Field guide No. 485
Three kings, one impossible board
Check, check and check.
On a worn chessboard, three kings in black, white and brown are tangled together on one square, while a white queen and a black piece wrestle nearby. Nobody knows whose move it is.
Field noteChess has two sides and a king each. A third king means the game contradicts its own rules.
- Specimen
- No. 485
- Genus
- Generated
- Kind
- Impossible (the round square kind)
- Breaks
- Category
- Where it doesn’t exist
- A worn board on a concrete floor.
- Nearest existing relative
- A chess set.
- Filed in Fresh slop as
- Objects
Also impossible, also breaking category
The missing beamA beam of light is light. Solid enough to lift a chunk out and leave it on a seat, it’s also not.
Taking the burrow with meA burrow is a hole, an absence in the ground. This fox is carrying the absence away.
An honest reflectionA mirror showing somewhere else is a mirror and a window at once. Mud on the sink takes the window’s side.
Closing time for shadowsA shadow is where light isn’t. Swept into a pile, it’s also something that is. Pick one.