The GCHQ Puzzle Book - Stephen Peek

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The GCHQ Puzzle Book Competition 2016 - 2017, congratulations to the winner Mr Angus Walker.

GCHQ Competition 2016

GCHQ Puzzle Book

GCHQ Competition 2016/2017

The GCHQ Puzzle Book Competition 2016 / 2017

Questions Part 1,2 & 3

Click on puzzle for larger image

Answers below.

Answer Part 1

Sudoku Puzzle

Convert Letters into Numbers

Enigma PSU

Enter the numbers in any Sudoku Solver.

The solved Sudoku Puzzle

Convert back to Letters

Reading the letters in order following the penguins foot prints

SEE MESSAGE IN PENGUINS

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Answer Part 2

Identify the following people

Christian names are given in alphabetical order.

Surnames also use every letter of the alphabet.

Missing person: Zachary Quinto

1. Andrew     Jackson
2. Bette         Davis
3. Chiwetel     Ejiofor
4. Danny       Kaye
5. Emile         Zola
6. Flora          Robson
7. Goran        Ivanisevic
8. Heath        Ledger
9. Imelda      Marcos

10. Jesse        Owens
11. Kate          Humble
12. Luther       Vandross
13. Malcolm   X
14. Natalie      Wood
15. Oliver        Phelps
16. Peter         Ustinov
17. Quentin     Tarantino
18. Richard     Gere
19. Susan        Sarandon
20. Thom        Yorke
21. Ursula        Andress
22. Vince         Cable
23. Willie         Nelson
24. Xander      Berkeley
25. Yvette        Fielding

26. Zachary Quinto

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Answer Part 3

Message in Penguins

Penguin Message Banner

Message Hidden in the Penguins

THE PAGES INSIDE THE COVERS OF A BOOK

ARE REFERRED TO AS ENDPAPERS EVEN

THE ONES AT THE FRONT

You will need to purchase the book to

solve the Cipher printed inside the books

Front & Rear Cover (Endpapers)

Click on The GCHQ Puzzle Book

to purchase from Amazon

The GCHQ Front Cover Cipher

All profits from the sale of The GCHQ Puzzle Book will go

to Heads Together, the Mental Health Charity set up by

the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

GCHQ Endpapers Cipher

Front Inside Cover Cipher

How to solve the Front Inside Cover Cipher

Looking at each letter in turn from top left to bottom left (1st column) the V at 90 degrees, for every 45 degrees move the letter back -1 (Caesar Shift Cipher) in the alphabet. The V at 90 degrees means moving the letter back -2 in the alphabet.

Therefore V -2 = T, V -7 = O, E -0 = E & S -5 = N

Note: Check the orientation of the letter, in particular H, I, N, O, S, X & Z

Take your degree reading from the top of each letter.

V at 90 Degrees = -2, from V -2 = T

V at 315 Degrees = -7, from V -7 = O

E at 360 Degrees = 0, from E -0 = E

S at 225 Degrees = -5, from S -5 = N

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Front Cover Cipher Decoded

TO ENTER THE COMPETITION GO TO THE WEB PAGE WWW DOT GCHQPUZZLEBOOK DOT CO DOT UK SLASH EGATSTXENEHT AND ENTER THE APPRORIATE PASSWORD STOP THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO ACCESS SOME ADDITIONAL PUZZLES STOP THE PASSWORD MUST FIRST BE ENCODED USING A SIMPLE SADSYMYAYMPW CIPHER STOP BEST WISHES FROM GCHQ STOP

Enter SADSYMYAYMPW in Cryptogram Solver

Select Dictionary: British English (Medium) from the drop down

Click Solve The Cryptogram

SADSYMYAYMPW = SUBSTITUTING

EGATSTXENEHT = Next URL Address

Read from right to left: THE NEXT STAGE

https://www.gchqpuzzlebook.co.uk/egatstxeneht

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Rear Inside Cover Cipher

How to solve the Rear Inside Cover Cipher

Using Semaphore Alphabet select the 1st letter in the rear cover cipher B (at 45 degrees), look at the semaphore flag for the letter B and then rotate clockwise by +1 (45 degrees). Now read the letter the flags correspond to, in this case the letter I.

B at 45 Degrees = +1, rotate flag B 45 Degrees Clockwise = I

U at 180 Degrees = +4, rotate flag U 180 Degrees Clockwise = N

H at 45 Degrees = +1, rotate flag H 45 Degrees Clockwise = O

D at 270 Degrees = +6, rotate flag D 270 Degrees Clockwise = R

Rear Cover Cipher Decoded

IN ORDER TO CONSTRUCT THE REQUIRED TWENTY FOUR CHARACTER PASSWORD YOU MUST CONCATENATE TOGETHER THREE EIGHT LETTER WORDS STOP THE FIRST WORD IS THE SOLUTION TO THE META PUZZLE STOP THE SECOND WORD IS TAKEN FROM THE SUDOKU MESSAGE STOP THE THIRD WORD IS TAKEN FROM THE PENGUIN MESSAGE STOP

GCHQ Meta Puzzle (Puzzle Hunt)

Puzzle Hunt Answers

1. CASINO ROYALE

2. HEAT

3. TANK

4. MICRODOT

5. HRUNTING

6. YOUR NUMBER'S UP

7. FLATLAND

8. DRAGONFLY

Meta Puzzle Questions & Answers

Which letters contain the letter O twice?

