Finale consists of three games. First game is Number Janggi — variant of chess played on 6x9 board. Each player sets the initial tiles position on 3 rows on their side. Tiles are are numbers from 1 to 10, 3 mines and 1 king. Tiles are put faces down so opponent can't see them.
All tiles can move one space in any direction except backwards. Tiles can also jump 2 spaces forward, if path is unobstructed. Mines can't move.
When player's tile gets in contact with enemy tile both tiles are revealed. If defending tile is a mine both of them are taken out. If both tiles are numbers and sum of both tiles is more than or equal to 10 largest tile wins. If sum is lower than 10 — smaller tile wins. Losing tile is taken out and winning tile stays on the board revealed.
18 minus sings are placed on a board and if tiles are touching across minus sign then it becomes a minus battle with difference instead of sum and then lesser tile always wins.
King loses to any number or a mine and then the game is lost. If two kings battle each other nothing happens.
If both numbers are the same — both are removed.
It is crucial to conceal tiles in this game, so Kyunghoon starts his game by moving same piece left an right wasting his time and denying Dongmin of information which of his tiles can move and which can't (tiles that can't move are mines). Dongmin however doesn't want to plays by Kyunghoon's rules and decisively moves in his piece and touches two of his tiles, revealing both. Dongmin keeps on the attack and reveals more of Kyunghoon's pieces including 1 (which is only second to 10 in plus battle and is the strongest tile in minus battle).
Dongmin is consistently on the attack and whittles down Kyugnhoon's numbers until he only has 2 mines, 10 and a king left. To confuse Dongmin, Kyunghoon moves with his king pretending it's 10 but Dongmin attacks it anyway and Kyunghoon loses the first game of Grand Finale.
Second Finale game is Mystery Sign.
Mystery Sign is played in rounds. Player who won more points over 11 rounds wins. Each round starts by revealing an equation like:
60 ? 4 = ?
Players take turns picking numbers, each two numbers are applied to the same "mystery sign" and result is shown. Using these hints players can guess "mystery sign" and with it — the result of the initial equation. First player who guesses the result wins a round. If players can't guess result after 16 minutes, they restart the game with new equation and new mystery sign. Wrong guesses cost a point.
"Mystery sign" here can be not just a basic arithmetical operation but also a formula like:
602+42=376
Problem for first round is:
22 ? 7 = ?
34 ? 4 = 64
Kyunghoon guesses that it should be 2a-b=2*22-7=37 and wins first round.
Problem for 2nd round:
16 ? 9 = ?
Kyunghoon picks 36 and Dongmin picks 87 — reasoning here is that all three numbers so far are squares of natural numbers and Dongmin now wants to make calculations harder for math student Kyunghoon.
36 ? 87 = 12351
Dongmin who calculated the sum and difference of two hint numbers — 123 and 51 suddenly sees them neatly lined up in the first hint and correctly guesses that this is the formula. Answer to the problem then is 257. Dongmin wins second round.
3rd round goes like this:
14 ? 9 = ?
51 ? 5 = 1
1 ? 51 = 0
Dongmin calls 3 and takes third round. The formula was remainder of division of larger number to smaller number.
4th round:
21 ? 15 = ?
87 ? 23 = 75
Kyunghoon used his Secret item he got from Hyunmin to obscure 23 from Dongmin. Even with that advantage no one can figure it out within a minute so they get next hint:
14 ? 81 = 45
No answers here too.
It's Dongmins's turn to pick a number for the hint, but Kyunghoon asks if he can make a guess here. Dealer doesn't allow him. Dongmin sees that Kyunghoon figured something out, his only hope is to pick an easy number, win the buzzer war after result is revealed and then figure out the answer. He picks 1.
Kyunghoon who wants to make it harder for Dongmin names 197652.
1 ? 197652 = 30
Miraculously, Dongmin manages to press the buzzer before Kyunghoon and figures out the answer even with Secret disadvantage. It was multiplication of sum of digits in numbers so the answer is (2+1) * (1+5) = 18.
It's 3:1
Before Fifth round Dongmin uses his both "Double" and "No points lost" items. Kyunghoon uses "Disable" to nullify "Double" at least.
11 ? 14 = ?
Because Dongmin can take free guesses with his "No lost points" item he wants to make calculations for Kyunghoon near impossible so he picks insanely long 12 digits number. Resulting hint is equally ridiculous:
79 ? 897687543217 = 749282615141312111
For the next hint Kyunghoon picks the same number and Dongmin picks 89:
897687543217 ? 89 = 839273615141312111
For the fourth hint both players pick "The Kyunghoon's number":
897687543217 ? 897687543217 = 849276625242322212
Time lapses, next hint:
99 ? 897687543217 = 938273615141312111
Dongmin calls 1341 and wins to the shocks of everyone. The algorithm here was to line up digits in both numbers and call them one by one (excluding repeats): first the digit, then amount of times it repeats in the line, that's why 11 and 14 result in 1341 because there are three 1s and only one 4 in 1114.
Dongmin leads 4 to 1. Sixth round is:
17 ? 23 = ?
49 ? 89 = 30
Kyunghoon calls 13 (sum of all digits: 1+7+2+3=13) and wins second point for himself.
Seventh round:
18 ? 13 = ?
19 ? 86 = 8
72 ? 18 = 6
18 ? 77 = 11
18 ? 14 = 8
Kyunghoon cracks the code, it is sum of two remainders to 12: (18)6+(13)1=7. Kyunghoon almost catched up to Dongmin: 4:3.
Kyunghoon wins next round as well but he also makes an incorrect guess in the process so score is the same.
Ninth round:
7 ? 4 = ?
67 ? 87 = 13398
Kyunghoon again makes a guess thinking it's sum of squares so he calls 65. Another mistake.
22 ? 98 = 11760
78 ? 1 = 79
2 ? 95 = 9215
Dongmin figured it out, it's sum of numbers multiplied to 2nd number, he answers 44.
Score is 5:2 and Dongmin wins if he simply doesn't make any guesses in this round with the risk of being wrong and losing points: Kyunghoon can't catch up at this point. But neither of them wants to end game early and they go into tenth round:
16 ? 24 = ?
16 ? 62 = 2
16 ? 25 = 1
16 ? 23 = 1
66 ? 16 = 2
Dongmin sees that it is common divisor and answers "2". It is incorrect and Kyunghoon suddenly has a hope to tie up. Next hint:
16 ? 65 = 1
Dongmin presses the buzzer again, "8" and this time he is right. The formula was largest common divisor.
The last round is meaningless but Dongmin takes it too. Dongmin wins Mystery Sign and The Grand Finale.
Tropes:
- Confusion Fu: a lot of Kyunghoon's tactics are meant to confuse the opponent with his "troll moves", like moving his king in Number Janggi or picking obnoxiously big number in Mystery Sign. It would have worked on any other player other than Dongmin.
- Education Mama: opening of the finale shows the contrast between Kyunghoon who was born to a well off family and has been drilled with all kinds of studies with Dongmin who was born in rural family and doesn't have as prestigious education background.
- The End... Or Is It?: final shot of Grand Finale is three "kings" (Dongmin, Sangmin and Jinho) saying goodbye to the show and wondering if they will be invited for possible new seasons.
- Variant Chess: Number Janggi
