Can you solve the GCHQ Christmas challenge?

16 hours ago 4

GCHQ The GCHQ Christmas card, featuring a representation of the United Kingdom with a Christmas-themed design, showing a way of Father Christmas's sleigh and assorted vacation icons specified arsenic reindeer, robins, and different animals, held successful beforehand of a decorated Christmas histrion with ornaments.

Latin dancing, Indian food and American soldiers are immoderate of the clues for this year's cryptic Christmas situation acceptable by the nationalist spy agency.

GCHQ's yearly brainteaser comes successful the signifier of the agency's Christmas card, sent by the quality organisation's manager Anne Keast-Butler.

This year's puzzle challenges the nationalist to decode the names of UK landmarks, investigating skills similar codebreaking, maths and lateral thinking.

The deceptively tricky tasks necessitate ingenuity and perseverance, GCHQ said.

This year's Christmas paper includes other layers for those who privation to situation themselves further, with further elements hidden wrong the code.

GCHQ's Chief Puzzler, known lone arsenic "Colin", described this year's tests arsenic "fiendishly enjoyable".

The archetypal – and easiest – challenge features 5 images, representing a spot name. Quizzers are asked to decipher the location.

GCHQ A puzzle asking “What does this say?” featuring 5 images: a dollar bill, a king’s wearing a crown, a ham, 2 children with an arrow pointing to 1 and an ace of spades.

One of the tougher puzzles asks would-be spooks to cipher however acold disconnected from penning the numbers 1-20 the puzzle setters were.

GCHQ Puzzle with a ellipse of numbers wherever the task is to cipher however acold disconnected a series of numbers (intended to beryllium 1–20) is, featuring overlapping and incorrect digits scattered successful 2 circles.

GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler said: "The situation has been designed for a premix of minds to solve, truthful is champion tackled successful groups of classmates, families oregon friends.

"Whether you person an analytical mind, a originative encephalon oregon similar engineering, there's thing for everyone."

"Colin" said: "You tin spot from the scope of puzzles that immoderate parts are trickier than others.

"However, you bash not person to beryllium a genius oregon apical of the people to lick them – you conscionable person to beryllium capable to enactment successful a squad and clasp the premix of minds and approaches teamwork brings."

The afloat situation tin beryllium viewed beneath oregon connected GCHQ's website.