Chess

Chess is a boss encounter in the One Night in Karazhan adventure. It is the third encounter of the first wing, The Parlor. The boss for the encounter is the Black King.

During this boss fight, the player does not choose a deck or control one of the usual heroes. Instead, the player controls the White King, and uses a special premade deck and Hero Power.

Hero Power

 * Black King


 * White King

Normal
In Normal mode both players use the same deck, except for the colour of the pieces.

Heroic
On Heroic the number of each card in the player's deck is halved, resulting in a deck of just 15 cards (see below). The Black King's deck matches the player's deck, but has an additional 15 Pawns at the bottom of the deck.

Normal
With the exception of the White Knight and Black Knight, the pieces in this fight do not attack as normal. Rather, they auto-attack at the end of the owner's turn against the opponent's minions across from them. If the human and computer players have an uneven number of pieces on the board, auto-attack minions except those on the edges will attack both minions across from them. If an auto-attack minion has no minions directly or diagonally across from it, it will deal damage to the enemy hero. As with all end-of-turn effects, minions which have taken fatal damage will not be removed until all pieces have completed their auto-attacks.

Heroic
Heroic is the exact same fight as normal with two exceptions. First, the player's deck is reduced from 30 to 15 cards (mulligan included) while the boss' deck remains at 30 cards, so the player will need to win fairly quickly. Second, instead of discovering a minion, the Heroic version of the player's Hero Power Castle moves a piece to the left instead. This makes the encounter winnable only with careful thought and consideration (as well as a bit of luck).

The opponent's Cheat will be a major obstacle, and from around turn 6 onward you will have to deal with losing a piece every turn. Always attempt to leave a Pawn at the left-hand side of the board, ideally a damaged one. Castle is primarily useful for countering Cheat, although it can also help to optimise positioning, such as ensuring your White Queen strikes two enemy pieces.

The key to the encounter is to make the most of each piece's damage (and healing) potential, and to remove priority targets quickly - Knights are useful for this. Beyond that, remember not to play too carefully - Cheat, plus the player's small supply of cards, means the player will eventually lose no matter how well they play, and victory can often be claimed a few turns early by focusing on going face.

Wing completion
As the final boss of The Parlor, defeating the Black King also unlocks the following cards:

Dialogue
Before match
 * Moroes
 * ''*Sigh* Medivh left the chess pieces out again. This might get tricky...

Introduction
 * Black King
 * ''None shall pass!
 * White King
 * ''En garde!

Turn 1
 * Moroes
 * ''Here, pieces will attack automatically at the end of your turn.

Turn 2
 * Moroes
 * ''If a piece is in between two enemies, it will strike them both!

Turn 3
 * Moroes
 * ''Proper positioning is key to victory. Get those double attacks!

Turn 6
 * Moroes
 * ''The other guests are lining up outside! We’re nearly to the opera, but we need to hurry!

Running low on pieces
 * Moroes
 * ''Sir, you don’t have many pieces. If you run out, you will lose.

Out of pieces
 * Moroes
 * ''You have run out of pieces. The game is forfeit.

Defeat
 * White King
 * ''Checkmate...

Victory
 * Moroes
 * ''Well done! At this rate, we'll reach the top of the tower in time to save the party!

Wing completion
 * Moroes
 * ''Excellent! The opera house is just up those stairs! I'm sure Barnes will let us through quickly!

Emotes
Greetings
 * White King
 * ''Care for a game?
 * Black King
 * ''Always.

Well Played
 * White King
 * ''Checkmate.
 * Black King
 * ''Not yet.

Thanks
 * White King
 * ''How very kind.
 * Black King
 * ''Any time.

Threaten
 * White King
 * ''I see a mate in 4.
 * Black King
 * ''I see one in 3.

Oops
 * White King
 * ''Oh, a blunder.
 * Black King
 * ''Or a trap?

Wow
 * White King
 * ''Ah, exceptional!
 * Black King
 * ''Naturally.

Unused
The following emotes feature in the game's files, but due to the removal of the "Sorry" emote, and because there is no time constraint in adventures, they are never heard during the encounter. However, the "Thinking" emotes are heard in the subsequent A Friendly Game of Chess Tavern Brawl.

Thinking 1
 * White King
 * ''Rook to A3...

Thinking 2
 * White King
 * ''Knight to F6...

Thinking 3
 * White King
 * ''Queen to E5...No, no...

Sorry
 * White King
 * ''An unfortunate development.
 * Black King
 * ''A necessary sacrifice.

Lore
Medivh set out this life-size chess set to entertain his guests, but the magic of the tower has gone crazy, and now the chess set has a mind of its own.


 * ''"There’s only one game in the game room, and that game is chess. You see, Medivh is a dedicated aficionado of chess. The masterfully carved pieces, the intricate strategies, the meeting of mind and will! The Master just loves it. Yes, chess is the game for this game room. That could be because the pieces are so large that there’s no room for other games in here. It could also be that the pieces get offended when other games are introduced and, ah, tend to violently destroy them when no one is watching. Well, whatever the reason, chess it is!"


 * "Is it dangerous? While this chess set is animated by immensely powerful magics and sometimes exhibits a mind of its own, I assure you that it’s perfectly safe. Unless you happen to be backgammon, ha ha!" - Moroes

Trivia

 * For an extensive discussion of this encounter's design process and various discarded iterations, see Hearthside Chat: Designing Karazhan's Chess Event with Peter Whalen.
 * This encounter was recreated two months after its release in the A Friendly Game of Chess Tavern Brawl.
 * The decks in this encounter contain the same number of pieces as a real chess game, except for the Kings, who are represented by the heroes.
 * One of the designers who worked on the original World of Warcraft also helped design this encounter for Hearthstone.
 * The Black and White Pawns' summon quote "En passant" refers to , a chess mechanic that under certain circumstances allows a pawn to capture an enemy pawn by moving past it.
 * Both the Black and White Kings depict a crowned Medivh, carrying Atiesh.

Patch changes

 * Added.