Glasses! Glasses are brilliant. They’re one of humanity’s greatest victories over nature. Instead of stumbling around in an eternal blur, millions of people can now walk around confident that they’re not suddenly going to walk head first in an antique commode. So it’s scarcely necessary to advertise for glasses. But the people at Univis1 had a different idea; they were probably terrified of the possibility that, maybe, someone might buy one of their competitors’ glasses.
And so they called upon the four young gentlemen above. From their poses it seems they have found a particularly amusing misprinted diagram in the chess column. Of perhaps they’re laughing at the pretentious twaddle about Stanley Blacker on the side.
Or are they laughing at the position? The board has been set up wrongly, of course, and the pieces are highly non-standard, but it seems that the position is this one:2
With the small caveat that white’s queen’s side pieces are not fully visible, so the reconstruction is tentative there. Yes, it really does seem like the pieces on c8 and g8 are the same. I cannot tell whether they’re bishops or knights, but they’re definitely misplaced.
So, yes, they are probably laughing at the position.
Realism: 0/5 This is obviously bollocks. And even if it wasn’t, even if the board had been set up correctly and black’s queen’s side pieces had been in their right places, it would still be a pretty weird position. It seems both sides have made four moves, but that would imply it’s white to move and the rook on h8 has been left hanging for no reason.
Probable winner: If the above theory is correct, it should be white.
1. [In Dutch, uni vis means monochromatic fish. Sadly, that has no bearing on the ad.] ↩
2. [The pieces live in some hyperreal space.] ↩