22

Just as you deliver checkmate against your mirrored reflection, the large mirror shatters with a resounding crash, breaking the illusion. A sense of relief washes over you, and you're finally free from your reflection.

As the group is absorbing what just happened, muffled screams suddenly echo from the back room.

David Snowell immediately reacts. "Those sounds are coming from the back room! We need to check it out!" he exclaims, heading towards the door. Wesley Snow tries to intervene. "Wait, it's probably just...," he stammers.

The group rushes to the back room, bursting through the door. To everyone's shock, they find another Wesley Snow, tied to a chair with a cloth stuffed in his mouth.

Confusion and disbelief grip the room. You glance back and forth between the two Wesleys, one bound and the other standing among you. The atmosphere turns tense as everyone tries to comprehend the bewildering scene.

The Wesley in the chair, muffled sounds escaping through the cloth in his mouth, stares desperately at the group with wide, alarmed eyes. The Wesley among you stands still, an unreadable expression on his face. A heavy silence falls over the group as they slowly realize that something is very wrong.

You run over to the chair to untie Wesley, but you're stopped by a chessboard locking mechanism. To release him, you must reconstruct a position.

Starting from the initial position, give a sequence of moves that reaches this position in exactly 9 moves (9 moves for White and 9 moves for Black). Here's an analysis board, and ask in our Discord if anything is unclear.