What Is Even Happening? | 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel (Northernlion Tries) 

I've got good news for you NL: The fact that I have no idea what's going on is making it very hard to backseat game.

Plays a puzzle called Rook Tactics, spends all his time moving the King.

Imagine making a game this complex and not having a tutorial. Absolute power move.

"Are ya winning son?" "I DON'T KNOW!?!?"

Listen carefully David, only an amateur would bother themselves with 3rd and 4th dimensional chess

First few minutes of the game: Rook Tactics I Him: Ok so we use the king Me: *visible confusion*

“Rook Tactics, Mate in 1. You know this is gonna start with moving your king”

So this is what goes through an anime characters head when they say "I've already defeated you"

"You have replied with an absolutely asinine move that should make you question everything about where you're at in life" I want NL to play more chess purely for that snark

"Why would you capture the pawn when you are in check when you could instead travel to an alternate dimension" I really want to see this game on today's NLSS

I used to think RU-vidrs were dumb because they miss really obvious stuff but when you're trying to narrate things theres a part of your brain that does reading comprehension that deactivates

I think the rook can only travel in a straight line, even through time. So in the puzzle you could not send your rook back in time since a piece (past rook) was already in that position. The bishop was able to take your piece by seemingly moving forward a square, by going diagonally in time. This is why I think the parallel view is important, so you can actually see the overlap. At least this is what I puzzled out in the vid, never looked up the rules for 5D chess

I think I understand this game so I'm going to do my best to explain it, it's pretty long though. TL:DR Each piece can move in its usual way like in 2D chess as well as being to move a similar way through time. Turns progress by moving the "present". Checkmate is when you can no longer move the present without escaping check. ***What the heck is going on?*** As I understand it, this game has added two time dimensions to chess to make "5D chess" You have your two regular spatial dimensions, i.e. regular chess moving across the ranks & files. It doesn't seem like you can move across the third spatial dimension (i.e. depth). Additionally you have one time dimension for going forward & backwards in time. This is represented by the different chessboards going left to right. Finally, you have another time dimension where you move along to parallel realities. This is represented by the chessboards going up and down. Note at 21:55 at the right you can very faintly see the -1L, L & +1L showing the movement. ***How do I win?*** Like in regular chess, you win by attacking your opponent's king while they have no valid moves to stop the attack. The twist here is that you can attack kings in the past and additionally in alternate realities. I'll explain how I understand each piece to move later. Since pieces can attack through time into the past and (as said throughout the video) you cannot change the past, it seems the best way to get checkmate is to attack a king in the past. This is because since it's in the past, the king cannot move and neither can any of the pieces in the past to try and block it. This means the only way to stop the check would be to take the piece currently attacking it. ***How do turns work?*** Turns alternate as usual. The catch is that every move ever is always shown, as soon as white makes the first move, a whole new board is created. Thus you can see the original state of the board and the result after white moved their piece. Note that every board has an outline, white outline means that it's white's turn to move and the same for black. A few times in the video a red border appears which I believe is the game showing you that your move is invalid because it puts the king into check (i.e. at 8:07) Which board you actually play on is determined by the big vertical line which says "present" on it. It moves towards the right at the end of every turn. To make it move, every "active" board on the present line must have a move on it. This is seen best seen around 17:50 where NL has to play a move on both boards on the present line to make it move forward and switch to black's turn. The present line, however, can shift to go to the past as seen at 13:39. NL sends the queen to the past which means the present line goes backwards too. This means play now continues from the new timeline where the queen was sent to the past as it's the furthest back "active" timeline. Not all timelines will be active though, as you can see at 14:43. The present line instead advances forward instead of going backwards to the past where he sent his queen. I imagine this is a built in system so that one player can't continuously send pieces into the past. I would guess that a timeline only becomes "active" in the past in the opposing player was the last person to send a piece into the past. Now knowing (maybe) how turns work, you can see how checkmate might work. If a player cannot advance the present line without stopping check in any reality as well as into the past, then they have been checkmated. Now you might ask how pieces move in this game and well... buckle up ***How does each piece move?*** These might not be entirely correct since I'm going based off what I can see in the video. The best way to think about it is realise you have 4 dimensions a piece can move in. Across ranks, across files, through time and into parallel realities. Or in the game's interface vertically and horizontally on the board like in 2D chess, horizontally through the timelines of all the boards & vertically through the timelines of all the boards. PAWNS - Pawns can only move forward one square (or two) in 2D chess. So in this game, that means they can move like in the usual 2D chess style or I think they can also move "forward" into a parallel reality. In the game interface, this means moving the pawn to a board directly above the current board of play as long as it does not move spatially. (EDIT: 20:34 shows this move). I'd imagine it captures in its usual way in 2D space or it can move diagonally forward through time to capture. So again imagining in parallel view, it can only capture a piece on the same relative square if the board is "forward" with respect to parellel realities and one step in the past or future. Or put yet another way, look at 21:55 and notice at the right there’s “-1L, L and +1L”. White pawns can move from +1L to L or L to -1L (if it’s not their first move I assume) as long as the same relative square is empty. ROOKS - Rooks I think are the easiest to understand, they can only move in a straight line in one dimension. This can be your regular 2D chess movement OR it can be through one of the time dimensions. In this case, it would not be moving through space to it has to stay on the same relative square (i.e. if the rook is on A1 and you want to move it through time or into a parallel reality, it must stay on square A1 on the board it ends up on). In the game's interface, this is represented by it moving to a board vertically or horizontally across from the board it's currently on as long as the space it would end up in would be empty. BISHOPS - Bishops move in two dimensions. This can be 2 space dimensions (like in regular 2D chess) or 1 space & 1 time dimesion or 2 time dimensions. Let's cover the 2 time dimensions first. As it's not moving in any spatial dimension, the square it ends up on must be the same relative square that it started on (if the bishop was on A1, it must move a certain amount of steps into a paralell dimension & the SAME amount of steps into either the future or the past where the square A1 is also empty. The alternative is in 1 spatial dimension & 1 time dimension. For example, if the bishop was on A1, it can move to B1 and one step into the past. These moves are seen at 16:31 when NL tries to move the bishop. It can move diagonally anywhere on the current board. Additionally, he could move it one step into a parallel dimension (the board to the left of the current board) and one space spatially. So it can move from C4 on the active board to one of B4, C3, C5 or D4 onto the board in the parallel dimension. Alternatively, he could move the piece 1 step in the spatial dimension & 1 step into the past. This is seen by the green squared on the board behind the current active board. He can move the bishop from C4 on the active board to one of B4, C3, C5 or D4. Finally, he can move the bishop 2 steps in the spatial dimension and 2 steps in the past. This is seen by the sole green space on the board two behind the active board. He can move it to A4 only as C6, E4 and C2 are currently blocked by other pieces. He cannot move 3 steps into the past and 3 steps in a spatial dimension because he is blocked 2 steps into the past in every direction & on A4 and 1 step out from that would be off the board. Whew. KNIGHTS - Knight move two steps in one dimension and the one step in a different dimension. This is seen at 16:47, the explanation is similar to the bishop one except that the moves are fixed at one step and 2 steps in a different dimension. If both moves are in the spatial dimensions, it's the same as 2D chess. If he moves in a combination of the time & space dimensions, he ends up on a different board. That’s why the knight moves differently. When he sends the knight back in time, he’s sent it one step in time backwards and 2 steps into a spatial dimension. Hence it moves from G1 to G3. QUEEN - Hoo boy, the queen can seemingly move in any number of the dimensions at the same time provided she also moves the same amount of steps. So for example, the queen could move two spaces along the ranks and along the files AS WELL AS moving two steps back in time and across two parallel realities. As well as any combination of only 3 or 2 or 1 of those dimensions. This is seen at 14:39 but I’m not going to explain it because that would take a while. KING - The same as the queen but he can only move one space at a time. ***So how do you solve the puzzle?*** Look at 5:08. The checkmate is to move the rook in the present time line from E1 to E5 (i.e. the bottom right corner to the top right corner). Why is that? This is because the rook is now in a straight line through the time dimension attacking the king on the first board at the top right corner. As you cannot change the past, the king cannot move out the way. The king in the present also cannot attack the rook as it is too far away so the rook cannot be taken. Finally, the king cannot block the rook’s attack as black only has a king. Thus, when it’s black’s turn, they have no move that will not leave them in check so they’re checkmated. ***Okay, so why did NL lose his match?*** -I’ll be honest, I have no idea why it’s checkmate in NL’s match at --21:48--. If anyone can shed some light on this that’d be great.- EDIT: Thank you to Tcj333 for explaining why!: "For NL's mess of a match, the bishop at +1F8 has sight on the king six spaces down, six moves in the past. He has no means to attack the bishop, and as he has made one timeline more than the opponent, any further timelines would be inactive and unable to help." So at 19:58 he moves his king to F2, 6 turns later the black bishop at F8 results in checkmate. So yeah that took a while, I'm sure others have explained it better in shorter forms but this is my understanding of it.

When do we get a Golden Goblet of this? Whoever can beat the first puzzle in the time limit gets gold.

