The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google

The weeks leading up to the most anticipated film of the year has been a 'Da Vinci Code' craze! Everywhere you turn, there's a Da Vinci Code-Breaking contest... Google has been leading the way in its fun, exciting and very interesting Quest... Over 24 days, a new puzzle will be uploaded daily. 4 levels of difficulty for 6 different categories, namely:
(1) Symbol Challenge
(2) Restoration Challenge
(3) Curator Challenge
(4) Chess Challenge
(5) Observation Challenge
(6) Geography Challenge

Each challenge is unique its own way. In the Symbol challenge, it's a Sudoku-like puzzle where you're to fill up a NxN grid with different symbols in each row and each column. In Restoration, you have to shift blobs of dust from a painting to reveal the underlying masterpiece. In Curator, you're given a certain number of paintings and an alignment of hooks, and you're supposed to arrange the paintings such that there are no overlaps. In Chess, you need to make 3 chess moves to check-mate the Black King. Fortunately, for those who don't know how to play chess, you can still achieve your goal by correctly answering three questions. In Observation, you have to watch a video clip (which I've not been successful in activating!) and answer 3 questions relating to facts shown in the video. In Geography, you put together a jigsaw puzzle of a piece of map and a trivia question regarding the map must be answered.

All the questions will be related to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, of course. You don't have to know it by hard (well, I read the book and I could barely remember the any facts from it!)... that's what Google is for! Haha... I started the Quest almost towards the end of the competition, so finding answers to the questions were easy. There are so many blogs out there that will give you a day-by-day commentary and tips on how to get through the challenge! Actually, most have the answers too!! :P I've added one such blog in my 'Other Interesting Reads' panel. I actually like this other site <http://davinciquestanswers.blogspot.com/> as it's dedicated to the Quest, but the puzzles are not fully up-to-date. Come to think of it, I'll just put both up for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! :)

Today is Day 24 and the last Quest should be up already. I still have about 3 outstanding Quests to complete. I find Restoration the hardest, since I can't seem to get my head around how to get rid of those darn dust patches!

Another interesting code-breaking contest going on is at the Mix.fm website (Da Vinci Code-Breaker Online Quest). I still don't know how to break the anagram code. Any success anyone?