In the CartoonStock Caption Contest #177, the white knight is on the witness stand as the trial is played out on a chess board. The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed and neither has my description of them: five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $110 into the first twenty-two pay-to-play contests and this twenty-third challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $115. Having had two previous runner-up entries, I've collected $200, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds are generally favorable even to us less-gifted caption writers—and chess players. My three entries are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is Bob Eckstein.
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| "Did you or did you not take the black queen for all she was worth?" "What kind of pervert forks the queen and the king?" "How can you claim to begin on a white square and yet end up on black?" * * * "The witness will refrain from jumping . . . to conclusions." "And what heinous action did you take when the Queen's Gambit was declined?" |
March 16, 2024 Update: The Winner
04598
