Back

Solution to The Lion and the Unicorn

Author: Lauren Herring
Component puzzles by: Lauren Herring, Jason Juang, Dan Katz, and Ankur Mehta
Laser cutting and physical production: Lauren Herring and James Wiken

The Nurikabe solutions are shown in the light and dark patterns of the chessboards.

The three chess puzzle solutions are depicted here. The Hatter is a very powerful piece, and can actually mate on any of the boards. However, the Hare and Dormouse are only useful on one board each, forcing you to use the Hatter on the remaining board.

1. HT=d5+ a2
2. Fh3#
1. HR=g5+ Nxg5
2. Sd8#
This puzzle has multiple solutions; placing the Hare on any square highlighted in red results in a mate. Using d5 or any square along that diagonal is much more exciting because it pins both the knight on e6 and the pawn on f7 to the king. However, most solvers opted for the simpler placement on the g file.
1. DM=e6+ Kd8
2. Nf7# (or Rf8#)

Once teams present a valid solution, the Unicorn gratefully offers them a gift. He takes one of the Black kings off the board, pours some "Drink Me" liquid on it, and produces a 3-foot-tall plastic Black king for teams to take with them.

This is what one of the boards looks like when assembled: