Talk:3082: Chess Position
This is very nearly the core plot conceit of the movie Π (1998). 172.70.130.190 22:36, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- I believe you want lower-case Pi: π not Π. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_(film) --PRR (talk) 22:54, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- Unless they're talking about an obscure spinoff where the protagonist becomes weirdly obsessed with the products of sequences of numbers. 172.69.195.180 14:47, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
Does anybody know whether Randall has taken up chess as a hobby? 5 of the 82 comics in the 3000s have been related to chess and only 2 in the 2000s were. If so, this should be included in the explanation. BobcatInABox (talk) 23:11, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- 3000s? 172.71.190.236 23:40, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- Oh right comic number not decade/millennium. 172.70.43.157 23:41, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
- Wouldn't surprise me, there's a three year gap in between chess comics 2465 (May 2021) and 2936 (May 2024), then the aforementioned 5 in 5 months. 172.70.114.251 00:46, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
I really suspect that the full explanation has something to do with this: https://www.kasparov.com/the-implacable-logic-of-the-vortex-of-history/ 172.68.7.206 23:34, 28 April 2025 (UTC) Dan
- Doubtful, that article was written in 2013, and it is unlikely that Randall came upon it just now to make this comic. Vortex is a general term for something that sucks you in. 172.70.214.66 00:38, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
- Quite possible, since simple web search on Garry Kasparov reveals the aforementioned article about Kasparov's theories of the "vortex of history'. And there is a PlayStation game called "Virtual Kasparov" which is reviewed on the PlayStation review site Virtual Kasparov on GameVortex.com. So, there are at least two places where Kasparov and the word vortex are connected. The term "vortex" would be very tempting for Randall to exploit for comic effect. Rtanenbaum (talk) 16:15, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
I sure hope that it stays as not a real thing Commercialegg (talk) 01:32, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
- It might not be, but it's easy enough to make: Train an adversarial network on human chess games. 172.68.22.41 04:56, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
The part about losing the ability to play chess even after building a resistance feels familiar. Isn't that how the Elder Scrolls worked in Skyrim, at least. Even highly trained sages would lose the ability to see for a time after reading an Elder Scroll. And the Oblivion remaster just released the other day... --Ragashingo (talk) 01:54, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
This comic has serious classic SCP energy. I feel like I'd read about this in an old Series I - II article, back when it was still good. Pie Guy (talk) 18:01, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
Cf Von Gom's Gambit by [Victor Contoski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Contoski) published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1966:
And what of Von Goom's Gambit? Chess is a game of logic. Thirty-two pieces move on a board of sixty-four squares, colored alternately dark and light. As they move they form patterns. Some of these patterns are pleasing to the logical mind of man, and some are not. They show what man is capable of and what is beyond his Take any position of the pieces on the chessboard. Usually it tells of the logical or semi-logical plans of the players, their strategy in playing for a win or a draw, and their personalities. If you see a pattern from the King s Gambit Accepted, you know that both players are tacticians, that the fight will be brief but fierce... Now suppose someone discovers by accident or design a pattern on the chessboard that is more than displeasing, an alien pattern that tells unspeakable things about the mind of the player, man in general and the order of the universe. Suppose no normal man can look at such a pattern and remain normal. Surely such a pattern must have been formed by Von Goom’s Gambit.
I wish the story could end here, but I fear it will not end for a long time. History has shown that discoveries cannot be unmade. Two months ago in Camden, New Jersey, a forty-tliree year old man was found turned to stone staring at a position on a chessboard... 162.158.217.38 (talk) 05:22, 29 April 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- "Cf Von Gom's Gambit" https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v031n06_1966-12_PDF/page/n63/mode/2up?view=theater --PRR (talk) 17:46, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
When you stare into the vortex, the vortex also stares into you
, a famous quote from Kasparov.
Ralfoide (talk) 17:49, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
If I may, can we find a position that would match Cueball's description? Where he states "every move attacked every piece, yet every piece was also protected,"? That would be cool.
