Chess Event Strategy in One JPG

[Chrth]

(Disclaimer: This strategy is not 100% guaranteed to succeed due to the RNG of Medivh cheating. However, it is the strategy I've had the most success with in the past when soloing the Chess Event. I don't know if the nerf last night makes another strategy more viable)

I can not state enough how important it is to get your King out of the fire. Stop whatever you're doing and get him out when Medivh cheats.

Not mentioned in the pic but still important: if you do choose to use your king towards the end, keep him close to the rooks. And while it's stated you can choose King or Queen at the end, the reality is as you get more comfortable you'll want to move some more pawns out and possibly reposition the rooks or knights to deal with the opposing pieces as laid out by Medivh.

Good luck!


EDIT:

NOTE: I'VE REJECTED THE ALTERNATE STRAT. SEE PAGE 3 FOR INFO.

An alternate strat I'm going to try later since it appears Medivh doesn't cheat as fast as he used to:

1. Move out King's Pawn (as normal)
2. Move the queen out two spaces in zig-zag (so she ends up in front of her pawn)
3. Continue with strat as normal

Getting the queen out may mean earlier damage on the opposing king, and will allow you time to move the queen also if the king and queen are both targeted by fire (in the original strat if the king and queen are both targeted, the queen is essentially sacrificed)

[Robotusch]

Thanks a lot. Went in and one-shot it with this tactic, even though I lost a rook to Medivh's cheating

Edit: And the pet dropped off Prince at the first time of asking, so thankfully I'll never have to do the Chess Event again

[Macfly]

Chess was nerfed this morning with a hotfix this morning.

Karazhan

Chess Event: Increased the delay between moves for enemy chess pieces.

[Chrth]

Thanks a lot. Went in and one-shot it with this tactic, even though I lost a rook to Medivh's cheating

You will always lose pieces; that can't be helped. The original iteration of this strategy only had one rook out - and the reality is you can win with only one rook out - but getting both out helps a ton.

Edit: And the pet dropped off Prince at the first time of asking, so thankfully I'll never have to do the Chess Event again

Yes, I was very happy when the same thing happened with my priest's T4 farm.

[Chrth]

Chess was nerfed this morning with a hotfix this morning.
Karazhan
Chess Event: Increased the delay between moves for enemy chess pieces.

Yep. As I said in the OP, I don't know if the nerf last night makes another strategy more viable. The main thing this strat does is help with Medivh cheating, and in fact, some of the times I've won it's because Medivh moved his king into my defense lines without much support - so the "nerf" actually reduces the likelihood of this happening.

IIRC, the Event became less easily soloable in Cata after Medivh was hotfixed to cheat more frequently. That hasn't been addressed with this nerf.

[Robotusch]

One thing that helped me, was that despite standing adjacent to my king, his king was facing 90 degrees to the side and was busy beating up the other rook

[Mystical]

I just want to say: Thank you!!! This strategy works perfectly

[Evedelas]

Thank you so much for this useful information. All of the ones that I found yesterday were garbage and did not really help at all.

Evedelas

[Ackis]

A variant worked for me.

Took me two attempts to realize I had to do it backwards because I'm horde.

I'm not a smart man sometimes.

[Doobjanka]

A variant worked for me.

Took me two attempts to realize I had to do it backwards because I'm horde.

I'm not a smart man sometimes.

I didn't even notice this was an Alliance one. Awesome!

[Dragonwizard]

Thanks a lot for this. I tried this like 10+ times the other day and got it the first shot with your strat.

[Olioster]

Tried this several times, no luck.

[Chrth]

A variant worked for me.

Took me two attempts to realize I had to do it backwards because I'm horde.

I'm not a smart man sometimes.

The picture is from the Alliance perspective, but the notes should work for either side (as it indicates King side or Queen side)

Tried this several times, no luck.

1 for 2 doing it last night. I do feel like Medivh doesn't cheat as fast as he used to, so an alternative strat may be to get one of the rooks out first before moving the pawn in front of the king.

[Waveryn]

On 3 toons I has success once with a variant of this strategy, but failed 6 times and do not blame the strategy but RNG/Cheats as bad luck. So I wish they would nerf it even more or better yet if one can complete it on a toon have a key in the chest or item that works per account to unlock the door to last boss to eliminate this for pet collecting

[Chrth]

An alternate strat I'm going to try later since it appears he doesn't cheat as fast as he used to:

1. Move out King's Pawn (as normal)
2. Move the queen out two spaces in zig-zag (so she ends up in front of her pawn)
3. Continue with strat as normal

Getting the queen out may mean earlier damage on the opposing king, and will allow you time to move the queen also if the king and queen are both targeted by fire (in the original strat if the king and queen are both targeted, the queen is essentially sacrificed)

I'll add this to the OP and update my findings this afternoon

EDIT: In this strat you'll want to move the rook on the king's side first, otherwise if your queen is targeted with Medivh cheating she'll have to move forward, not sideways, to avoid it. That puts her blocking the other rook's target point, but to compensate I would move the the knight's pawn up twice and then move the rook next to the queen. Quick envisioning:

If Medivh's first cheat doesn't target the Queen:


If Medivh's first cheat does target the Queen:


After the cheat ends, I would consider repositioning the queen and rook based on what Medivh has done up to that point; you may just want to move them so they appear like the first image.

[Opallena]

This strat worked beautifully; got it first attmept on my pally

[Chrth]

This strat worked beautifully; got it first attmept on my pally

Glad to hear it! But just to confirm, are you referring to the original strategy or the new one where you move the queen out at the beginning?

[Schwank05]

Once I figured to reverse the pattern for Horde, got it in one shot. But it was close only me and llane standing king v king in the end.

[Tasenet]

Worked on this for two hours. That's just not worth it to me. This is an encounter that is NOT worth it. Gave up and hearthed.

[Threnody]

I want to add my thanks to Chrth for this strat (the original one). Worked for me on my first try, with King Llane having 40k hp to spare

Sadly 0/4 pets from Kara, but it's ok. It was my first time to solo the Chess event after countless aborted Kara solo trips even before 5.3.