3014: Arizona Chess

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Arizona Chess

Title text: Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.

Explanation

White Hat and Cueball are playing a timed game of tournament-style chess. At the start of the comic White Hat has the advantage because, as well as having one more pawn than Cueball, he has more time left to play his remaining moves — 6 minutes and 35 seconds, versus Cueball's 28 seconds, as shown on the chess clock display above them. This means that Cueball cannot afford to consider his moves as carefully as White Hat.

However, Cueball has an unexpected advantage. The building is sited across the border of Arizona with another state (or possibly with the Navajo Nation, which DOES observe DST, see Time in Arizona), with White Hat on the Arizona side, and the game is being played at a very particular time of year, when (most of) the United States exits Daylight Saving Time, which happens at 2:00 AM on the morning of the first Sunday in November. When this happens, clocks in those other states 'gain' an hour (i.e. they show that an hour less has passed than previously). As Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), clocks there continue to progress time as normal.

At this time, White Hat's time remains normal, but Cueball's time "falls back" one hour, giving him 60 additional minutes of play time. White Hat immediately protests, likely trying to communicate that this is not how chess clocks are meant to work. They are fancy timers, tracking how much time each player has used since the beginning of the match, and sometimes, depending on the rules of specific tournament, adding a specified increment of time every turn. They're not supposed to be based on local time, and changing the time remaining during play would certainly be a violation of the rules. Even clocks that do track local time are generally not so carefully calibrated that they would reliably switch times so close to a state line.

Using the changing local time rather than a monotonically increasing time is generally considered a bug when implementing systems like a chess clock. Most engineering libraries provide both, but the local time is much more complex to implement, and not usually included in a device as simple as dedicated hardware for a chess clock. It could be interesting to find an example of a microcontroller used in a chess clock here.

Cueball ignores these protests, and now seems confident of victory, since he has far more play time remaining. Daylight Slaying Time is a pun on Daylight Saving Time, but note that the comic takes place as the non-Arizona clock stops observing DST and joins the Arizona clock in Standard Time. A pun on Daylight Saving Time was also made in 673: The Sun.

The title text makes use of a pun. To "fall back" in a strategic sense means to withdraw from an attack, or even to retreat. This can be part of a valid strategy, as withdrawing from an engagement can consolidate your forces into a more defensible position or formation, allow you to press the attack elsewhere, at a more advantageous time and place, or draw enemy forces into an attack under circumstances that you control. "Spring forward, fall back" is a mnemonic used for daylight saving time; we advance the clock forward when entering DST in the spring, and move it backward when leaving it in the fall (autumn).

There are buildings in the US that are built across state lines (and county and city boundaries), and even some buildings that extend across international boundaries (these are known as line houses). The existence of these buildings can result in eccentric situations when laws and ordinances vary substantially between the locations. For example, a casino might be built on a state border where gambling is legal in one state but illegal in the other. In such a case, the gaming can only happen on one side of the building (the other side being reserved for other services and functions). It's not uncommon for businesses and tourist attractions to lean into the novelty of this by demarking the boundary inside the building and specifically encouraging things that are legal only on one side of the line. Such situations are likely the inspiration for this strip, but using such a line to manipulate a competition based on time zone is highly unlikely.

Ongoing state-level efforts to end time changes could also increase the number of places where this situation could happen, as more DST/non-DST boundaries arise.

The comic was published five days before the start of the World Chess Championship 2024 in Singapore.

Transcript

[White Hat and Cueball are sitting across from each other playing chess. The time, shown above them in white on a black screen, reads 6:35 for White Hat, and 0:28 for Cueball.]

White Hat: It’s late, I’m up a pawn, and you’re out of time. It’s over.

Cueball: Ah, you’re forgetting something.

[Cueball gestures with one hand above the chessboard. His time now reads 0:19.]

Cueball: Did you know this building straddles the Arizona border?

Cueball: It actually runs right through the table. You're on the Arizona side.

[Cueball raises his hand further to gesture at his time. It beeps and is now blank and white.]

Cueball: This tournament started Saturday, November 2nd. Now it's almost 2AM on the 3rd.

Cueball: And there's something you should know about Arizona.

Chess clock: BEEP

[White Hat raises his head slightly to look at the timer. Cueball's time now reads 60:07. Cueball lowers his hand to make a move.]

White Hat: What?! No! That's not how... No!!

Cueball: Looks like it's daylight slaying time.

