Puzzles Etc. - 2016-06-24

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12:46 AM

@Volatility For meta 2, I've tried converting the number sequence to a DTMF sound sequence, but that didn't sound like anything familiar to me. Maybe you have a better idea for what to press?

1:40 AM

@WesleySitu Nice, Wesley, maybe you can help us figure one of these out!

@Volatility Sounds like you're likely right and that the "consorts" goes with Meta 2. That means that based on Deusovi's earlier comment, it's also either 13 letters long or based on single digits...of those two my money's on 13 letters.

1 hour later…

2:48 AM

@DanRussell @DanRussell @WesleySitu What are we talking about?

3:05 AM

@LeppyR64 Deusovi's chess puzzle (with the cryptic clues and meta meta)

3:17 AM

i've also tried pager code with those numbers, but couldnt find any words from those, but maybe im just illiterate in pager

@LeppyR64 Hey, Leppy! Maybe you can figure a couple of these out.

20

Q: Chess Fortnight is finally over!

(Note: the backstory here may or may not be entirely fictitious.) The fortnightly chess theme is finally over! I couldn't stand it. It was chaos! Pieces moving around in all the wrong ways... I was so angry that I made metapuzzles purely to tell everyone how much I hated it. Unfortunately, the...

wordplay chess cryptic-clues metapuzzles

I think all the cryptic clues are solved (if scattered a bit), and f'' solved Metas 1, 3, and 4, but Metas 2, 5, and 6 are unsolved, as well as Meta Meta.

3:50 AM

That's a crazy one to try and read on mobile.

I was experimenting with Morse code, but couldn't get anything

4 hours later…

7:55 AM

It's some sort of code, but not a typical one. You've definitely seen it before, though (although you might not have known it). "Pressing" refers to what to do with the numbers once they're in the groups, not a reference to the code itself: for that you're gonna need the bit about the consorts.

For meta 6, look to the comments - someone's already noticed something strange about one of its answers.

And for meta 5, the flavortext tells you exactly what to do, in a cryptic way of course.

For the metameta, f'' is on the right track.

8:18 AM

I've added an answer with all of the confirmed cryptic solutions in one place. All that's left are the three unsolved metas and the metameta.

I imagine for meta 5 the words are anagrams with an altered letter

and when I looked at meta 6 before I noticed some of the words could be changed into another by replacing a letter with a 'u' (from "usurp"), although it didn't work for all of them

although now that I look at it again...

ok, got the answer, writing it up now

8:50 AM

Wow Volatility. That's amazing

2 hours later…

11:19 AM

consort

11:33 AM

So the code for meta 5 is not T9 because it wouldn't include 0s or 1s.

err 2

CHICKEN-HEARTED doesn't have a direct Wikipedia entry.

2 hours later…

1:39 PM

@Volatility Nice job on Meta 6!

2:23 PM

@DanRussell Was thinking about Meta 5. What if you use compression? Group by the digits. 12 81 20 2001 12 7 8 25 becomes 000 1111 22222 5 7 8. Compression = 30 41 52 15 17 18 (first digit is the number of copies of the following digit)

Not sure if that's exactly right, but you get the idea. I was just seeing "unique" and "pressed"

3:02 PM

It's not 2001. It's exactly what it says.

Oh, and nice job on meta 6, Volatility!

There's a specific reason for two of the words in the "consorts" flavortext. You guys ever played Mad Gab?

@Volatility Yep! Now you just need to find the group the anagrams are sourced from. The metameta may help you with that.

2 hours later…

4:40 PM

@Deusovi I understand what "when pressed" means now, but I suck at that "cell eyelid dull gum" :)

5:06 PM

@LeppyR64 @WesleySitu @Volatility So "unique old" = unicode, presumably? I can't get the next step, however. And space probably means space, rather than 0 or 2001. So probably a two-word solution to Meta 2?

5:18 PM

@DanRussell Maybe enclosed alphanumerics. Those looks like buttons, a bit...

5:32 PM

@DanRussell Is it not weird that "unique old" wasn't in the puzzle at the start?

@LeppyR64 Hadn't seen that. So you think it's not important?

@DanRussell It's definitely important or else @Deusovi wouldn't have added it later, but basing the whole solution on just the two words he added would imply that either he had posted the puzzle unsolvable or that we're not 100% on the right path.

He changed it from "My consorts will tell you how to talk to me." to "My unique old consorts, when pressed, will tell you how to talk to me."

Granted the second one is more in the right style.

@LeppyR64 What are you thinking about "pressed"?

