The Perry Bible Fellowship is one of the granddaddies of web comics. It’s not quite Sluggy Freelance, which by now has about a billion issues, but it has a respectable amount and it stands in quite high regard. But I’m afraid the author is perhaps letting the success go to his head: he’s tackling chess! 1 That’s very dangerous, nowadays, with all these bloggers picking nits until lice go extinct.
A bespectacled circle is playing chess against his offspring. Things are not looking good for it. Not only is it missing an arc somewhere around the 4/3 angle, but its position on the board is also utterly lost:
Judge for yourself: 2
This seems to be a perfectly normal position that has been played on for too long. Perhaps the author hasn’t let success go to his head. Perhaps he has seen my previous post about his work. Or perhaps I’m once again overestimating the people’s interest in all things chess and it’s just a fluke.3
Obviously, there is little hope left for white. But not none! He has a watch, the sun is shining, and there’s a cat sitting next to the board. He aims the watch so, that the sun’s reflection dances around on the board — an irresistible target for his feline companion. In a split second, pieces are flying everywhere and a furry little animal is all that’s standing on the chessboard.
Never before did a circle look so smug.
Realism: 4/5 Obviously, white has played on for far too long, but these things happen.
Probable winner: Black obviously. Knocking the pieces off the board doesn’t avoid the loss. Especially not if the position is easily reconstructed using a freely available web comic.
1. [But, as you can see from the picture, he clearly hits the ball, so it’s allowed.] ↩
2. [Diagram editor for another.] ↩
3. [Unlikely, though. Fish are notoriously bad at web comics.] ↩