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Talk:1078: Knights

2014-02-09T04:08:22Z

Protagoras:

At the beginning of a chess game, neither knight can move to e3. The proper move (and the move actually made, in the picture) is Nf3. The Nc3 move is correct.
[[Special:Contributions/128.187.97.21|128.187.97.21]] 23:44, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

: Indeed, thanks for pointing that out; the move was corrected on xkcd.com, so I did the same here. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 13:53, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Why didn't black move? {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.120}}
:He did. The lines represent black pawns raining down a hail of arrows to kill the knights. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.61}}

I seem to remember that the bows and arrows at Agincourt (and thereby taking down the horses) was something of a surprise -- as it would be in chess, as well (otherwise, they wouldn't have made their horses so vulnerable). I'm too lazy to look this up myself, so if anyone already knows a bunch about that, that'd be something to add. --[[User:Ricketybridge|Ricketybridge]] ([[User talk:Ricketybridge|talk]]) 23:05, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

:It was a surprise because on other terrain it wouldn't have worked (the ground was muddy, impeding cavalry, and the approach was narrow, making it a shooting gallery; under more favorable conditions for cavalry, the knights would have closed and slaughtered bowmen before the bowmen managed to take down more than a handful of them). Plus the French were stupid; obviously, they must have noticed that the terrain was not ideal, but apparently they vastly underestimated how much difference it would make. [[User:Protagoras|Protagoras]] ([[User talk:Protagoras|talk]]) 04:08, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1078: Knights

2014-02-09T04:08:01Z

Protagoras:

At the beginning of a chess game, neither knight can move to e3. The proper move (and the move actually made, in the picture) is Nf3. The Nc3 move is correct.
[[Special:Contributions/128.187.97.21|128.187.97.21]] 23:44, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

: Indeed, thanks for pointing that out; the move was corrected on xkcd.com, so I did the same here. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 13:53, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Why didn't black move? {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.120}}
:He did. The lines represent black pawns raining down a hail of arrows to kill the knights. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.61}}

I seem to remember that the bows and arrows at Agincourt (and thereby taking down the horses) was something of a surprise -- as it would be in chess, as well (otherwise, they wouldn't have made their horses so vulnerable). I'm too lazy to look this up myself, so if anyone already knows a bunch about that, that'd be something to add. --[[User:Ricketybridge|Ricketybridge]] ([[User talk:Ricketybridge|talk]]) 23:05, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

:It was a surprise because on other terrain it wouldn't have worked (the ground was muddy, impeding cavalry, and the approach was narrow, making it a shooting gallery; under more favorable conditions for cavalry, the knights would have closed and slaughter bowmen before the bowmen managed to take down more than a handful of them). Plus the French were stupid; obviously, they must have noticed that the terrain was not ideal, but apparently they vastly underestimated how much difference it would make. [[User:Protagoras|Protagoras]] ([[User talk:Protagoras|talk]]) 04:08, 9 February 2014 (UTC)