Fool’s mate
Seems like Kai got lucky. Scarabath is even worse at chess than he is xD
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Yup, that’s dream Chess for you
when you don’t know the game;
when the way is simple,
when you both play the same.
She’s not played here before,
no-one got past her guards.
No-one got to her home
No-one broke her to shards.
Make your peace now, Sir Kai,
Get a shiny new friend.
Get rain to the village.
Get this dream to it’s end.
youre one of the coolest people ive ever seen
That’d be Robin, surely?
Well, he did say, “ONE of”… 🙂
Huh, that was unexpected! Thought the game would take a couple of comics at least.
Quick Kai grab a bucket! She’s already releasing the water you all came for! Might be a bit salty though.
The rain ritual has begun xD
Well, that was quick.
Sometimes it can be quick :p
Fool’s Mate, huh? That seems more like Scarabath losing on purpose than being bad at chess.
I recently performed fool’s mate on an unattended P2 controller to see if the game I was playing had a special acknowledgement for fool’s mate (it didn’t). The only reason I didn’t find out by losing to the AI is because it’s actually surprisingly easy to MESS UP throwing a match via fool’s mate. You have to move two specific pawns (fool’s mate is not symmetrical), your opponent has to specifically free the queen (the first instinct of most chess players I know is to free the kingside bishop to castle), they have to recognize the check opportunity (surprisingly easy to miss for a beginner), and if you have a way to escape check, you HAVE to escape check (so if your opponent didn’t checkmate you immediately, you’ve probably wasted time such that lets another piece move to block).
Her reaction doesn’t make it seem like it was on purpose though :p
I WAS JOKING! Scarabath actually set herself up for fool’s mate? Cocky goddess.
You were joking, but it was in my script for two years already xD
“I’ll scorch the land”, she says shortly before breaking into tears.
Outcome A: her weathermancy is emotion-based, and her sadness at being defeated is stronger than her anger; rain falls upon the island and all is well.
Outcome B: she throws a fireball down at the village. Kai has to race down the mountain and use his draconic fire resistance to rescue a few villagers who were trapped indoors when it hit, and THAT turns out to be Scarabath’s real challenge.
If this would be even remotely realistic, Kai would have no chance to get down before the whole village turns to ash. However, considering it’s a dream, him managing to get down faster than the fireball is plausible.
… I still like outcome A more. Also, maybe that’s how it WORKS. That only way to get rain is to make her crying.
Right, its a dream so he could just grow wings and intercept it in the sky
Outcome C: She’s just really lonely but also a bit of a sore looser. Wants to win all the time, rages when she looses, sounds like my old boss. But I’m thinking once she learns to play nice, she’ll become friends with the villagers & that’ll end all their problems…
…Fine, Daniel the Human came up with that. But it was ME who recognized the sore looser part…
Haha, nice ideas, but it will go a little different xD
LE WHAT ??? SO FAST !!!!!!
Scarabath is the worst badest beginner i’ve ever seen in chess game ^_^”
Hehe, maybe she wanted to try it, figuring she’s a goddess so it would be easy xD
Panel 2: Kai’s Queen started across from Scarabath’s, and their Kings remain as such. In real chess, each King and Queen should be reversed from the opponent’s perspective. For the record, Scarabath’s side was the one properly done.
@[jprime]:
I’ve never seen what you describe, in any match.
I’ve always been told:
“The corner that’s WHITE is on your RIGHT, & both QUEENS start on their own color.”
… By that logic, the board that we see in Panel_2 was set-up correctly.
HOWEVER, what you describe might very-well be a “fairy-chess” variation.
The Spanish Grandmaster Capablanca, recommended a similar variation, which still bears his name, in which the Bishop & the Knight trade places before the game starts, in all 4 locations. It’s proven to be a popular way to “level the playing field” between 2 players of widely-different playing-ability, because it renders useless all of the tons of “opening move”-analysis that have been published-&-studied over the years.
