About

What Do I Do in This Position? is a catchphrase used in a series of chess memes that imagine out-of-the-ordinary situations happening on the game board, such as pieces from other games appearing, with the poster asking for advice on what to do in that situation. Originally appearing in late May 2022, the format achieved virality on the /r/AnarchyChess subreddit in late 2022.

Origin

On May 31st, 2022, Redditor MrPaddy666 posted a screenshot from their Plague Inc. run showing a notification that a cure for En Passant, a notorious chess move, was finished. The post was captioned, "What do I do in this position." parodying posts seeking advice shared on chess forums and subreddits. The parody post gained over 14,700 upvotes in /r/AnarchyChess^[1] one year (shown below).

Spread

The meme format did not see a significant spread until November 2022. On November 18th, 2022, Redditor Potega_Punktu posted a humorously altered game position in which the white king shot the black king with a sniper rifle, captioning it with the request for help. The post (shown below, left) gained over 8,200 upvotes in the /r/AnarchyChess^[2] subreddit in nine months. On December 10th, Redditor^[3] Macieksssspl posted a Political Compass version of the meme that received over 9,400 upvotes in the subreddit in eight months (shown below, right).

The format maintained popularity in /r/AnarchyChess through 2023, with several versions later achieving further spread through reposts on Twitter^[4][5] and other social media.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References