Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for May 11, 2016

To fix this, Phoebe must move a pawn to Marigold’s side of the board.

Is there anything a human can do that doesn’t involve unicorn magic?

Unicorns are sore losers.

Judging from what we see on the board, Phoebe ist still about to win easily.Marigold has only the king and one knight left, and if she moves either of them, Phoebe will – unmagically – turn a pawn into a new queen. That, plus the rook/castle in the last row, will ensure check mate in a few moves.

When setting up a chessboard, the white squares go in the right hand corners. Look it up, it’s in the official rules of the game. Today’s nitpicking is brought to you by WaitingMan Industries.

Why didn’t anyone tell me of this option when I was a kid? Mmmphh. Ow! I-I think I popped a vein of pulled something. I must be doing it wrong…

I wouldn’t be able to stay mad at Marigold’s smile in panel 3.

Even if it WAS a pawn, the king only has one move, but is not in check, since the rook is over there on the left. All Phoebe has to do is have the king move, and she’ll get her queen back anyway.

Even unicorns must bow down to the almighty power of the Dad. Nice thinking Phoebe.

Oh boy.

Friends do not cheat friends. Marigold owes Phoebe an apology.

In Roger Zelazny’s “Unicorn Variation”, a human played Tlingel the unicorn to a draw, although the human had coaching help from a sasquatch.

take Phoebe to a casino, morphing cards can be profitable

Phoebe’s dad: That’s good! She’s ready to graduate to three dimensional chess!