Chess Challenge in Serpent’s Trail
During your journey through the Serpent’s Trail, located beneath the Serpent Fortress, you will face one of the trials — a chess game. For most players, this trial will seem the hardest of all, but the developers offer several ways to overcome it. In Baldur’s Gate 3, there are two ways to solve the chess puzzle.
Method 1
The chess puzzle in BG3 can be solved legitimately, which means playing the game for real. You can figure out the solution on your own if you are a chess player. Alternatively, if Gale is in your party, he will start a dialogue with you and say that he knows how to beat the challenge, providing you choose to listen to the wizard.
If you select Gale as the active character, he will highlight the squares where the chess piece needs to be placed, making the task much easier.
However, the following sequence can be executed by any character. The solution is as follows:
- Select the “White Queen” piece by clicking on it.
- Possible moves will be highlighted on the board. Click on the square at the top right corner of the board. After this move, the Black King will move.
- Select your White Queen again and move it four squares to the left as indicated by the wizard’s hint. Since the Black King has no place to escape, this results in a checkmate. Objective achieved!
Method 2
You can alternatively solve the chess puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3 by being creative — simply “kill” the Black King. The requirement is to defeat him in less than two moves.
However, this won’t be an easy task as the chess piece is immune to everything except lightning.
Again, you can use any mage who has lightning damage spells, or use a scroll with the same characteristics. For example, Gale is perfect for this role. He has the “Lightning Strike” spell, which at level 6 deals 66 damage, more than enough to cover the Black King’s health.
Use the spell, after which the Black King will disappear, and the trial of the Hall of Planning will be considered completed.