… initial position for chess is on wikipedia. Yours it not mentioned there at all.
Nope, the kings and queens should be facing each other along the same file, not reversed. The comic has it right.
Okay, my mistake.
The queen is always on her color ^^
There might be variations, but this one is the official setup.
Fool’s mate… NotKaya is just reeeeeeeally bad at cheess and should consider rebuilding her game room. And I think she is very lonely up there on the mountain (someone should move down to the village and make some friends)
@[Taylor Blackwell]:
My first thought was that perhaps this goddess had never met an opponent before who was brave-enough to **NOT** “throw” a game…
… but then I remembered — this is Kai’s “directed” dream…
… which suggests that this tiny incarnation of a deity reflects some part of his opinion/impression of his sister … ?
I’m remembering how “off the rails” her playing-style was, in that “D&D”-game that they both played a while back.
Might this “Fool’s Mate” be his “dream-revenge”?
I like to think she just wanted to try chess and since she’s a goddess, figured it would be easy to win against a mere mortal ^^
That is always the problem with divine beings (and manga villains), huge ego and a “I can never ever lose” mindset.
Just realized Scarabath breathed fire in panel 4.
Yes, she did 😀
I have a feeling Kai is going to be playing social interaction now.
Yeah, there’s a good chance for that xD
Checkmate in 2…
That’s embarrassing. Not sure the Goddess really knows how to play, probably thinks “yeah, I’ll challenge them to a chess game to prove that I’m smart, they’re peasants who don’t know how to play, so I’ll win!”
What she needs is the same ability Death from Discworld has. Cannot be beaten by normal means, regardless of how little knowledge of the game he has (unless he really wants to).
It’s a dream. There is only one brain which is not even awake for BOTH players to share. Kai would need to be REALLY good at chess to get interesting game.
There was a character in “Thieve’s World” that always won. Her hobby was murdering mages. If you offered her money, she had no choice but to take it and be your whore.
Such an ability would be way too powerful for Kaya to use responsibly xD
Surprised Scarabath didn’t move her king’s bishop pawn two squares as well as the king’s knight pawn. Not that it would have made any difference.
Awwww, poor weathermancer. Fool’s mate… why do I feel like there’s more to this? Even if it is a dream? I know others have already pointed all this out, but it’s quite noteworthy. Now, something I HAVEN’T seen anyone else mention yet: I have to ask since they’ve become such a meme. Robin, did you intentionally reference JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in this one, or is it a coincidence? Kai’s pose in the last panel almost perfectly matches Joseph’s reaction to Esidisi crying. If it was an accident, you sure lined things up well. Regardless, this was an interesting panel to read, with some great expressions from our resident “goddess”. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Keep up the great work, and as always, stay awesome!
You fool! I have the high ground!
“Water flows downhill. Keep crying!”
I like how the waterworks are the same color as her hair. Coincidence? 😉
Wow, I have never seen winning a game of chess this early :O
But anyway, poor Scarabath :,(
(PS.: Do you think she is crying just like Snoopy or just me? )
Scarabath’s waterfall-tears reminded me of the “Hopetails” in the Precocious comic. 🙂
I’m having a hard time figuring out if the last panel is a result of Scabarath’s shouty outburst, or if Kai is curling up from massive levels of confusion.
I’ve come to the conclusion that either works. 😛
This comic is awesome, I just discovered it yesterday and now it’s in the big three, this, wukrii, and dndoggos.
Luckily, his actual sister isn’t a telepath, and so will never know how his subconcious mind regards her.
Lucky for him, anyway.
Scarabath: I’ll bwah wah!
This feels like there may have been a little inspiration from No Game No Life. Just, the beginning and end of the chess match anyway XD. Even the waterworks crying scene. Which, if it was, awesome, one of my favorite series. ^^
I just had to spend like 10 minutes checking if it really was a actual check mate (because some people don’t draw the check mate right causing the person to lose while they could have continued.)