Chess



Chess is a board game that appears to have great importance in the Homestuck universe. The Dersite and Prospitian forces on Skaia were stuck in a stalemate until John Egbert prototyped his kernelsprite, applying a harlequin theme to the appearances of both Dersite and Prospitian armies and making it possible for Derse to win the battle.

Nannaquin has said that Derse will always win this battle, which has been reflected in Wayward Vagabond's chess game between cans in which Black won via the black queen piece, reflecting Jack's role after receiving the Black Queen's ring.

During the first glimpse of The Battlefield, many creatures of the expanded chess board are shown, including many 'pawns,' knights (massive horses), bishops (stout yet towering characters in priestly garb), and rooks (mutated gargantuans with battlements protruding from their backs). The kings are by far the largest pieces, and the queens aren't on the battlefield at all. Because both were seen on their home worlds of Prospit and Derse, it appears that the queens stay in their kingdoms to administrate while the kings lead the troops in battle on Skaia. The HUBGRID in the SkaiaNet Laboratory also appears to be a chessboard, but it was unestablished via meteor before it was used in any such manner.

has a chessboard which resembles Skaia, on which he and "some wicked troll girl" play a game of chess which he is troubled about, seeing as she is getting closer to beating him and he has no idea how this is possible. When first seen, the chessboard looks like 2x and 3x prototyped Skaia, and later when Spades Slick visits, it looks like 4x prototyped Skaia as well. When visiting Scratch to fix Homestuck Disc 2, we see 2x, 3x, and 4x prototyped Skaia chessboards, indicating that the good Doctor is playing more than one game.

At the Lab
At the Ectobiology Lab, there are numerous chess pieces: Rooks, Knights, Bishops and Pawns; all of the pieces save the Monarchs. It would seem that the pieces being grown are analogous to the pieces seen in battle on The Battlefield. This also implies that all the inhabitants of both Derse and Prospit are grown in such laboratories scattered across The Veil.

Even further speculation gives explanation to the carapatic nature of the Agents, seeing as they are biologically chess pieces (also worthy of note is the styling of their bodies, which resemble the typical shapes of modern chess pieces). The fact that they are manufactured in laboratories also explains the barcodes printed on each citizen of both kingdoms.