#Chess

[offonaherosjourney]

Last night I dreamed that someone invented a new version of chess called Rookmeo and Juliet where two rooks are in love and trying to run away together. To achieve this they have to make it to the other side of the board, but these rooks don't have any visible signs to differenciate them from the rest, just a small mark in their base. Neither of the players knows what rook from the other side is in love with their rook, so they have to play a regular game of chess, fully aware that they might unknowingly kill the lover of their rook. If they kill it, the game keeps going, but their rook betrays them, switches sides and turns into a second queen for the other player. People wrote a ton of essays about the symbolism and metaphors of that version of chess and the creator didn't have the heart to tell them that he simply invented it because he thought Rookmeo was a great pun

[alanfromrochester]

If the Savannah Bananas did chess instead of baseball...l

you know what’s probably more fun than playing chess? cheating at chess

“ohhh would you look at that, my pawns found jesus and now they’re all bishops”

“so i realize it looks like i’m putting a thimble on the board but actually my rooks have been using their downtime to build another rook, one that’s better, stronger, faster—”

“hey welcome back. while you left to get a snack, those six pieces you’d captured slipped their guards, tunneled to safety and emerged right in the middle of your royal palace.”

“oof, looks like you’ve got my king cornered…maybe this is a good time to mention that shortly before we started playing, my pawns and knights revolted and instituted a representative democracy. feel free to kill the puppet ruler that was the one remaining vestige of our tyranny, you cringing servant of the crown. vive la revolution!”

[triviallytrue]

people who don't follow chess I promise this post is really funny

[divorcedwife]

chess inspired fashion

[todays-xkcd]

It's important to learn the moves that take you into the vortex, but it's best not to study vortex itself too closely. Even grandmasters who have built up a tolerance lose the ability to play for a few hours after studying it.

Chess Position [Explained]

Transcript

[In the first panel, Cueball is walking in from the left, while talking to Ponytail.] Cueball: Something odd happened to me last week in a game at the chess club.

[Cueball is playing a game of chess against Knit Cap.] [Caption above frame:] I moved, then instantly realized I'd blundered. But my opponent didn't notice and made a weird move. I got rattled and moved almost randomly, then I think we both panicked and made a couple of nonsensical moves, rapid-fire.

[Zoomed in on Cueball, with three question marks above his head] I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I realized I was staring at an indescribably strange board position.

[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.] Cueball: I've never seen anything like it. It seemed like every move attacked every piece, yet every piece was also protected. Pieces refracted through crystalline pawn structures. Cueball: The game clock slowed and then stopped.

[Cueball and Knit Cap are floating in a complex five-fold symmetrical plant-like pattern of "game tree branches".] [Caption above the frame] It didn't even feel like we were playing chess. We had stumbled into a magical garden tucked away on a deep branch of the game tree.

[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.] Cueball: I don't remember how the game ended, if it did. Cueball: I don't remember how I got home. Cueball: It's all a blur.

[Close-up of Cueball's head.] Cueball: I've spent all week trying to reconstruct the position and can't. Cueball: It's consuming me. Cueball: I don't want to play chess. I just want to return to that garden. Cueball: Does... any of this make sense to you?

[Cueball is standing with hands on face surprised as Ponytail talks with him.] Ponytail: Yeah, that's the Kasparov Vortex Gambit. Common trap for new players. Cueball: What?! Ponytail: Once you recover I'll show you how to block it with the f pawn.

[la-scriba]

game of chess but with real people but all the pawns are trans women and if they get to the eighth rank they get a lifetime supply of estrogen

[littleplasticrat]

Just today I got to see a chess book that I remember reading as a little kid. While it didn't give me a lifelong passion for chess, it did give me a lifelong passion for fantasy for its artwork.

The book is "Chess for Young Beginners" from 1975, and here's some of the artwork:

Like, this artwork goes hard. I especially appreciate the colour scheme for the black pieces, with its browns, bronzes, reds and oranges.

This artwork is amazing, evocative, exciting and dramatic. I recommend giving it a look if you have a chance - you can probably scrounge up a PDF of this thing with a bit of searching.

[sovietpostcards]

Chess lesson at school (Pskov, USSR, 1975)

[dozydawn]

[broadway-musical-detector]

theyre ading a new piece to the chess board called the me and it doesn;t do anything

✔ Broadway Musical Detected!

Chess

By Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice

Running 1988

theyre ading a new piece to the chess board called the me and it doesn;t do anything

[its-where-the-wild-things-are]

[loopplays]

This guy's lucky the pieces are digital...

[xoxojoyalicious]

and like i js wna stop talking to everyone and js distance myself

𝜗𝜚 — i promise i'm cool, you guys.

[meta-holott]

1978 Philippines, Manila, playing chess in street

[rrror]

Łukasz Cylejowski 2025