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Discussion

I added a basic explanation, how did I do? 172.70.115.129 14:56, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

pat pat Good job. Fephisto (talk) 15:28, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

I guess chess timers work based on the IERS. 172.71.223.126 15:32, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

See "chess clocks don't work that way" comment, below. If they did, they would almost certainly reference Zulu time, which doesn't recognize daylight saving or other local time adjustments. This would go badly for Cueball. Moreover, White Hat could be forgiven for thinking that he had won the game when the clock went "beep" in the third panel, because beeping/flag falling in a chess clock should signal end of match because Cueball's time had run out (the fourth panel asserts that Cueball's time did not, in fact, expire). A minor additional irregularity in what is already a seriously contrived situation. 172.68.23.91 20:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

The "beep" is probably triggered by the clock falling back from DST rather than going to zero, since we can see in the 4th panel that there are more than 60 minutes left after the change.172.71.122.111 11:39, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

'Zactly. But beeping for any reason other than flag-falling (time expired) would not be expected in a real-world (i.e., not an xkcd-world) chess clock. 162.158.41.98 17:00, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

'Real-world' chess clocks don't beep when the flag falls - so White Hat wouldn't think he had won the game when it beeps. 172.68.205.150 12:04, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

No, chess clocks don't work that way. They are simple timers that do not refer to actual time of day in any way, any more than a stopwatch does. Randall just made it work that way for the sake of the joke. 172.71.194.17 (talk) 20:17, 20 November 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Speaking from the experience of one in a sport where some are seeking to "improve" upon the use of a manual stopwatch/timer process with a computerised replacement (anything from a smartphone to a home-computer, often with a live online connection), I'm seeing several cases where time differences between equipment (e.g. GPS time vs. 'radio'/time-signal time) has caused confusion, never mind the possibility of random external events (...OS Update notifications, AV scans going active, etc) or other external interferences. In ways that would never happen to a dedicated timing device that's not even listening out for a national time-signal broadcast (which I know for certain can suffer from interference).

Also, in case anybody is bothered, it's not really a "clock" if it doesn't have a bell (or bells), as per the German "Glocke"/French: "Cloche". Although possibly a single-match "chess clock" could have such a bell for an audible alert, as well as other mechanical 'flag' indicators. But, often, what most people might call a clock is perhaps more just a "timepiece". (Watches/stopwatches/timers/etc, is another matter of sub-distinction, which I try not to be too confusing, or even wrong, about.) 172.69.194.226 00:53, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

If white hat had conserved 20 seconds through the course of the game, they would have won. Cueball must have been sweating if they were relying on this strategy. Radialsymmetry (talk) 15:35, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Cueball may have been deliberately letting the time run down on this move for quite a while, so that it would have greater effect when the change happened at almost the last second.172.70.85.126 12:21, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Here's one building that might qualify (it appears to be a shed or outbuilding belonging to a house in Mesquite, Nevada): https://www.google.com/maps/@36.808703609641505,-114.05009436731552,55m
I believe that's the only one that straddles the Arizona border with a Pacific Time Zone state (California and Nevada), so (head-)canonically, that's where the comic is set. 172.69.6.190 (talk) 17:15-26, 20 November 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It could be in a temporary structure - a marquee or something.172.70.90.118 10:34, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

This would also work on the Utah or New Mexico borders, since they fall back too. Or along the Navajo Nation border, which spans multiple states and observes DST in all of them. Though Cueball indicates he's not in Arizona. 172.70.211.234 01:24, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Is the neighbouring state {Utah or New Mexico} or {Nevada or California}? I'm not from the US so I'm not sure how your rules work. 172.69.6.190 above seems to think it's the latter but aren't they both on Mountain Time before the clocks change? -- Mtcv (talk) 08:57, 21 November 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

One difference between the way parts of North America change time and the way parts of Europe do is that the various North American time zones fall back/jump forward at 2AM local time, while European time zones all change at the same instant (01:00 UTC/WET (02:00 CET, 03:00 EET). That means that the same "trick" could work by sitting on the line between any American time zones at the changeover, but not by sitting on the European lines. 172.70.47.138 15:37, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

In the US this would not work, since the time would be different over the time zone, and thus the chess clocks that are based on the actual time would run different before. In Arizona there are the situation that only the other state changes it's time. This would work for instance on the border to Nevada, where the two states have the same time in the summer as Nevada's timezone is one hour behind Arizona but then the same time during daylight saving time. Thus sitting in the border house on the Hoover dam it would be possible for the one on the west side to be in Nevada and the east side in Arizona. And when DTS stops, the one in Nevada would gain an hour, but not the one in Arizona. And before they would have had the same time. This would thus also work in Europe if one country did not use DTS and the other did along a time zone border. And this will only work when DTS ends. As it happens have only been in the US once, taking a course in Las Vegas. But on the one day off we took a road trip to Gran Canyon and passed Hoover Dam. And then we drove over a time zone line, the only time I have tried that... And then the time did not change due to the lack of DTS in Arizona... What a disappointment... :-) But the rest of the trip was great. Crazy places the dam and Gran Canyon. (As well as Las Vegas, living in a hotel on the Strip). Also just watched the TV series The Queens Gambit where chess timers are used extensively, and of course they do not work digitally. But I love one more of Randall's quibs against the stupidity of DTS. Can't wait till we stop with that stupidity. ;-) Great TV series by the way! --Kynde (talk) 14:42, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

