Week One - Task #03. - “The Philosopher's Stone Chambers”

[Prof. Alexander Brighton]

With building anticipation, you see that the next badge is located in a part of the castle you had never been before: The chambers leading to where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden all those years ago!

You and your team are full of excitement as you make your way down there and are chatting among your group about the stories that you have heard of the Philosopher's Stone and what went on down there between the Boy Who Lived, his friends, and Professor Quirrell/Voldemort. The passageways and chambers down there are still in complete chaos, it's obvious nobody had cleaned up after those events.

Your group finally arrives at the famous giant chess board. You are surprised to see that the chess board you have heard so much about, is recovered and in one piece. You see the badge on the other side of the chess board. You realize that you need to play a game of chess in order to get past it and collect the badge. Seems simple, but there is one catch. There is no magic involved, which means you must physically move the pieces yourself. No cheating!

Task:
Play this online chess game in order to find the next badge. https://www.chess.com/
Post a screenshot of the completed game below to show that you were victorious or post a link to it using an image hosting website like tinypic, photobucket or postimages.

Alternatively, tell us a story about you playing chess and how you moved the giant chess pieces in order to defeat the game (remember you can't use magic). Please make this at least 100 words.

[Janne Halla]

The pieces loomed above us, as if they were towering statues carved from marble. We couldn’t use magic, not even a simple levitation charm, so it was up to pure teamwork and strategy. And a lot of muscle and strength

"Alright," I said, pointing to the knight. "We push it two spaces forward and one to the left. Ready?"

Myself and three others on my team heaved against the knight’s base, grunting as the piece scraped across the floor. Every move was really a group effort, four of us shoving bishops, three tugging pawns into place. We had to think ahead, pausing between moves to catch our breath and plot our next step, careful not to leave any piece unguarded.

Halfway through, we nearly lost the queen to a well-placed rook. "Block it with the bishop!" I shouted, and the others sprinted to slide the tall piece into position just in time.

In the end, we cornered the black king. The final push was exhausting, dragging the queen across the board to checkmate. Cheers echoed through the chamber as we collapsed on the floor, sweaty but with a badger in our possession.

[Helenarosequeen Granger]

[Luna Ravenlong]

https://imgur.com/a/lPYoPhY

[River Fenwick]

The massive chess pieces, made from dark and light marble, towered over me as I stepped onto the chessboard. The lack of magic in this scenario will be daunting, but my team is determined, including myself. We first tried to move the pieces by brute force, pushing them with our full weight, but it quickly became apparent that we'd tire before we could finish the game to get the badge. Luckily, there was some rope around, which we incorporated into our tactic, paired with pushing them, to make the pieces easier for us to move. We ultimately managed, though we were a bit more exhausted than planned.

[Ivy Grey]

I was exhausted. Working my body and my brain at a game of chess was not easy. My team included myself and 4 others, and at that moment, when we were so close to finishing the game, collecting the badge felt impossible, but we got up and planned our next move. After a few minutes of brainstorming, I called out, "I think we should move the queen 4 spaces forward!" My teammates nodded, and with all our might we pushed the piece of white marble forward.

At the start of the game, my team had underestimated the complexity of chess and it lead to many of our pieces being captured. But now, as we waited for the opponent to make their move, I was confident that we were going to win.

And so we did! Within a matter of minutes, we had checkmated the black king! We danced around, exhausted as we were, cheering and whooping at our success! That's another badge in our hands.