Editing 3082: Chess Position

{{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==
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[[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 which frequently changes the course of the game, both of them quickly made inaccurate moves, probably rated as a "{{w|Blunder (chess)|blunder}}", "mistake", or "miss", leading to an odd configuration of the chess pieces. Blunders that are not taken advantage of can lead to this effect for less experienced players. 

The rest of this comic becomes absurd, as Cueball then describes himself and Knit Cap descending into a fantasy world "on a deep branch of the game tree." Chess strategy is commonly described in terms of following a {{w|decision tree}} or {{w|game tree}}, as one usually needs to calculate multiple moves ahead when planning out what move to play. As a chess game progresses, the {{w|phase space}} of possible positions increases wildly, though this will include many more configurations than are typically seen or anticipated by players. Rarely, an expert player may 'discover' a truly clever {{w|Glossary of chess#theoretical novelty|novel opening}}, but centuries of recorded gameplay has explored many of the possible moves, both good and not so good, that are often recognized by experienced students of the game as common stepping-stones on the way to possible victory (or frequent traps that send the unwary down the road to defeat). Both precise game-board states and more general variations may be easily recognized by an experienced player, and even be {{w|Checkmate pattern|given a name}} by the player community as a whole.

However, it seems that Cueball and Knit Cap each made a sequence of seemingly obvious 'blunders' that neither opponent then took advantage of, reaching a board configuration that Cueball had never even anticipated happening. In some apparently mystical (or at least psychological) manner, by travelling such an unlikely and unfamiliar branch of the player/board game-space, the precise positioning of pieces combined with the state of mind that Cueball had developed created the impression of literally entering a mythical garden, with time even 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 1984 to 2005, and is considered one of the greatest chess players of all time, if not ''the'' greatest. A {{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/’invented’ or made popular this "gambit" to suck new players into a "vortex" and trap them from getting out. As of April 28, 2025, this is obviously not the case,{{cn}} but within the xkcd universe, he has performed an equally absurd gambit (also named after himself) in [[2936: Exponential Growth]].

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 vertical column of the chessboard from white's perspective). The pawn would start either on f2 (sixth column, second row) for the white player or f7 (sixth column, seventh row) for black. The fact that an apparent distortion in the fabric of space can be countered with ''a single pawn'' just adds to the absurdity of the situation. 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, when pursued too far, is like a black hole which will irrevocably suck in even experienced players such as grandmasters, though they at least seem to be able to last a bit longer.

==Transcript==
:[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 complex five-fold symmetrical plant-like 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]]