1 & 4 (CASINO ROYALE & MICRODOT)

Which answers have no letters in common with GEEK?

4 & 7 (MICRODOT & FLATLAND)

Which answers contain the bigram AT?

2 & 7 (HEAT & FLATLAND)

Which answers begin with the same letter?

2 & 5 (HEAT & HRUNTING)

Which answers contain an R in the 2nd Position?

5 & 8 (HRUNTING & DRAGONFLY)

Which answers contain an A and an N exactly once each?

3 & 8 (TANK & DRAGONFLY)

Which answers contain at least one letter not found in any other answer?

6 & 3 (YOUR NUMBER'S UP & TANK)

Which answers contain more than one word?

1 & 6 (CASINO ROYALE & YOUR NUMBER'S UP)

Mark 1 - 8 in order, starting from any point.

Draw a line between 1 & 4, 4 & 7, 2 & 7, 2 & 5, 5 & 8, 3 & 8, 6 & 3

and 1 & 6. You have now completed the OCTAGRAM.

Meta Puzzle Answer: OCTAGRAM

Three eight letter words

1. OCTAGRAM

2. PENGUINS

3. REFERRED

Twenty four character password

octagrampenguinsreferred

Remember to encode the password, using your answers from question 1 part 2 (Identify the following people)

A=J, B=D, C=E, D=K, E=Z, F=R, G=I, H=L, I=M, J=O K=H, L=V, M=X, N=W, O=P, P=U, Q=T, R=G, S=S T=Y, U=A, V=C, W=N, X=B, Y=F, Z=Q

Encoded three eight letter words

1. OCTAGRAM = PEYJIGJX

2. PENGUINS = UZWIAMWS

3. REFERRED = GZRZGGZK

Twenty four character password

peyjigjxuzwiamwsgzrzggzk

GCHQ The Next Stage

The next stage URL

https://www.gchqpuzzlebook.co.uk/egatstxeneht/

Source Code

https://www.gchqpuzzlebook.co.uk/egatstxeneht/

Password

peyjigjxuzwiamwsgzrzggzk

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The real next stage is here URL

https://www.gchqpuzzlebook.co.uk/erehsiegatstxenlaereht/

Source Code

https://www.gchqpuzzlebook.co.uk/erehsiegatstxenlaereht/

The next part of the challenge, decode message.

176 142, 176 140

146 18, 146 19, 130 64, 139 2, 299 4, 176 55, 146 5, 142 6, 176 15.

294 1, 285 9, 189 5, 285 13, 130 21, 156 2, 135 25, 273 6, 275 5,

294 4, 83 8, 125 4, 139 9, 148 11, 144 12, 132 13, 157 6, 156 7, 161

10, 134 2, 238 16, 238 17

Take the first number 176, which is puzzle number 176 (Strictly Come Dancing) in The GCHQ Puzzle Book, then search for the 142nd word not including the title.

Puzzle 176 (Strictly Come Dancing) on page 77, 142nd word: well.

Puzzle 176 (Strictly Come Dancing) on page 77,140th word: done.

Puzzle 146 (Which number?) on page 68, 18th word: you.

Puzzle 146 (Which number?) on page 68, 19th word: have.

Last Numbers: 238 16, 238 17

Puzzle 238 (Kwiz kwestion) on page 97, 16th word: Greek.

Puzzle 238 (Kwiz kwestion) on page 97, 17th word: alphabet.

Decoded Message

Well done!

You have reached the final stage of the competition.

Now you should construct a wordbox as described in question one 5 six which contains all the letters of the Greek alphabet.

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GCHQ The Final Stage

Wordbox

As described in question one 5 six (156)

of the GCHQ Puzzle Book

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Now you should construct a wordbox as described in question 156 which contains all the letters of the Greek alphabet.

Greek Alphabet

ALPHA

BETA

GAMMA

DELTA

EPSILON

ZETA

ETA

THETA

IOTA

KAPPA

LAMBDA

OMICRON

RHO

SIGMA

TAU

UPSILON

PHI

CHI

PSI

OMEGA

Number of words: 24

Longest word: 7 letters

Total number of letters: 100

Smallest wordbox size: 7x7=49?

Word Wordbox Alphabetical Order

My first attempt!

Angus Walker has completed a 7x7 wordbox, using all the letters of the Greek Alphabet.

Stephen Williams has completed a 6x8 wordbox.

Could it be possible for a wordbox size:

7x6=42? or 6x6=36?

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The competition closing date: Tuesday 28th February 2017

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Message from GCHQ on

Tuesday 28th March 2017

_{Thank you for your GCHQ Puzzle Book competition entry. Unfortunately,
your solution was not the best answer that we received. The winner will
be revealed in due course!

Best wishes,}

_{The GCHQ Puzzle Book
Team.}

A tie-breaker has been issued to the finalists. The winner will be revealed in due course....

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Competition Closed: Tuesday 28th February 2017

Competitors Emailed: Tuesday 28th March 2017

Winner Announced on: Thursday 13th July 2017

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Monday 19th June 2017

I have just received a message from Mr Angus Walker....

Hi Stephen

Just thought you'd like to know that GCHQ told me last week that I'd won the competition. I haven't heard anything about what that means yet though!

Angus

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Mr Walker's Winning Wordbox

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GCHQ will be 100 years old on Tuesday 1st October 2019. Founded as the Government Code & Cypher School in 1919, changed to Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in 1946.

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