I’d say for a puzzle that says “Rook Tactics”, you try moving the Rook, I don’t know

"rook tactics 1" We gotta move the king

The real 5D chess move is NL choosing a game no one knows how to backseat in.

This is the funniest shit ever. Cybercastling had me legit in stitches. This is the best NL tries ever and the fact that there is no tutorial just made it exceptionally better

I think I've figured out why the pieces are moving "differently" when traveling back in time. They're not. They're following the same pattern. Rooks move in straight orthoganal lines. So that could be Up/Down, Left/Right, Forward/Back, or Upside/Downside (dimensionally). So a rook moving back in time will not appear to have moved, but just popped into existence at the same location, but in the past. Bishops move in straigth diagonal lines. That means it must combine two of the previous directions. So that could be Up-Left, or Down-Right. Or it could be Back-Down, or Upside-Left. Similarly Knights move in a hook pattern. That's 2 moves in one orthoganal direction, and one move in a different orthoganal direction (since they are all at right angles from each other). So it might move Down 2 spaces, and Back 1 space. Pretty sure the first puzzle somehow involves moving the Rook back in time to put the black King in check on turn 1

my caveman brain cannot comprehend what’s going on here

if i have a child, this is the only game they're allowed to play

I'm actually crying with laughter, this is the greatest content of all time. The egg is broken!

ah yes, the puzzle called "rook tactics" involves moving your king to a different timeline. Obviously

I was zoning out alt-tabbed and then i heard "i'm in check but only one of my kings" and i lost my shit

for exactly one moment watching the video, I understood completely. The game made sense. After a full minute of blank-eyed confusion at that bishop move, I saw the goddamn fifth dimension I swear. And then just like that it was gone and I'll never get the understanding back.

Rook tactic, one move. So I move the king twice? That's a kind of rook right? NO

*AlphaZero:* _* Plays 5D Chess *_ *Life, Universe and Everything:* Why do I hear Boss Music?

Y’all be play checkers while NL over here’s playing 5D chess

Just the title of this alone tells me it will be the most important NL video ever made

That moment when your good at chess but try to make multiple moves in a mate-in-one

"We've created a parallel world where we can send our King back in time" sounds like the title of a light novel.

Gotta admit I don't have any idea what's going on here, but it's entertaining

I'd watch a series of videos you did on this, totally blind just trying to beat this one puzzle.

I was following until that bishop decided it didn't feel like following the rules of chess.

NL 2 minutes in, after making a small game on easiest difficulty "I'm a little overwhelmed." Me: Grabs popcorn.

I'm so glad he's playing this. To everyone complaining about a tutorial, you understand a bit better if you read more than a couple sentences of the rules. To brief anyone who wants to understand what's happening, pieces move with the same method they do in normal chess, but instead of just two dimensions (X, Y), you can choose from X, Y, time, or timeline. For instance, normally a knight moves two spaces in one dimension, and then one in another; here, instead of just X:Y, you could move two spaces forward and one timeline up, or two moves into the past and one space left. Similarly, a bishop moves in equal parts along two dimensions (normally one Y for every X), here it's the same principle, but with added dimensions to choose from. For example at 15:15, the black bishop moved one space down on the Y axis, and one board down on the timeline - equal movement against two dimensions. A rook can move as far as it wants in any one dimension. It can move like normal on X or Y, but it can also move linearly as many moves into the past, or as many timelines up or down as it wants, though it doesn't move along the X or Y so it'll be in the same spot at its destination. As the rules explains, you generally don't want to time travel unless necessary. The past cannot be changed, so time travel creates a split timeline. The significance of this is that if you position a piece so that it can target the king in the past, the past king can't defend itself. The only solution is to capture the attacking piece before the present progresses. Creating more timelines creates more pasts to attack. In the Rook mate-in-one puzzle, all NL had to do was move the rook to the last rank, since the king occupied that spot in the past. The rook has sight linearly into the past.

I think this might be the greatest viewing experience I've had in a long time

Why would someone not provide a tutorial or a quick explanation with this game, it's actually boggling that the creator would just be "just get 5d chess 4head"

the part that makes me the angriest is he literally read the solution to the first puzzle out loud and proceed to not know what to do, to solve said puzzle

NL is actually prepping for the next Pogschamps / twitch rivals chess

Ok so I'm here from the future to explain the first puzzle to you so that you will make the video that explains the first puzzle to me in my past and your future. Ignore parallel dimensions for a second and view the progression of time as a third dimension: the current board is one side of the cube, and the first move is the opposite side of the cube. The rook can move in straight lines in this cube: it can move straight back in time, straight up on the current board, or straight to the left on the current board. Your own rook is blocking your movement straight into the past, (you stay in the same spot on the board when you move straight into the past, so your past rook is blocking your present rook from moving that way) Moving your rook to the top right square attacks the king at the start of the game. Nothing black does can change where the king was at the start of that turn (the first turn) so the king is completely unprotected. Initially I was confused because the king moves on its first turn out of the way of the attack, but this doesn't actually block the rook from taking the king on the first turn, because the rook still has a straight line into the past that attacks the king.

