The Balloon Merchant's Gambit
by Asher Walkover
Answer: EQUINES
The chess game being described takes place on a chessboard where every square contains a letter. As the chess pieces move during the course of the game, their movements spell out words in the grid, which are hinted at by the names the players use to describe their moves. The first letter of the final word in each of these names gives a hint to the length of the solution.
For example, white opens the game with a move he calls the Tavern Commencement. "Tavern" is clueing the word PUB, which is partially confirmed by Commencement starting with a C, which indicates that it's a three letter solution. Whichever piece white moved on his first turn (the column d pawn as it happens) must therefore have started on a square with a P, moved over a square with a U, and ended the turn on a square with a B.
Note that (as black says on his second move) knight moves should always be considered to first be two steps in one direction, then one step in another direction, for purposes of determining what squares a knight passes over on his move.
Some of the early game can be reconstructed entirely from the hints in the players' banter and the knowledge of how far the pieces moved on each turn. Black's 6th move was to castle, so he must have already moved his king-side knight at that point, and turn 2 is the only option for when that could have happened (it's the only move of length four). Black's 5th turn could only have been black's king-side bishop making a capture on a3, which means white's 5th move was to put his rook onto a3, and therefore when white moved a piece four spaces to capture on a3 on move 6, that could only have been the queen-side knight. In turn this means the knight that white used on move 4 was the king-side knight. A bit later, because the two players are even on material on turn 10, black had to have moved his queen-side rook on turn 8, for white to capture it with their bishop on turn 10.
The rest of the game needs to be deduced working with the constraints of fitting the clued words into the grid of letters. After the full game and grid of letters has been reconstructed, we can figure out white's final move that put the black king into checkmate. White moved their queen along the diagonal from b1 to h7, spelling out EQUINES in the grid by doing so. The title of the puzzle is a hint to the enumeration of the answer; "Gambit", starting with G, clues 7.
The state of the game after 20 turns, as white is about to checkmate black:
The full game:
The full game:
White 1 | Tavern Commencement | PUB | d4 |
Black 1 | Thinking Machine Blitz | AI | e6 |
White 2 | Tokarev Pistol Bluff | TT | e3 |
Black 2 | Concept Deception | IDEA | Nf6 |
White 3 | Psychic Power Cannon | ESP | a4 |
Black 3 | Lovelace Contrivance | ADA | d5 |
White 4 | Tiny Chessman Drive | PAWN | Nh3 |
Black 4 | Rank Charge | ROW | a5 |
White 5 | Affirmative Coercion | YES | Ra3 |
Black 5 | Broadcast Receivers Feint | RADIOS | Bxa3 |
White 6 | Slippery Fish Dodge | EELS | Nxa3 |
Black 6 | Hindi Honorific Crossing / Knight's Honorific Crossing | SRI / SIR | O-O |
White 7 | Proven Cheat | QED | c4 |
Black 7 | Grandmaster Capablanca's Homeland Defense? | CUBA | Nbd7 |
White 8 | Schnoz Deceit | NOSE | Ng5 |
Black 8 | Spanish Gold Conspiracy | ORO | Ra6 |
White 9 | Russian Affirmative Barrage | DA | cxd5 |
Black 9 | Verdi Opera Deterrence | AIDA | Nxd5 |
White 10 | Workshop Foray | STUDIO | Bxa6 |
Black 10 | Grandmaster Wesley's Blunder | SO | bxa6 |
White 11 | Toboggan Decoy | SLED | Nc4 |
Black 11 | Neighbor Doublecross | ABUT | Nxe3 |
White 12 | Appropriate Chicanery | APT | Bxe3 |
Black 12 | Mayday Collision | SOS | h5 |
White 13 | Candy -Caps Crossfire | SNO | h4 |
Black 13 | Fryer Counterattack | PAN | f5 |
White 14 | Astonishment Crusade | AWE | g4 |
Black 14 | British Bum Disputation | ARSE | Nb6 |
White 15 | Enjoy Food Dupe | DINE | Nxb6 |
Black 15 | Second Note Booby-trap | RE | cxb6 |
White 16 | Slangy Sweetie Confederacy | BAE | Qb1 |
Black 16 | America Bombardment | US | Bb7 |
White 17 | 550 Barricade | DL | f3 |
Black 17 | Slowpoke Error | SNAIL | Bxf3 |
White 18 | Afterthought Blindside | PS | Rh2 |
Black 18 | Lousy Cover | BAD | Qd6 |
White 19 | Chess Rating System Chase | ELO | b4 |
Black 19 | Stalemates Engagement | DRAWS | Qxh2 |
White 20 | Oakland Team Bait-and-switch | AS | Kf1 |
Black 20 | Omaha State Bulwark | NE | fxg4 |
White 21 | EQUINES | Qh7# |