Spy harder: GCHQ sets fiendish Turing £50 note quiz

IT is an enigma worthy of our greatest code breaker. Britain’s spy centre has devised its ‘toughest ever’ quiz to celebrate Alan Turing becoming the new face of the £50 note by the Bank of England.

The Turing Challenge has been compiled by intelligence staff at GCHQ based on the design of the new banknote and Turing’s work breaking the German navy’s Enigma codes in the Second World War.

It features 12 problem-solving puzzles leading to one ultimate answer. Some require general knowledge, while others need logic to solve. But all are fiendishly difficult, with experts saying the challenge should take even the most experienced puzzlers seven hours.

GCHQ’s chief puzzler, known only as ‘Colin’, said: ‘Alan Turing has inspired many to join GCHQ, eager to use their own problem-solving skills to help to keep the country safe. So it seemed only fitting to gather a mix of minds from across our missions to devise a seriously tough puzzle. It might even have left him scratching his head, although we very much doubt it!’ Turing (pictured) joined the forerunner of GCHQ in 1938 and led the team in the famous Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, helping develop the machine which deciphered the Nazis’ codes and revealed the movements of U-boats. After the war he went on to lay the groundwork for the modern computer. But his achievements were overshadowed by his private life when he was prosecuted in 1952 over his homosexuality. Two years later he took his own life.

GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming hailed the Turing £50 note as a ‘landmark moment’. The puzzle is at www.gchq.gov. uk/information/turing-challenge