If you press the numbers hard enough, they'll give in to the pressure and confess

@WesleySitu Good thing we'll only have to waterboard "12" once, since there's two of them.

5:41 PM

"Pressed" definitely fits with Mad Gab hint.

I've never played Mad Gab so I wouldn't be familiar with how that fits

"cell eyelid dull gum" = "Silly Little Game"

Say the first sentence fast and jumble it all together.

that's a very strong accent

""These If Hill Wore" = "The Civil War"

lol, yes it us

*is

But "unique old" --> "unicode" is Mad Gabby already. "When pressed..."?

5:44 PM

I agree Dan, but we're ignoring My Consorts

I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying that in true cryptic fashion, if there's question about whether it's right or not, it's probably not. Usually when you get it, it's like "oh of course, it's so obvious"

Yeah. Earlier comment from Deusovi: ""Pressing" refers to what to do with the numbers once they're in the groups, not a reference to the code itself: for that you're gonna need the bit about the consorts."

maybe the consorts is literal and refers to the numbers you've listed

Oh god. It's Princess Peach

fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f351/index.htm

nice

fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1F478/index.htm

Ah!!!

5:48 PM

Unicode 👸 and Unicode 🍑

Good work Dan

Update your answer, what's left now :)

Now I see it. Good work Leppy, more like!

I just punched things into google :) You found Unicode. Teamwork :)

I think it's that kind of puzzle.

Teamwork required.

A lot of it

Meta 5 is the remaining unsolved meta. Then the meta meta.

5:52 PM

Princess Peach is King... that's awkward

So Meta 5 is Anagrams but with a wrong letter, we think, right?

the only thing i could anagram for hurray was quarry

though i have a feeling there might be scientific terms in there

helm can turn into heel, which is a part of the foot, and a mode of "getting around"

Nicely done on Meta 2!

@Deusovi Thanks, teamwork :)

Apparently you can't spoilerize a Princess and a Peach!

Yeah "hurray" is probably the least modifiable. But we don't know if we're changing a letter, adding a letter, removing a letter, or some combo.

Here's all the words I could make from hurray:

Changing a letter: quarry charry horary hurrah arthur

No idea what the dictionary behind this is like, but I have to run off for a while.
http://cfaj.freeshell.org/wordfinder/?help=anagram

6:03 PM

One of those is correct.

adding a letter: hurrays

removing a letter: hurry harry

The modified words are all part of a group.

You said it just before I was going there.

Hm? You got it?

Or just assumed they had to be part of a group?

Knight

6:14 PM

c;

I had that in my head. I think you might have gave that hint before

No, but that is one of two possible positions for this meta.

i think knights are definitely it

waning -> gawain

Yeah the option was queen

Keep track of which letter you remove and which you add.

And going with "around", let's go here: simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Round_Table

But the tricky part is that this list fluctuates a lot based on the different legends.

i've only got one other match, which was Realign --> Geraint. L -> T

6:21 PM

Not all of them are in that list.

Here's a more extensive list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_knights

List of Arthurian characters

The Arthurian legend featured many characters, including the Knights of the Round Table and members of his family. Their names often differed from version to version and from language to language. The following is a list of them with descriptions. (Note: The ' † ' symbol indicates a Knight of the Round Table.) == References... ==

Canal -> Balan

or that one :)

oh sorry. reflex, alt+tab, ctrl+v, enter, then read :)

"Balan" is not the correct modification for "Canal".

6:27 PM

Balan wasn't a round table knight.

Lance?

Like what Lancelot's buddies called him?

i have Lucan for that

nope :P

but both will still replace the A

i ended up with MALAYSIAN, but i think i have doric wrong

MALAYSIAN is correct!

6:32 PM

Doric -> Cador, but cador wasnt a round table k night

at least form what i could see from wikipedia

some sources i'd found said he was

@WesleySitu Awesome!

timelessmyths.com/arthurian/roundtable.html

Cador is in there

Taht's why Getting a"list of round table knights" is hard.

harder than you think

You've got all six meta answers - all that's left is the meta-meta!

Idiot that I am, I only had 8 of the clues. Forgot to add "waning", the one I solved, to the list!

6:36 PM

@Dan: That's why I made the list for you :P

@Deusovi Using your list from now on.

Well, it's not really necessary at this point...

General principle, this puzzle or not.

So the 9 replaced letters spell MALAYSIAN...am I right that the 9 replacement letters spell OUTERVATA? Almost seems like something too.

Doesn't mean anything.

