Resident Evil 2 Guide: How To Solve The Sewer Chess Puzzle

Solving the Sewer Chess puzzle in Resident Evil 2 is one of the trickiest things the game asks of you. Not only do you have to find the plugs to begin with, but you also have to find the correct order for them based on a cryptic hint because apparently nobody in the Resi universe can speak straight. Luckily, we have the solution for the Sewer Chess puzzle.

Once you retain control of Leon following the Ada segment or make your way downwards with Claire, you will eventually find your way to a control room in the Sewers. In the same room that holds a typewriter and item box, you will find a bunch of open panels with missing plugs to open up a gigantic door.

Finding the chess plugs is the easiest thing about this puzzle: just keep following the natural path downwards until you find the Maintenance Key, which you will need to get the Rook plug. If you continue on from where you found the key, you will come across a swamp filled with G monsters. Make your way past them (shoot their eye areas) until you arrive at an enclosed space with locked fences. Being careful of the zombies, use the King and Queen plugs to open the doors to pick up the Flamethrower. Be sure to take both plugs before you leave the room; your inventory space may suffer so leave non-essential items in the item box behind.

Returning to the control room, you will notice that the Pawn and Knight plugs are already plugged in — leave them right there.

Approach the back wall and interact with the piece of paper to receive the following hint:

“Pretty sure the rook and knight are on the same wall and the bishop and queen aren’t next to each other. The queen and rook were opposite each other, too.”

Quite the brain-farter, right? I questioned my intelligence so you don’t have to.

You should start off with the left side and put in the following plugs from left to right: Bishop > Rook > Knight.

Moving onto the right side, put the chess plugs in this order from left to right: King > Queen > Pawn.

Once you plug the Queen in (the Pawn should already be in) the door will unlock and you can continue on down into the darkness.

If you would prefer to watch the Sewer chess puzzle solution, here’s a video instead.

NOTE: this solution does not work for your 2nd Run as the game mixes it up completely. We have a guide for that in the works.

From our Resident Evil 2 review:

“Resident Evil 2 is, quite simply, one of the best remakes of all-time. Capcom have nailed their new vision of a classic just like they did back in 2002 by modernising a decades old game to feel like something completely fresh. Whether you want to take a trip down memory lane or are just experiencing the disconcerting decadence of the police station for the first time, Resident Evil 2 is the first essential purchase of 2019.”