3082: Chess Position

2025-04-28T23:11:12Z

172.69.208.132: /* Explanation */ Removed vandalism

{{comic
| number = 3082
| date = April 28, 2025
| title = Chess Position
| image = chess_position_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x598px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's important to learn the moves that take you into the vortex, but it's best not to study vortex itself too closely. Even grandmasters who have built up a tolerance lose the ability to play for a few hours after studying it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|CREATED BY THE INTERCONTINENTAL BASLISTIC BOT GAMBIT. This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Cueball, a newer chess player, talks to Ponytail, presumably a more experienced player, about a chess game he had last week against Knit Cap. After Cueball made a {{w|blunder (chess)|blunder}}, a critically bad mistake, both of them quickly made inaccurate moves, leading to an odd configuration of the chess pieces.

The rest of this comic becomes absurd, as Cueball then describes himself and Knit Cap descending into a fantasy world of the "game tree". Chess strategy is commonly described in terms of following a {{w|decision tree}}, as one usually needs to calculate multiple moves ahead when planning out what move to play. However, it seems that Cueball and Knit Cap literally entered a mythical garden, with even time stopping.

Ponytail reacts nonchalantly to this story, as she says this is a common scenario for new players, and that there even is a defined name for it: the Kasparov Vortex Gambit.

Russian grandmaster {{w|Garry Kasparov}} was the number-one rated chess player from 1985 to 2005, and is considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. {{w|gambit (chess)|Gambit}} refers to a chess opening in which "a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage". This name seems to indicate that Kasparov himself either discovered or invented this "gambit" to suck new players into a "vortex" and trap them from getting out.

Ponytail's advice to Cueball after he "recovers" from the disillusionment of the "vortex" is that she can teach him how to defend against the attack, by using the "f pawn". The f-pawn is the pawn that begins on the "f-file" (the 6th column of the chessboard), which would either start on f2 (white) or f7 (black). In the title text, Ponytail continues with her advice, telling Cueball that he needs to understand how the vortex can be entered, but not to study the actual vortex. It appears that the vortex is like a black hole, which will suck in even experienced players, such as grandmasters.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[In the first panel, Cueball is walking in from the left, while talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: Something odd happened to me last week in a game at the chess club.

:[Cueball is playing a game of chess against Knit Cap.]
:[Caption above frame:]
:I moved, then instantly realized I'd blundered. But my opponent didn't notice and made a weird move.
:I got rattled and moved almost randomly, then I think we both panicked and made a couple of nonsensical moves, rapid-fire.

:[Zoomed in on Cueball, with three question marks above his head]
:I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I realized I was staring at an indescribably strange board position.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: I've never seen anything like it. It seemed like every move attacked every piece, yet every piece was also protected. Pieces refracted through crystalline pawn structures.
:Cueball: The game clock slowed and then stopped.

:[Cueball and Knit Cap are floating in a rotationally symmetrical plant-related pattern, of "game tree branches".]
:[Caption above the frame]
:It didn't even feel like we were playing chess. We had stumbled into a magical garden tucked away on a deep branch of the game tree.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: I don't remember how the game ended, if it did.
:Cueball: I don't remember how I got home.
:Cueball: It's all a blur.

:[Close-up of Cueball's head.]
:Cueball: I've spent all week trying to reconstruct the position and can't.
:Cueball: It's consuming me.
:Cueball: I don't want to play chess. I just want to return to that garden.
:Cueball: Does... any of this make sense to you?

:[Cueball is standing with hands on face surprised as Ponytail talks with him.]
:Ponytail: Yeah, that's the Kasparov Vortex Gambit. Common trap for new players.
:Cueball: ''What?!''
:Ponytail: Once you recover I'll show you how to block it with the f pawn.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:3067: SawStart

2025-03-24T13:11:27Z

172.69.208.132:

It's weird seeing a totally empty explanation, also whats the point of sawstop, don't they just use vibrating blades? [[Special:Contributions/104.23.190.110|104.23.190.110]] 12:40, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
empty explanation is freaky woah [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.204|172.69.194.204]] 12:42, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
sudo systemctl stop saw-start.service [[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.132|172.69.208.132]] 13:11, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3082: Chess Position

Talk:3067: SawStart