Hurray -> Arthur = Y -> T

OUTETVATA

6:42 PM

That makes me feel better. I was thinking of the amount of time it would've taken Deusovi to make BOTH sets of letters meaningful.

So the next step is to fill the grid (chessboard) with the paths of the pieces. @f'' did this, but the hint from yesterday says "The grid still doesn't seem right to me. How could we fix it?"

That hint wasn't from yesterday.

which was posted first

And Dan, I've seen puzzles that make both meaningful.

the chessboard or the hint

6:43 PM

Hint.

i'd guess the chessboard should be correct then

Sorry, that was May 2, misread the edits.

how do you type equal width character blocks on here

backquotes

` `

6:45 PM

i wrote this `like this`

`oecaprin`
`fspeganc`
`sedaseoe`
`hctapics`
`dnekphas`
`ehcyesep`
`teieayia`
`rahclamn`

umm lol

If you hold shift and push enter you can get a new line

double space maybe?

`OECAPRIN`
`FSPEGANC`

nope :)

see :)

weird...

6:48 PM

well that's one of the two possible layouts :p

two?

i count four

Just looking at that almost-perfectly-monospaced thing you've posted, Wesley, I notice that the last letters of each of the last four lines are SPAN, which was written next to a right arrow in the original puzzle.

arent the possible switches just between the 9 lengthed words... o rmaybe im overlooking something

four rotations.

we sorted out the two 9 length words

oh how did you pick which one went where

oh...

6:51 PM

Knight was the group :)

yea tha tjust hit me :P

And presumably we need the "Chess.com..." flavortext now.

presumably... lol, try obviously :)

im guessing SPAN -> would mena that the 'north' side of the board is the bottom of what i posted

@LeppyR64 Super-obviously. There are a bunch of C, H, E, S, on the board. Taking them out leaves some stuff of interest.

7:00 PM

SPAN -> Would indicate to me that SPAN should be on the right side. SP being from King Peach and AN from MALAYSIAN

While we're at it, @Deusovi, very nice layered puzzle.

Thank you!

Also, you guys should go solve the one I posted a while ago. It's not a tenth as hard as this one. It's the other one with a bounty.

17

Q: Bill the Conspiracy Theorist

When my friend Alice called me very early one morning, it meant one thing: Bill was at it again. Bill is Alice's husband and a devoted conspiracy theorist. He regularly spent hours looking for hidden patterns and concealed truths, and though Alice had learned to live with it, she sounded more wo...

riddle enigmatic-puzzle story knowledge

@DanRussell "And now a message from our sponsors. Now back to your regularly scheduled puzzle solving."

I'll take a look at it when you all get this one

heh

7:11 PM

(Or did I miss it and we're done?)

Nope, not yet!

Duty calls for a little bit

7:47 PM

Bounty ends in one hour - I suggest you solve it soon

@LeppyR64, @DanRussell

Was it confirmed that f's layout was good?

not confirmed, but i trust

@DanRussell what was the "stuff of interest" after removing the CHES?

@WesleySitu, @Deusovi sees four for though. Are we missing something?

there are four orientations

oh i thought that was the rotations

NCESSPAN
INOCAEIM
RAEIHSYA
PGSPPEAL
AEAAKYEC
CPDTECIH
ESECNHEA
OFSHDETR

7:55 PM

(It would suck to miss the bounty, but it's served it's purpose and got us active)

with SPAN being ltr

i'll confirm that

Oh ok. That makes sense

Thanks @Deusovi

(Oh it's an anagram of devious. That's why brain keeps typing dev... I can sleep better tonight)

yep! :D

are there any well known chess board states

i'd feel like an idiot if i went to chess.com and didnt know what some terms meant

7:57 PM

i'll also confirm that that's where my username comes from (though it's not really helpful for the puzzle :P )

@LeppyR64 Had to do a little actual work. "Stuff of interest" not that specific, but you do get an isolated "OF" in the bottom left corner and nearly ANIMAL in the top right.

@WesleySitu Good idea. Shot in the dark, look up The Immortal Game, but I don't expect anything. I'll take a closer look shortly.

Now I see "cheese" instead of "chess" everywhere. Mmmmm...cheese.

it's more adequately hinted at than that would be

the message we get in the end should be something like "I HATE CHESS" :P

8:03 PM

@WesleySitu on mobile. What happens if you put f's overlay back on it in the original orientation now that you've rotated the grid?

the method for getting the final phrase is hinted at fully by the remaining flavortext

Yes sir :)

#1 thing I always forget when working on cryptic puzzles, "I'm working on a cryptic puzzle"

user image

@LeppyR64 like that?

