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

Normal and Heroic

White King

Normal	Heroic

Special cards[]

Black King

White King

Deck[]

Normal

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

Class	Card	Quantity
Boss	White Pawn/Black Pawn	16
	White Bishop/Black Bishop	4
	White Rook/Black Rook	4
	White Knight/Black Knight	4
	White Queen/Black Queen	2

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.^[1]

Class	Card	Quantity
Boss	White Pawn	8
	White Bishop	2
	White Rook	2
	White Knight	2
	White Queen	1

Videos[]

Rewards[]

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.^[2]

"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^[3]

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 Chess event also helped design this encounter for Hearthstone.^[2]
The Black and White Pawns' summon quote "En passant" refers to En passant, 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.