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 AN ELABORATE CHESS JOKE- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Zoo|Zoos}} are large encampments where various animals live in small enclosures. They're generally used as public exhibitions for amusement and education and as safe spaces for rescued and endangered animals.

Randall has here created a zoo for giant {{w|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 orthogonal portals into their enclosures are only one square wide and at least two squares long so that they can't get through. One bishop enclosure even has a portal open to the visiting people, letting it serve as a {{w|petting zoo}}. 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 and presumably walls. 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. They have free roam of several enclosures, though diagonal walls are able to stop them, preventing them from accessing the center mingling bishops.
* 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.

Contrary to the comic's subtitle, there are a couple of "interaction" areas that could have been built into the zoo design while preventing piece capture or escape but have not. There is no reason bishops and knights of the same color couldn't occupy the same enclosure, so long as there are adequate walls to prevent knights from escaping their enclosure. Additionally, it would be possible to allow visitor access to the white-bishop-on-black and black-bishop-on-white enclosure, as well as allow visitor access to the knight enclosures, however it is not apparent whether this is a priority of the zoo.

Every visitor of the zoo is depicted as centred 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.

The title text contains a clever chess joke. The phrase "mating in captivity" is typically used to refer to animals in zoos copulating, hopefully producing offspring. A reputable zoo will take care not to have too many unplanned cases of reproducing, for manageability and genetic diversity. 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 as unallied co-residents of an enclosure, in this zoo, thanks to their particular method of wall-free separation.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Needs a description of the layout. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Caption above a panel that contains a cut-off chessboard that is presumably at least 29x43 squares:]
:Chess Zoo
:Designed to give different types of pieces their own enclosures while letting them interact as much as possible without allowing captures

:[A large picture with alternating black and white squares. Some squares have smaller black squares imposed on them. Other squares may have chess pieces or characters on them.]
:[Banner above black squares on the top right:]
:Banner: ''Shh! Pawns promoting.''
:[Jill near the center, standing in front of Blondie and pointing forward:]
:Jill: Look, mommy! Bishops!

*'''Click''' for a visual representation of the comic:
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
<br>
:[Layout (H is human; # is a smaller black square; chess pieces on the top half are black and below that white, unless otherwise noted):]
      HH H     HH   H HH    
  ######################### 
  #         #     ######### 
  #  K  K   # R   ##     ## 
  #      Q  #    R##P   P## 
 H# #K#    R##### ## P   ## 
  ### ###       #R##  P  ## 
   ## ######    # ##   N ## 
  ### # #####   # ######### 
  H# K  #  #### #  ######## 
  ###  N#   #####     #   # 
   #    #  R      B   #   # 
  #######   ####     # B B#H
 H #    # N N##   B R#    # 
  ### N #    ##      B# B # 
   #    #    ## #  #  #   # 
  ### # #N# ### ###B## #### 
   ###########  #   B#   B# 
    #H# # # # #R#    #    # 
               ##B   #  B #  [White bishops]
      H     HH     B #  B #  [Black bishops]
    HH        H##  B # B  #  [Left bishop: white, right bishop: black]
    # #H# #H# # # B  # B B# 
   ########### R#    #    # 
  ### # # # ### ## #### ### 
   #   N#    ## # #B   #  # 
  ###   #    ##R    R  #B #H
   #    #    ##   R B #   #H
  #######  R####      # B # 
   #    #          BB#    # 
  ###KN # N ##### B  #    # 
   #    #  #### #  ######## 
  ### # #####   # ######### 
  H## ######    # ##     ## 
  ### ###       # ##P    ## 
  # # #     #####R##     ## 
  #      Q K#     ## P  P## 
 H# K       #  RR ##     ## 
  #  K      # R   ######### 
  ######################### 
      H       HHHH     H   
</div>
<br> 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Chess]]
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[[Category:Large drawings]]