Yeah, but I got reprimanded for requesting that :)

heh, not reprimanded

8:09 PM

well, out to lunch. good luck!

just letting you know that f'''s overlay was incorrectly rotated

see ya!

But we've already used the correctly rotated layout now, right?

The letters as Wesley just posted them are correct

(ignore the colours)

you haven't used it for anything yet

Exactly, we need to figure this out "Chess.com made me look like an idiot, but I became much more studious with the help of Wikipedia."

idiot is a cryptic clue

8:13 PM

@Deusovi I meant: we already used the picture f'' made (to fill the letters into the 8x8 square) but in the correct orientation. Right?

yep!

user image

With CHESS letters highlighted.

Ok, so idiot implies that there are anagrams.

not quite

the flavortext here is not a cryptic clue

studious might b e a clue too

8:18 PM

"idiot" does refer to something else though

@Deusovi (Please don't be me, please don't be me...)

4

Need another hint?

8:37 PM

Never gonna say no to that!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Chess may be useful.

@WesleySitu "i'd feel like an idiot if i went to chess.com and didnt know what some terms meant"

56 minutes left.

Okay, guys, I think "idiot" and "studious" must refer to Fool's mate and Scholar's mate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_mate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar%27s_mate

You're probably right.

9:11 PM

Got it!

Good. I just finished dinner with the kids

Trying to write it up before I have to head over to daycare and grab mine.

9:26 PM

@Dan: Nicely done! Hopefully it was enjoyable.

Super fun. Definitely a team effort.

Indeed. I was tripped shortly there. I would never play e6 in response to f3

but why e6 and not e5?

I had it in my Favorites forever, waiting for f'' or someone to come back to it and finish it off, but finally dove in myself.

That's why those sites were mentioned: you specifically need to use the example games from each site.

9:28 PM

yep, I'm looking for the chess.com one to edit in Dan's answer

but can't find it

@LeppyR64 @WesleySitu @Volatility Nice work!

Off to grab the kids.

In chess, Fool's Mate, also known as the "Two-Move Checkmate", is the checkmate in the fewest possible number of moves from the start of the game. A prime example consists of the moves: 1. f3 e5 2. g4?? Qh4# resulting in the position shown. (The pattern can have slight variations: White might play 1.f4 instead of 1.f3 or move the g-pawn first, and Black might play 1...e6 instead of 1...e5.) == Details == Fool's Mate received its name because it can only occur if White plays extraordinarily weakly (i.e. foolishly). Even among rank beginners, the mate almost never occurs in practice. The same basic...

chess.com/chessopedia/view/fools-mate

e6 is one of the alternate lines

You use the Fool's Mate from chess.com and the Scholar's Mate from Wikipedia.

9:29 PM

ah makes sense!

The only issue is that the chess.com one was updated with a video... at 3:22 this morning.

ha!

And they removed the old one.

Nice. I originally used the wikipedia one and got CPEC and was like: "well, this is going nowhere..."

That's where I stalled too. Go get your kids :)

9:31 PM

:)

Well, you know what they say about offsite resources

I'm typing up a full explanation with all the answers, as well as the meta-piece association.

But you said you had it before I really looked further

@ffao: True...

I'm bountying your full explanation as a puzzle-bountying hack

9:38 PM

on a completely off topic aside, anyone here play mtg?

i've played it!

i'm not very good though :P

@WesleySitu I used to played it about 15-20 years ago. Haven't played it since then. I believe it was 4th edition

oh, well if youre ever interested in getting back into it, the prerelease for Eldritch Moon is coming up!

with the return of Emrakul

Alliances was the last expansion I played. It's cost prohibitive for me now. I love the mechanics of the game though. It's part of the reason why I enjoy Hearthstone so much, without all the cost.

ahhh, hearthstones fun too

maybe you can make one of those 'win this turn' kind of puzzles here

9:49 PM

"Lethal", maybe.

10:08 PM

0

A: Chess Fortnight is finally over!

FULL ANSWER LIST WITH EXPLANATIONS I'm using standard cryptic annotations here: +: concatenation. hom: homophone. 2def: double definition. (): insertion. Lowercase letter: deletion. *: anagram. <: reversal. Meta 1 Clues: Meta 2 Clues: Meta 3 Clues: Meta 4 Clues: Meta 5 Clues: ...

Here's the explanation.

Hope you all enjoyed it! :D

"Chess Fortnight is finally over" is finally over!

11:00 PM

Woohoo!

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