Back to The Final Runaround Elsewhere Solution
The Lion and the Unicorn (Runaround)

During the final runaround, teams entered the room to find the Lion and Unicorn arguing with each other about how the Lion has cheated at their chess games. They also found three wooden chess boards with Nurikabe puzzles engraved on them. Alongside each was a box of laser-cut wooden tetrominoes and pentominoes painted with water and land patterns, and with chess pieces attached.

Upon giving the Unicorn the cardboard cutouts of the Dormouse, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare obtained after solving the Mock Turtle meta, teams were given wooden chess piece versions of those characters. They were instructed to reassemble the boards, and then to place one piece on each board to create a mate in one for White (with Black to move first).

Rules and instructions

The Unicorn handed each team several copies of these rules, which explain both Nurikabe and fairy chess.

Nurikabes

Instructions: Solve like a standard Nurikabe.

Spoiler alert! The chess boards in the section below contain solutions to the Nurikabes.

Chess puzzles

Instructions: Place a Dormouse, a Mad Hatter, and a March Hare, one on each board. Then on each board, Black makes one move, and White must be able to mate on the following move.

See the rules document, above, for details about piece movements.

All fairy pieces belong to White. "W" is the Walrus, "F" is the Fish Footman, and "S" is the Sheep.