explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1112: Think Logically

2012-09-24T14:07:27Z

Heyart: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1112
| date = September 24, 2012
| title = Think Logically
| image = think_logically.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = I've developed a more logical set of rules but the people on the chess community have a bunch of stupid emotional biases and won't reply to my posts.
}}

==Explanation==
Chess is a very old board game in which two players take turns moving their 16 pieces, one at a time, to try and capture the other players king. The knight is a piece in chess that can only move in an L-shaped pattern, but compensates by being able to jump over other pieces. The comic highlights two mistakes players often make in chess: complete fixation on the king at the cost of their other pieces, and inability to take advantage of the knights movement patterns.

The comic is primarily a jab at competitive online games whose fans call for "buffs" (power additions) and "nerfs" (power reductions) to characters that they believe to be underpowered or overpowered, often with inadequate knowledge of those characters. The units in chess are widely agreed upon to be perfectly balanced, and [[Cueball|Cueball's]] criticism of the knights show obvious lack of knowledge of the knights potential. His objections may also be rooted in his reluctance to admit defeat, which leads him to blame the game instead of his own skill.

Cueball's friend proceeds to demonstrate Cueball's lack of knowledge by beating Cueball in four moves.

The title text depicts Cueball trying to suggest revisions to the rules of chess and not understanding why his complaints are being ignored.

The checkmate depicted is likely the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholars_mate Scholar's Mate] and is the second shortest checkmate in chess. However, it could be a variation of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_Mate Fool's Mate] with White winning instead of Black.

==Transcript==
:[Man wearing a hat is sitting down at a computer. Cueball is standing behind him.]
:Keyboard:''Move''
:Cueball: Why'd you move your knight away?

:[Man wearing hat turns around and rests his arm on his chair.]
:Cueball: Just think ''logically''. The goal is checkmate, so you should always move pieces ''toward'' the other player's king.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: I guess occasionally you need to move backward, but it'd be trivial to make a list of those circumstances and -

:[Man wearing hat is leaning back in chair facing Cueball.]
:Man: Have you ever ''played'' chess?
:Cueball: Not much, but -
:Man: Wanna?
:Cueball: Uh, ok.

:[Man and Cueball playing chess.]
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move* Checkmate.

:[Cueball standing and staring at the chess board.]

:[Man returns to his computer.]
:Cueball: This game isn't very well-designed. For starters, knights are too weak...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1112: Think Logically

2012-09-24T13:56:00Z

Heyart: /* Explanation */ The game of chess is not perfectly balanced, although the units are.

{{comic
| number = 1112
| date = September 24, 2012
| title = Think Logically
| image = think_logically.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = I've developed a more logical set of rules but the people on the chess community have a bunch of stupid emotional biases and won't reply to my posts.
}}

==Explanation==
Chess is a very old board game in which two players take turns moving their 16 pieces, one at a time, to try and capture the other players king. The knight is a piece in chess that can only move in an L-shaped pattern, but compensates by being able to jump over other pieces. The comic highlights two mistakes players often make in chess: complete fixation on the king at the cost of their other pieces, and inability to take advantage of the knights movement patterns.

The comic is primarily a jab at competitive online games whose fans call for "buffs" (power additions) and "nerfs" (power reductions) to characters that they believe to be underpowered or overpowered, often with inadequate knowledge of those characters. The units in chess are widely agreed upon to be perfectly balanced, and [[Cueball|Cueball's]] criticism of the knights show obvious lack of knowledge of the knights potential. His objections may also be rooted in his reluctance to admit defeat, which leads him to blame the game instead of his own skill.

Cueball's friend proceeds to demonstrate Cueball's lack of knowledge by beating Cueball in four moves.

The title text depicts Cueball trying to suggest revisions to the rules of chess and not understanding why his complaints are being ignored.

==Transcript==
:[Man wearing a hat is sitting down at a computer. Cueball is standing behind him.]
:Keyboard:''Move''
:Cueball: Why'd you move your knight away?

:[Man wearing hat turns around and rests his arm on his chair.]
:Cueball: Just think ''logically''. The goal is checkmate, so you should always move pieces ''toward'' the other player's king.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: I guess occasionally you need to move backward, but it'd be trivial to make a list of those circumstances and -

:[Man wearing hat is leaning back in chair facing Cueball.]
:Man: Have you ever ''played'' chess?
:Cueball: Not much, but -
:Man: Wanna?
:Cueball: Uh, ok.

:[Man and Cueball playing chess.]
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move*
:Cueball: *Move*
:Man: *Move* Checkmate.

:[Cueball standing and staring at the chess board.]

:[Man returns to his computer.]
:Cueball: This game isn't very well-designed. For starters, knights are too weak...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:1112: Think Logically

2012-09-24T13:53:50Z

Heyart:

Cueball is clearly a chess novice as demonstrated by the comic (at the very least he knows what the goal of the game is and how the pieces move), however he lacks higher knowledge of the game (which is gained through education) and is very inexperienced (experience is obviously gained by playing the game regularly). Given his non-expert position he attempts to deliver well-meaning advice as best he can (in this case through "thinking logically"), however the player receiving the advise (a clearly more knowledgeable and experienced player) immediately realises how utterly useless that advise is.
Cueball approached the situation by "thinking logically", but his logic was flawed, possibly due to his lack of knowledge. Just because the goal of chess is to deliver checkmate does not necessarily mean that every move must be pushing a piece closer to the opponent's king. The best thing to do would be to first research and study the abundance of chess knowledge out there, practice it and then one can come up with tactics and strategies for every possible position (even if those aren't perfect). Chess is so complex that even if we wished to arrive at the absolute logical move for every position, this would be beyond us most of the time, it is just too complex. Not even computers know the perfect move for every position, although they do come up with great moves through the use of complex algorithms.
Note: I thought the explanation given in the "Explanation" section above had some merit (it also explains some things I didn't include), and that is why I did not modify it and instead chose to provide mine here. Let me know what you thought, together we can explain everything.--[[User:DelendaEst|DelendaEst]] ([[User talk:DelendaEst|talk]]) 13:01, 24 September 2012 (UTC)
:Feel free to add your explanation to the actual page if you think it's lacking in information. Wikis are meritocracies, and anyone is welcome to voice their opinions. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 13:21, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Just a quick point on the explanation. Chess is not a perfectly balanced game due to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess first move advantage] enjoyed by white. This advantage is very small, however, and the pieces themselves are well balanced. [[User:Heyart|Heyart]] ([[User talk:Heyart|talk]]) 13:53, 24 September 2012 (UTC)