Once you learn everything it makes so much sense, but before that it's laughably confusing.

29:20 Option 1: Disappointed dad. Option 2: Good ol' toe stub. Option 3: Missing author medal in TM. Option 4: POG session of 5D Chess

This is it. This is your best video. It's all downhill from here.

he skipped 4d chess because it was way too easy for old Northernloin,the lucky

I have never learned how to play regular chess. Would you say this is a good entry point into the game?

I feel like when you send Knight Ulrich back in time to attack Helge, he would move a knight's move where time is a dimension. Such as back two moves, and then move 1 space cardinally.

From the steam store page: "Learn as you go. An intuitive interface makes experiementation quick and easy." No further comment needed.

I don't even know how to play regular chess and yet, I'm all the way pogged up for this lol

In both the future and past I'm simultaneously pogged out of and into my gourd!

My head hurts. These entire 31 minutes and 42 secons are going right into Baby Pigman's series. I feel like he needs an MLG galaxy brain genius to explain it to him. And to us. Sooooooooo Hafu when?

I'm sorry but I just can't watch this. ROOK TACTICS mate in one: tries literally anything except for moving the rook or mate-ing in one

I bought the game because of this video, it looks fun figuring out how it works! The way the rook puzzle is solved is to put the rook on a5 (top right btw), it puts the king in the past (on a5) in check. In normal chess a rook moves in a straight line across rows or collums, in this game the rook can also move in a straight line across time. Meaning it can move from a5 on board 3 to a5 on board 2 or board 1 (unless blocked).

The rook in the puzzle can't go to the past because rooks can only go straight and will only ever land on the same square they moved from on a different timed board, as opposed to knights queens or bishops that can move diagonally so it can go back in time and also away from itself. The puzzle rook had never not been on that square so it's sitting in it's own way at every point. Edit: but it CAN threaten to go back to the past. If it moves to the top corner where the king used to be. You checkmate the king's past. Kill Thanos as a baby. The rook can capture the king on its next move and because it's not that king's turn anymore it can't move away. The rook would have to be captured in the present which the current king is too far away to do.

Me when opening the fridge 5 times in a row hoping something to eat appears

The puzzle was mate in ONE ROOK tactics and he tries to finish it with TWO moves and his KING

I've seen enough tv series to know that too much time travelling chess and we'll end up making Germany win ww2

Each piece has a specific movve it can used to go back in time, rooks appear not to move when they travel back in time as they only move in a straight line, in this case back in time. Knights can move up 2 peices because it travels back one turn in time and then up 2. Bishops move diagonally back in time, back one in time one move down.queen is just a combination of bishop and rook.

This is comedy gold. I'm just as lost as you Ryan. I haven't laughed that much in a while. More cursed gameplay please!

This might be the most entertaining video I've seen in awhile - keep it up egg! pog

"We call this cyber castling" lmaoooo

I was able to solve the puzzle. Rooks can only move straight, which includes straight backwards, and you can only move pieces in the present. So if you can put your rook on a square where the black king used to be in the past, then unless the black king in the present can capture your rook in the present, your rook will be able to capture the king by moving straight backwards in time. The fact that this game can even detect checkmate is very impressive.

Here's the thing. Baba is you, my dude. Brain is melt.

Great video, I don't comment often but I watch all your content! And this was the funniest video I've watched on this platform for awhile!

Can we PLEASE get more of this, this is exactly the smooth brain content I come here for

Normally I look upon tutorials with the greatest disdain, but this needs a real tutorial. A wall of text doesn't not count as a tutorial.

If there's one important quote from this video it's "we've used inter-dimensional castling". Also man, this is like the game equivalent of the movie "Primer".

At the end he literally reads the solution to the puzzle, "I moved the rook backwards in time from the upper right corner of the board." And somehow he still doesn't get it.

Can't beat watching your favourite 2D egg get scrambled.

I wish NL stuck with this game a bit more, under the "Quick Rules" there's an actual full rules section that somewhat explains what is going on and makes it way more manageable to figure out. Just bought the game and I'm already in love with it.

