Brain Teasers
A Chess Game
A man who had never won a game of chess with his friend, one day bet him that he could simultaneously play two chess games with him, and either win one of the games or draw both of them. He made only one stipulation, which was that they alternate their moves on two separate chess boards and that on one board he got to play black while on the other board he got to play white. He said that he was so confident that he would win this bet that he would let his friend play first. His friend accepted the challenge. How was the man able to win this bet?
Answer
The friend opened with a white move on the first board. The man then made the same opening move with white on the second board. The friend made his answering black move on board two. The man then made this same answering move with black on board one. They played back and forth with the man always using his friend's moves on one board as his own moves on the other board. This meant that the friend was playing himself and that if he won one of the games he would lose the other game, or he could draw both games. But, in no way could he win both of the games!Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
I'll have to do that sometime!
what if your friend has a good counter attack to the moves he made?
It doesn't matter: if he has a good counter-attack as Black, then you
wind up playing the same counter-attack in the game where he is White.
You have to make sure you copy his moves perfectly, though, or you
will be in big trouble!
wind up playing the same counter-attack in the game where he is White.
You have to make sure you copy his moves perfectly, though, or you
will be in big trouble!
I am definitely going to do that sometime.
Brilliant!
Great idea, but if your friend cathces on, you're done. The reason being that he could make poor moves. To mirror bad moves would make you lose, and since he goes first, he would have the iniative that you wouldn't get back.
Although I have heard about this puzzle before, yet I would like to share a good practical test based upon the idea used in this problem. If you have two chess playing programmes A and B and want to know which of them plays tougher, you can play with them like a mediator as in this problem, having white with programme A and black with programme B, and ultimately decide which plays well.
Although I have heard about this puzzle before, yet I would like to share a good practical test based upon the idea used in this problem. If you have two chess playing programmes A and B and want to know which of them plays tougher, you can play with them like a mediator as in this problem, having white with programme A and black with programme B, and ultimately decide which plays well.
A good one, but I got it halfway through reading it
i am going to try this on my husband!
Pretty good.
Easy one but still fun.
Gr88888
That's very clever, I shall try it sometime!
Smartest teaser I've read
I understood that he would copy the moves, but I wasn't quite sure how to explain how that would make him win.
wow
my head hrts
my head hrts
Good teaser, but did you know if his friend tips both his kings over at the same time he wins the bet? Tipping a king means to give up and giving up twice makes the other person win twice. The bet was to win once or draw twice.
I was going to submit this teaser with a slight variation. The buy who hasn't played before was playing two Grand Masters each sitting in a different room, so neither had an idea what the other was doing in his game. In essence the two GrandMasters were playing each other.
Works the same in the end though, he wins one game and loses the other.
Works the same in the end though, he wins one game and loses the other.
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