I'd recommend reviewing what you just wrote. 172.71.98.220 16:52, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

A related oddity occurs in the City of The Gold Coast, in Australia, which straddles the Queensland/New South Wales border. The border runs through a built up area, and as NSW has DST but Queensland does not, there are places that are, for one hour each year, in different years, despite being only a few metres apart. You can celebrate the New Year at a bar in Tweed Heads, then cross the road to a bar in Coolangatta, and celebrate the New Year all over again an hour later. I believe this is the only border in the world that runs through a built up area and has different timezones at New Year; New Year being in winter in the Northern Hemisphere means that such DST related anomolies are strictly a Southern Hemisphere phenomenon. 172.68.64.206 00:09, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

"I believe this is the only border in the world that runs through a built up area" Definitely possible. I couldn't inagine the difficulties of setting a lunch date with a group and having to confirm the timezone as well as the time, every single time. In most locations with cross-border cities, the smaller one is permitted to observe the time zone of the larger one, allowing Gary Indiana to watch Chicago television on "local time". Most of Mexico doesn't observe DST, except cities adjacent to US areas that do. [1]. 141.101.76.137 19:33, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

check these two Dutch and Belgian towns. --172.69.225.154 00:32, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

All time should be LST (Local Solar Time). Occupy those smartphones with tasks that are actually useful, and keep AI so busy that it can't spare a thought to world domination. 👹 172.71.151.165 02:20, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Me again. Yep, I'm aware of Baarle. It's clear from context that the person who mentioned Gold Coast was referring to time observance borders, rather than jurisdictional borders. Baarle is not relevant in this case, as both Belgium and the Netherlands both observe the same time zone and DST rules. 172.71.102.53 (talk) 14:54, 22 November 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Should the comment about Hawaii be kept? It seems irrelevant. 172.70.111.129 15:42, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

removed youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk 16:15, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

Which songs would go well with this scene? His World comes to mind... Caliban (talk) 17:13, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

...con Lentitud Poderosa right as the crazy part starts. 100%. -P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 02:03, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Fun, incredibly niche point: the chess clock is not in the preferred location; from Black's perspective (hat guy), the clock is on the left, not the right. (6.4, https://www.scoutresources.org.uk/downloads/ideabase_chessrules.pdf ; not very authoritative URL, I know...) 17:11, 21 November 2024

According to the FIDE Laws of Chess (https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012023, Rule 6.5), placement of the chess clock is at the discretion of the arbiter, there isn't a 'preferred' location. 172.68.205.179 12:10, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

anyone know what the chessboard would look like? 172.71.194.94 17:25, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

I might be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing 32 black squares and 32 black squares next to each other, alternating across edges (but matching across corners) in an 8x8 grid... 172.70.162.35 22:48, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

... but seriously, folks, there's no telling what the game position is from the cartoon. If one takes the drawing at face value (dangerous, given its low resolution and angle of presentation), then it is White, not Black, who is up a piece (what piece cannot be determined). Inference that White Hat is Black is from the tallest pieces on the board (presumably the Kings) being Black on White Hat's side of the board, and White on Cueball's. Even that's chancy. The least risky guess is that both Queens are off the board. 172.68.23.82 01:07, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

I added the reference to the Navajo Nation, which arguably has four borders: Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and an enclave with the Hopi Reservation. Arizona and the Hopi Reservation do not observe DST, while the other four entities do. See Time in Arizona. As such, people in the Navajo Nation can talk about their "Arizona Border". 172.71.102.27 16:42, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

This may also be related to Magnus Carlsen arriving late for a match in World Blitz 2022. Youtube recommended to me a video about the match just a few days ago, it's most likely trending again now due to the upcoming championship. 172.70.216.72 17:12, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

There's an upcoming championship? With human players? Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov twenty-eight years ago. I'm surprised anyone still bothers. 162.158.42.158 20:07, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

What happens if White Hat's clock goes to 0 but he is still 1 pawn up? Does he win the game?141.101.69.128 18:17, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Nope. Dey could be one move from checkmate, but if dey doesn't make that move before the flag falls, dey loses. 108.162.246.48 19:35, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

Is anyone else getting "No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die" vibes (Comic 123) from the final panel? 172.71.103.171 01:49, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

Now I guess Ding will defeat Gukesh by a score of 8:5.5 799571388 (talk) 08:45, 27 November 2024 (UTC)