The path to Ansur beneath Baldur’s Gate places several trials before the player. The Chamber of Strategy is possibly one of the most interesting puzzles in Baldur’s Gate 3, if only because it is immediately recognizable to everyone playing: it is a chess puzzle.
The Chamber of Strategy is part of the Ansur quest in Baldur’s Gate 3. While you might have just stumbled your way down here, it’s a piece of Wyll’s companion quest, provided you’ve rescued his dad from the Iron Throne prison. As part of your quest to gain the support of the dragon Ansur, you’ll need to overcome various trials in order to earn an audience.
Part of being cool enough to hang out with a dragon appears to be knowing chess. Check yourself before you wreck yourself, and head on in to solve the puzzle.
Chamber of Strategy rules, explained
Managing the board in Baldur’s Gate 3 is simple enough. You have three tries to correctly checkmate the black King within two moves, or mate in two. Click on a piece to select it, as though you’re putting your hand on it, and again on a valid spot to move it. Note you can right-click to deselect. If you make an incorrect move, one life in the back will disappear, and the board will reset.
All of the pieces work the same as real-world chess, so don’t worry about the characters calling it “lanceboard.” This is good ol’ fashioned chess, and the best news is, we can win either the smart way or the fun way.
How Chess Pieces Move
If you’re not too familiar with Chess, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are all the ways chess pieces can move on a chessboard, including the ones in this puzzle:
- Pawn – Forward one square, with the option to move forward two squares on its first move only. Can capture diagonally forward one square.
- Knight – Moves in an L-Shape. Two squares in a direction, then one more square perpendicular to that.
- Bishop – Move an unlimited amount of squares diagonally.
- Rook – Move an unlimited amount of squares horizontally or vertically.
- Queen – Move an unlimited amount of squares diagonally, horizontally, or vertically.
- King – Moves one square in any direction.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Chamber of Strategy puzzle solution
In order to solve the Chamber of Strategy Puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3, you essentially need to score a checkmate in two turns or zap the purple King chess piece with lightning spells.
Solution number one is to tackle this as straightforward as possible: just be good at chess. If you have Gale in your party, you can consult him for help. There are several different board states for this puzzle, so it’s quite possible yours may look different. If yours looks like mine in the images here, then Rook to g8 followed by Queen to g7 should do the trick.
By playing chess, you can beat the game on its own terms. But hey, if you have Gale or another spellcaster in your party, you can also note that the King is weak to Lightning damage. They did say you just had to beat the King, right? Give the giant piece a shock, and that will also, somehow, count as a win.
Either way, the victory is yours, and you even learned some chess along the way. Take the win, and head on over to the Courage, Justice, and Insight chambers to continue on your path to Ansur.