I love this! I've spent half an hour laughing at your confusion and it is great!

Need more of this

"Rook tactics 1" *Try to checkmate with the king a million times.

Okay, I really have to say I'm super frustrated watching this. Especially the rook puzzle. It's called Rook Tactics, yet you insist on moving the King. It's labeled as Mate in One, yet you keep on trying to make a second move. Like, I will say I have played a bunch of this game now and understand all the mechanics well at this point, but this is really driving me up a wall. You even said the solution out loud from the post you read and still didn't do it... I don't blame you at all for not understanding the mechanics, but please read the words in front of you.

Rook Tactics 1 - Proceeds to move kings for 15 minutes.

Please do more of this. This was the best thing I have ever watched

i recommend starting with the knight puzzles instead, it makes it easier to understand how pieces move back and across boards

I need a follow up on this.

I suck at chess and fairly quickly understood why pieces moved like they did.

I would so love to see more of this.

17:09, the pieces are moving differently because you're looking at a 2D representation of 5D movement NL. Each board is 1 dimension and you're moving the pieces through 3D, 4D, or 5D space depending on how far back you want to go.

I understood it... and come on, you can just make one move in the puzzle, not more.

I have had a fever dream that went exactly like this. I'm thrilled NL played this!

I am probably not the first one, but I bought this game myself and have just figured out what the logic is. (It is quite amazing honestly) The game interprets the movement of the pieces in terms of dimensions with the rows of the chess board being the first and the columns being the second dimension. That means for example the movement of the rook is interpreted as "move any number of fields in one dimension" and the movement of the queen is interpretet as "move any number of fields in any dimensions providing the number of fields in every dimension is equal." (this basically just means diagonal movement). Now the time arrow (rows of boards) is the third dimension and the parallel boards (columns of boards) are the fourth dimension (im not quite sure what the fifth is honestly) and the above rules are just applied to the new dimensions as well. The equivalence of fields in the first and second dimensions are turns in the third and boards in the fourth. This means the rook can now either move any fields on the same board (e.g. A1->A6) but also to the same field it currently stands on on any parallel board or past turn (A1 this turn -> A1 earlier turn). The queen can move just like normal on the current board or it can move to the same position it currently has on any parallel board or past turn. When it moves to a past turn that is X turns away it can now also move X (actual) fields on the board of that turn in any direction, it can not move X-1 or X+1 fields however. Another way to think about this is to think about the position of a piece as coordinates (A1 meaning Column A, Row 1) with two axes and in 5D chess of coordinates with four axes (32A4 meaning Column A, Row 4 on the third turn on the second parallel board) and then apply the rules described above. Honestly its brilliant, simple once youve gotten it but still insanely hard to play because you just never think "that way". Youre not trained to think in four dimensions. Edit: The solution for the puzzle NL tried is to move the rook to the top.

"Hey let's release our game called 5d Chess with Multiverse Time Travel" "Should we include a tutorial or some instructions about what the legal moves are and the obect of the game?" "Nah" EDIT: I now see that the actual instructions are buried in the "tips" section that NL skipped at the beginning. Bad UI and bad Egg combined for explosive results.

"Rook Tactics" kind of implies that you should try to move... the rook? And not the king? Maybe?

This has me cackling and cackling and cackling. 😂 I hope you do more than one video on this - like a small 5 ep mini series sorta deal to settle in slightly better than a single NL Tries.

This is genuinely one of my favourite videos you've ever published, I have no idea what's going on it's great

Everyone is talking about how you can't backseat the game, but as someone who is technically rated above 600 on chess.com and understands the game I am backseating constantly. Once I learn how to notate moves I will promptly head over to alienrock's and lion's twitch to tell them what to do.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Multi-dimensional Chess. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Ryan's pogged outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Daniel Gheesling literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Northernlion truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Ryan's pogged catchphrase "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah," which itself is a cryptic reference to being pogged out of one's gourd. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Ryan Letourneau's genius wit unfolds itself on their monitors. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂 And yes, by the way, i DO have an NLSS tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎

"I don't understand how the parallel timelines work so let me create as many as I possibly can."

I actually need more of this

The virgin viewer thinks NL is confused. The Chad viewer knows that the virgins cannot comprehend his 5D reasoning.

He's gonna take you back to the past. To play the subpar games that were rather inadequate if I do say so myself.

I found the in-game tutorial pretty helpful actually. You can't just read the first paragraph, call it good, and then be surprised when you have no idea how anything works.

would love to see another of these

NL: CEO of trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results

why didnt he read more than 1 of the tips

This has been truly incredible content

the best way to visualise this is by thinking that it's all just very layered