DAY 00

[thecomputer]

[Good afternoon, Citizens!

Your consciousness blurrily returns as the transport tube your comatose body was stored in opens up, admitting you access to an unfamiliar room. One wall is covered by vertical tubes, one occasionally sliding open to admit another confused person. The wall across from you has a sign saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB", with an arrow pointing at a red doorway in the corner. The wall to your right contains an unlabeled, dusty, and poorly-lit hallway with blue walls, floor, and ceiling. You can't see the end from here.

Somewhere on your person, you will find a thin, smartphone-sized object that wasn't there before. One side of it is lit up with a red background and a number of disabled menu items. Most of the screen is taken up by another message saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB".

What is this place, anyway? And who are these people stumbling in through the transport tube array?]

[[Beyond the three prompts below, anyone may start their own prompts to mingle or go off and do their own thing or whatever else they want!]]

Comments

[schrodingers_man]

Black can take a piece no matter what you do, though, so isn't it best to remove the most dangerous piece?

[staunton]

The objective here is mate in three moves. The black king is in a position where moving him would put him in check, and allowing him to take the knight would let him out of the trap.

[schrodingers_man]

But if you move the knight so the king can't take it, that still lets him escape, so moving the knight isn't right, either. ...If the white king takes this pawn in front of it, that should keep the lid shut on your trap.

[staunton]

[ He shakes his head and grins. ]

Did you miss the black knight on White's home rank? It'll capture any king that tries to move to h3.

[1/2]

[schrodingers_man]

[ This is the face of somebody who did indeed miss that. ]

[schrodingers_man]

[ OK, time to stop messing around and treat this like a serious puzzle. Where are the walls of the king's trap...? ]

...The knight and the bishop [ clarifying gestures point to the knight next to the king and the bishop at the bottom of the board ] are guarding the same space. The queen and rook aren't part of the trap at all. Neither is the king, but unless something's done about that knight, he can't get anywhere.

The trick's in how to move those pieces.

[staunton]

Hmmm. [ He looks at the board, scratching his chin in thought. ]

First of all, we need to get the bishop out of the black queen's line of attack or it will be captured. It'll be out of immediate danger and keep the knight safe if we move it to f5.

...Do you play chess, Mr. Spiky-Hair?

[schrodingers_man]

It's Yomiel, Mr. Mohawk. [ You are, like, the one person here who doesn't have room to criticize Yomiel's hairstyle, Horace. ]

I know the rules, but not the lingo. Which space is f5? One down and over? What about that pawn?

[ With the board already set up like this, he can't tell which direction the pawns are heading. ]

[staunton]

Call me Knightley, Mr. Yomiel. [ Well, yes, but at least his mohawk doesn't require absurd amounts of hair gel to maintain. :|b ]

Take a closer look at the board. See the numbers running up the side of the board and letters along the bottom?

[schrodingers_man]

[ Oh, hey, look at that, labels. So Yomiel was right about which space f5 is, but probably not the pawns? White goes first, so logically it should start on rows 1 and 2. That makes sense with how the king's trapped, too. So f5 is safe from any attacks. ]

Alright, we move the bishop down to f5, then what does black do? They don't just sit there and let white beat on them, do they?

[staunton]

[ Good thinking, Yomiel. He moves the bishop to its new spot before he speaks. ]

Of course not. If I were on Black's side... knight to e5 sounds like a sensible move, doesn't it?

[schrodingers_man]

Is that really the best move? If the white knight reclaims that space, then that puts the king in check.

[staunton]

Heh heh heh. Not bad, Mr. Yomiel. If Black does that, they'll fall right into a trap.

[schrodingers_man]

The what should Black do? They could remove the check easily with their queen, but isn't it better to avoid it entirely?