How To Solve The Chess Puzzle In Blue Prince

So, you're planning to solve the Chess Puzzle in Blue Prince, eh? This task is easier said than done. Not only do you need to gain access to a mysterious area of the manor, but you also have to explore the mansion just so you could remember certain interesting findings. Oh, and before we continue, please be reminded that this article, even though it's quite comprehensive, still contains minor spoilers.

How to solve the Chess Puzzle in Blue Prince

Think of the Chess Puzzle as somewhat akin to the 44 pairs of paintings. While that's a "meta puzzle" in its own unique way, it did require you to scour several rooms just to find a few odd things in your surroundings. The chess puzzle follows a similar concept, except it might be a lot harder due to randomization.

How exactly does the Blue Prince Chess Puzzle work? Think of it this way: Several rooms that you draft in the manor will have a specific chess piece in the environment--i.e. Pawn, Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, and King.

• The game "records" where these pieces are based on the rooms that you've drafted for that run.
• You then need to place the chess pieces on the puzzle board based on their respective locations in the manor.
• You can't do this puzzle if you haven't placed any rooms at all. For each piece, you need to have at least one room that has that piece drafted in the manor. That's the only way for the board to "detect" that a piece is active.
• The pieces in each room will never change, but your placement definitely will in each run. For example, you might place a room like the Den (has a Pawn piece) in the first row during one run. Then, you'd place it in the third row during your next run.
• All in all, you have to do your usual manor run, record/take note of where the pieces are, and then high-tail it back to the Chess Puzzle chamber so you can place their counterparts on the board.

The Blue Prince Chess Puzzle can be found in the Underground section of the manor. There are two ways to get here:

• Blue Flames route - You can reach this area once you've activated all four Blue Flames at the Grounds. An elevator will pop up, and you can ride it down to a deep tunnel. A narrow pathway leads to a large chamber with the Chess Puzzle.
• Fountain route - Alternatively, you can drain the Fountain in front of the manor. If you check the mine tunnel nearby, you should see an altar with candles. You do need to have a tool that can light torches/candles to gain entry. This will reveal steps that lead you to the aforementioned chamber with the Chess Puzzle.

Note: Upon reaching the Chess Puzzle chamber, you should see a weakened wall. Try and see what happens if you smash it with something that can destroy walls permanently.

Here are the rooms where the Pawn appears:

• Den
• Bedroom
• Storeroom
• Dining Room
• Drawing Room
• Walk-In Closet
• Secret Passage
• Freezer
• Solarium
• Lost and Found

We've seen the Rook appear in the following areas:

• Nook
• Conservatory
• Vault
• Clock Tower

We've spotted the Knight a couple of times:

• Security
• Observatory
• Treasure Trove

Here are the rooms where we found the Bishop piece:

• Bookshop
• Chapel
• Attic

For the Blue Prince Chess Puzzle, we've only seen the Queen piece in a couple of rooms. Their locations are quite thematic as well given the person who resided and made use of those rooms in the past:

• Her Ladyship's Chamber
• Study

We also saw the King piece in two areas:

• Office - The clue can be seen in a photograph in the Dark Room (shown in the screenshot above). You have to turn the lights back on via the Utility Closet, which allows you to look at the photos. You'll notice that one particular image shows that the King is actually on a shelf in the Office before it was renovated.
• Throne Room - You can only draft this once you've found all three Microchips.

As mentioned earlier, the Chess Puzzle in Blue Prince relies heavily on where you placed the rooms in the manor grid. Now, given that there's only one of each piece, there's a chance that you drafted multiple rooms that contain the same piece. For instance, maybe you had the Den, Bedroom, Walk-In Closet, Freezer, and Secret Passage--all of which have the Pawn--in a single run. This is totally fine.

Even if you have multiple rooms, only one will be considered as the "correct" spot on the board. You can do a bit of trial and error as you move the piece around until you find the right spot.

As you can see in the image above, that run of ours had:

• The Pawn and Rook in the low-rank rooms where we had a Den and a Nook.
• The Knight and Bishop are near the middle ranks, which was where we placed our Security and Chapel, respectively.
• For the Queen, we had Her Ladyship's Chamber near the end.
• We also had a Throne Room closer to the top, which had our King piece.

Once you solve the Chess Puzzle in Blue Prince, the walls will open up, revealing gigantic statues of each piece. You may then select one Chess Puzzle power or blessing, which will remain active throughout multiple runs until you decide to change it. Here are the effects:

• Ambition of the Pawn: When you reach rank 8 each day, you may choose Knight, Bishop, Rook, or Queen powers. You gain the power of that piece until the end of the day.
• Resilience of the Rook: You may draw floor plans up to four times when drafting the four corner rooms of the house.
• Piety of the Bishop: You do not have to pay tithes. Instead, you gain +30 gold the first time you enter the Chapel each day.
• Mantle of the Knight: Adds the Armory room to your draft pool.
• Gambit of the Queen: Each time you draft a room in the Queenside--i.e. west wing--of the house, you lose five steps and gain a key.
• Banner of the King: Each day you may choose a room color. Rooms of the chosen color are more likely to be drawn while drafting.

Note: To change your Chess Power, you must redo the entire Chess Puzzle from scratch. So, yes, you still need a run where rooms with pieces are drafted and you have to remember where they're located in the manor.

Trying to redo the whole Chess Puzzle might seem like a hassle, so you're probably wondering about the best Chess Power in Blue Prince. We're definitely biased here, but we feel that the Knight Power is the best among all the options. This is primarily due to all the stuff you can buy in the Armory. These include:

• Knight's Shield: Once per day while drafting, you can use the Knight's Shield to ignore the effect of any red room. This means you can safely ignore the sudden drop of steps from the Weight Room, as well as the Archives' way of keeping one room option hidden.
• Self-Igniting Torch: Can light candles and ignite fuses. It's a great alternative in case you're unable to craft the Burning Glass in the Workshop.
• The Axe: This might be the best item in the entire game. Basically, you can use it in your room directory to permanently remove the gem cost from one room. Now, imagine using this on the Attic, and you'll end up with a free room that grants +8 items.

That does it for our Blue Prince Chess Puzzle and powers/blessings guide. We hope you take on this challenge so you can gain powerful boons.