Editing 3036: Chess Zoo

{{comic
| number    = 3036
| date      = January 10, 2025
| title     = Chess Zoo
| image     = chess_zoo_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1221px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The zoo takes special care to keep kings separated from opposite-color pieces as part of their conservation program to prevent mating in captivity.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PAWN PROMOTED TO A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A zoological garden, or {{w|zoo}} for short, is a large encampment where various animals are helped to live in small enclosures. Zoos generally serve dual purpose as both a public exhibition and a safe breeding ground for conservation efforts.

Randall has here created a zoo for giant chess pieces, as if they were animals.

There are many subtle "jokes" in the image that play on how chess pieces move:

* Bishops can only move diagonally. Enclosures containing them do not have diagonal walls or corners which would allow them to slip out, and portals into their enclosures are only one square wide and at least two squares long so that they can't get through. Opposing bishops can safely mingle as long as they are on opposite colors, since a bishop can never move to a square of the opposite color than the one on which it currently stands.
* Knights move in an "L" shape (two squares along a rank or file, then one square in an orthogonal direction), leaping over other pieces. The walls of their enclosures have been designed to prevent escape by placing blocks where they would land if they leapt over the wall, or using double-thick walls. They can also be blocked by the same portals that block bishops.
* Rooks can only move along ranks and files. Their enclosures have no portals, and diagonal walls are able to stop them.
* Queens and kings can move along ranks and files as well as diagonally, so their enclosures must have the same precautions as would be required for both bishops and rooks.
* Pawns can only move forward (or diagonally forward when capturing), but upon reaching the final rank (the opponent's back rank), they are "promoted," becoming a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. The pawns are in a double-walled enclosure with no doors to prevent escape after promotion.

The phrase "mating in captivity" in the title text is typically used to refer to animals in zoos copulating, hopefully producing offspring. A reputable zoo will probably take care not to have too many unplanned cases of reproducing, for reasons of manageability and ensuring a properly thought out genetic diversity (including arranging selected animals, or a supply of gametes, being strategically exchanged with other zoos). In this case, however, "mating" is used in the chess context, meaning delivering an attack from which the opponent's king cannot escape. To prevent this from occurring, kings are not kept in the same enclosure as any piece of an opposing color. In fact, only opposing bishops on opposite colors are shown together in this zoo.

Notably, every visitor of the zoo is depicted as centered on a single square occupied only by themselves, just like a chess piece. This could perhaps imply an entire chess board "world", where humans and chess pieces coexist as separate species, both aligned to the grid.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}