's only one occupied square reachable from the exit, and only one piece that can pull the king into the exit area. Getting those pieces there is the real puzzle.
After P>N>R, the knight is out of reach, which means the remaining two spots need to hold the pawn and king. How do you get the pawn to the leftmost spot?
Place the rook southeast of the king, then do R>P>K.
Finish the level with K>R>K.
Level 4+: Kenny
Same logic tells you where the king and rook must end up for the last swap.
The pawn can't reach the left spot, so it must be squeezed into the top-right one.
P>N>R>P>N>K>R>K.
Or perhaps you can make the pawn more useful?
P>N>P=Q>K>N>Q>K.
Level 5: Alone
Swap the king into the upper-left of his cage, then rescue him with the queen (or rook).
Level 5+: Prison mates
The bottom-left spot needs to hold the king, so the left spot must hold the knight.
P=Q>N(left)>K>Q>K.
Level 6: (no hints)
Level 6+: Treasure Chesst
Sure is nice having a queen to start with. Just remember that the bishop needs to be captured from/to a black square.
Level 7: Library
You'll need a queen for the bonus anyway, so why not get one?
There aren't that many clean ceilings around.
But if you don't, the left spot blocks the king's path to the exit, and he will need to be rescued from there.
Level 7+: Rookshelf
(Hey, who let Kenny in here again?)
The king must sit on the nearest spot (since the others are inaccessible from the exit area). But the knight can't rescue him from there (without blocking the path again).
And the rook is unavailable since you used it to rescue the king from the spiky cage on the left.
I guess the only other piece you can use is a pawn?
P>N>P>R>P=Q>K>N>R>K.
Level 8: Barriers
P>R>P>R>P>K.
The rook needs to clear out the barrier each time.
Level 9
There's one barrier that the pawn can't clear.
Level 10: Familiar
It's not obvious, but the king (sitting opposite the queen!) is surrounded by a cage of white pieces.
To reach him you'll need a knight. Only two knights are not similarly caged, and one of them is much easier to get to.
P>Q>N>K>R>K.
Here's a sequence for the other knight:
P>Q→↗N>P>Q (then queen moves ←, ↑6, ←2 ending at c6)
Q>N>K>R>K.
Level 11: Dungeon?
If you're confused, read the help. No queening here!
The king needs to come back over the crumbly bridge, so you'll need to reach that island without using the bridge.
P>R>N>K.
Level 12: (no hints!)
Level 12+: Chestnut
Read up on the key and door mechanic.
At the end, it gets a bit tricky: you want to swap the king onto the pawn, but doing so might trap the pawn.
Unless you strategically place the key to let the pawn capture the rook.
Or set up the swap as R>P>K>R instead.
Or use the rook to pull the pawn to the bottom to queen it.
Level 13: King Island
This one is tough. Let's see:
The king needs a knight to free it, the knight needs a queen (or pawn!) to free it, the queen must come from the pawn you start with, and the queen is then stuck on that island forever.
After that, the knight must swap with the king (stranding the knight), which must swap with a bishop or rook, which must return to the main island, from which someone must then swap back to free the king.
All that without breaking too many bridges. (Good thing the knight can jump over bridges!)
If the bishop swaps into the left(rook) spot (breaking a bridge in the process) then the king will eventually swap it onto black(grassy) squares, and then it can't get anything done.
(And the knight can't do the swapping either, it'd break too many bridges.)
So the rook cannot be used until the last moment. The bishop must be the one to lead the pawn up the board.
P>B (bishop breaks both barriers)>P>N>K>R>K.
(Oh, you'll also need the king to reach the bonus, so that's equally hard!)
Level 13+: Rook Out Island
You'll need to use the rook to reach the key, and you'll need to leave the king a path back.
Bring the rook to the right edge of the island and swap it with the key.
Take the shortest path to the king, and walk the king back over the remaining bridges.
Then pull the key to the gate (you already know how this works), and walk the king through.
Level 14: (no hint)
Level 15: Fenced horse
This isn't really a hint, but that top windy path is completely unnecessary.
Level 15+: Aggressive
The bishop has to cross the bridge.
Level 16: (no hint)
Level 16+: Small Pawnd
Only one fence is accessible to the pawn.
And that fence is slightly blocked off, unless you can get the correct piece to help.
Level 17: (no hint)
Level 17+: Bay
You're clearly not going to walk the king out with just two keys.
Send the knight in to break him out, but make sure you've got the last gate open first.
(You wouldn't be so cruel as to leave him on the beach, right?)
Level 18: Cactus Grove
Don't break the bridges until the end.
