A warning from the spies at GCHQ: a robber is on the loose, intent on stealing Christmas presents. Luckily, he won’t find it easy.
The robber’s target, according to the British intelligence and security agency, is a house with a large number of rooms, each of which has a letter, which are linked to each other by coloured doors and arrows. He can’t go through the same-coloured door twice in a row, and can’t move against any arrows. Eventually, the robber is caught by the police. How was he acting?
The answer to this question – and six other festive brainteasers – can be deduced from the spy agency’s annual Christmas card, which for the first time this year features designs by schoolchildren alongside its famous puzzles.
Seven knotty questions have been set by GCHQ’s in-house puzzlers, designed to test code breaking, maths and analysis techniques, and skills such as lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance. Puzzlers are encouraged to work in groups and use different ways of thinking to reveal a final Christmassy message.
One question asks puzzlers to scan the card itself looking for “a special seven-letter word which has no repeated letters and no letters which are next to each other in the alphabet”. Another invites them to crack a code that begins “PIGMIHM DRP MHSIAMA QDMPM MBNDQ UITL-FMQQML …” and, notes the question, contains lots of four-letter words. The two hyphenated words are highlighted in red, as is “four-letter”.
The agency’s director, Anne Keast-Butler, said: “Puzzles are at the heart of GCHQ’s work to keep the country safe from hostile states, terrorists and criminals; challenging our teams to think creatively and analytically every day.
“I hope this challenge inspires the next generation to explore Stem subjects and consider the rewarding careers available in cybersecurity and intelligence. Who knows – some of these talented schoolchildren might be solving our own puzzles in the future.”
More than 500 pupils took part in the competition to design a Christmas card imagining what GCHQ looks like on Christmas Day; their entries were judged by Keast-Butler and the agency’s “chief puzzler”, whom it identifies only as Colin.
Three winning designs were chosen, submitted by Haoran, a year 8 student from Wilson’s school in London, Mariia, who is in year 10 at the Henry Beaufort school in Winchester, and year 12 pupil Amelie from South Wilts grammar school in Salisbury.
Colin said the puzzles in the card had been devised to suit different skill sets: “Some will suit analytical minds; others require creative leaps of perseverance. That’s entirely intentional – we want groups of classmates, families and friends working together, combining their different strengths to reveal the final festive message.
“With over 140,000 downloads last year, we know these puzzles bring people together over the festive period. All ages are encouraged to give them a go and remember puzzle-solving is often better as a team effort and more fun, too!” Puzzles have been included in the agency’s annual Christmas card since 2015.
This year’s Christmas card is available for schools and members of the public to download from GCHQ.gov.uk. Answers will be published at 9pm on Wednesday 10 December.
