We wish you a WHAT? Spy chiefs' insanely difficult Christmas card brainteaser leaves the nation scratching their heads… but are YOU clever enough to solve it?

  • Director of GCHQ has sent out a brain-teasing puzzle in his Christmas card
  • Robert Hannigan's annual festive card features a cryptographic challenge
  • Participants have to fill in a grid-shading puzzle to unveil a picture which is just the first of a series of increasingly complex game challenges 
  • He has asked those who enjoyed the puzzle to donate to the NSPCC 

By KEILIGH BAKER FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

Instead of have the the traditional Father Christmas and reindeer image emblazoned on the front, Britain's intelligence and security agency has designed a festive card featuring a cryptographic challenge.

This year the director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, is including a brain-teasing puzzle in his Christmas card, which aims to exercise the grey matter of participants over the holiday season.

Participants have to fill in a grid-shading puzzle to unveil a picture, which is the first in a series of increasingly complex challenges.

Instead of have the traditional Father Christmas and reindeer image emblazoned on the front, Britain's intelligence and security agency designed a festive card featuring a cryptographic challenge (pictured). But a month after Christmas,  no-one has managed to solve the problem. Part one is pictured above

This year the director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, is including a brain-teasing puzzle in his Christmas card, which aims to exercise the grey matter of participants over the holiday season.

The competition will also raise funds for the NSPCC, with the winner to be announced after January 31 2016.

Once all stages have been unlocked and completed successfully, players are invited to submit their answer via a given GCHQ email address by 31 January 2016. 

The winner will then be drawn from all the successful entries and notified soon after. Players are invited to make a donation to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, if they have enjoyed the puzzle.

A GCHQ  spokesman said: 'In his Christmas card this year, director GCHQ Robert Hannigan has included a cryptographic challenge that should exercise the grey matter over the festive season.

While 30,000 have come close to cracking the code, there are just three days left to give it a final try and the answer is apparently ¿not as abstract as you think¿, according to the director of GCHQ (shown) 

The competition by GCHQ (pictured) will raise funds for the NSPCC, with the winner announced in January

'Participants who enjoy the challenge are invited to make a donation to the NSPCC, which is the director's chosen charity this year.'    

In this type of grid-shading puzzle, each square is either black or white. Some of the black squares have already been filled in for you.

Each row or column is labelled with a string of numbers. 

The numbers indicate the length of all consecutive runs of black squares, and are displayed in the order that the runs appear in that line. 

For example, a label '2 1 6' indicates sets of two, one and six black squares, each of which will have at least one white square separating them.

GCHQ

Most watched News videos