LOST - I have an answer! (sort of)

LOST is living a shell of a life during the strike-plagued hiatus. Mobisodes (or webisodes, if you're not a Verizon customer) are the tiny supplements made to keep us alive until February.

The third 'sode is titled "King of the Castle," and features a portion of a chess match between Jack and Ben. Some verbal judo ensues, and the segment ends with Ben performing a "castle" move, which presumably puts Jack at a significant disadvantage.

Much has been made online of the fact that the move Ben performs is illegal. His pieces are not in the proper position to execute a castle. This has been interpreted, logically, to mean that Ben will cheat with his hands while he swears virtue with his mouth. I can't argue with that interpretation, but I have another. It is rooted in the fact that Ben lauds Jack's chess skill, and yet Jack doesn't appear to recognize the illegality of Ben's castle.

We should consider the possibility that, since both kings are not on their proper starting space, the board was improperly laid out from the start. In other words, Ben didn't intend for the castle to be illegal, and Jack didn't call out the illegality, because both players placed their kings on the wrong space from the start.

The meaning of this would be that both Ben and Jack are operating from a false assumption about the game; the implication being that neither man truly understands what's happening on the Island.

Just a thought.