Level 19: Grand tour
Are you trying to free the king? He already is.
Level 20: Cross the box
You'll need a queen in the middle, but don't rush it.
After P>B>P>R, use the rook to open the gate, and then place it just north of the southern bishop.
Continue with R>B>P>B>R, then move your rook to the top left.
Now you can let the show begin!
R>P>R>P>R>P=Q>K.
(The king can get around a lot faster at the end if the rooks give him a ride.)
Level 21: You win
But what's going on with this chessboard?
Take the key at the top left and unlock the gate at the bottom left. (You may have to resize the window or switch to mobile mode if your screen is a weird size.)
Then pick up a knight and use it to fetch the king from the bottom right, and then walk him all the way to the exit at bottom left.
Level 22: Dark world
Dungeon rules are back in play! Get the pawn to the ceiling to promote it. The exit is at the bottom.
Level 23: Find your way
Any ceiling will do. There's only one you can use.
P↑↗↑↖B
B↗↖↗
B↙↘↘,↙3,↖3,↘2
Move the key out of the way!
B↗↙2↗↖↗↘↗↙3↗4P↑↑↑=Q
Now that you have a queen, you can handle the rest.
Level 24: Lava and Fire
You can stand on the exit, but you can't stand on the key. Neither of those situations are relevant to the puzzle.
Who or what can use the conveyor?
The bishop can do so (and without crossing the bridge) if it's on white squares. There are some conveyors on the left that will help with that.
How do you get the key across?
It has to be pulled across the left bridge.
Outline of solution:
Use the left conveyors to put the bishop on white squares.
Swap the key beside the left conveyors (using them to get yourself out)
Take the right conveyors (without crossing the bridge)
Pick up the rook, use it to swap the bishop back onto white squares, and then use that to pick up the key across the bridge.
Repeat the sequence to get the bishop across the river.
Swap it for the rook, unlock the gate, and pick up the king (without throwing him across the river!).
Level 25: What is THAT?
Figure out how to do P>R>P, then let the pawn cross the bridge and capture the round piece.
I know this piece already has a name, but I'll follow the help screen and call this piece an Alien.
A>P>A>P>K.
Level 25+: Alienated
You could carefully leave a bridge for the king to leap over:
Send the rook up the right bridge and then back down via the top-left conveyor.
Or you could let the king cross the river himself?
You could send the rook up the (second) left bridge, and the king down the right bridge.
Level 26: Alternates
The alien can capture backwards, so it has no problem capturing the king (and destroying itself).
Alternatively, you can use the highest ceiling to get a queen.
And even a king.
Level 27: Burning key
P>A>K.
The king can move onto the key or the barrier.
Level 28: Royalty
The game gives you a hint when you reach the top-left ceiling.
Bring the alien to the top row to get a king.
Level 29: Long conveyor
After getting the alien out of the way, you can use the bishop to shift the key around. (Remember: the exit doesn't block you.)
Shift the key ↖2,↘1, ↙4, ↘2, ↗3. You'll have to do a lot of conveyor shuffling.
If you shift the key ↙ after this, it will unlock the door through a glitch and you can skip the next step.
Swap back to the alien, then onto the knight. Bring the knight to the right of the door and pull the key through to unlock it.
Finally, send the knight north via the island in lava, then swap for the alien and promote it to king.
Level 30: Lava box
You have two bridges, make them count.
Immediately after getting the rook, swap it with the key, bring the rook down the right bridge, then place it just north of the fire and swap the key there.
Swap for the bishop (onto black squares), bring the key to the top left, then swap for the rook and use it to unlock the gate, then swap back for the bishop (onto black squares), and swap for the top-right rook.
The next part is pretty much the same as level 20:
R>P>R>P>R>P=Q
Q>A>R>A=K.
Level 31: Keygate
Let's talk occupied spots again. The alien is special in that it shifts a spot when it captures another piece.
That special power is gone once it gets promoted, so you can only use it to shift the left spot.
In that area, you only have an alien and a rook, so you'll need to
let the alien capture downwards on entry
and then
make sure the rook is one row above the conveyor when you capture it with the alien.
Doing R>A upwards across the conveyor should do it.
Now send the alien across a bridge to king it, bring that king down another bridge to swap for the rook and then the queen, then send the queen out the last bridge.
Another glitch: the right bridge can be crossed diagonally even after it's been used.
Use the queen to unlock three of the gates. If you choose poorly, the game will tell you.
Then pick up the king with the queen and use it to complete the level.
Level 32: The End
If you have a good screen, more easter eggs are on the bottom corners.
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