Game over (Week 4)
"A strange game. The only winning move is NOT to play. How about a nice game of chess?" When the WOPR computer spoke to Matthew Broderick's character in War Games, the "game" it was referring to was global thermonuclear war. Agreed, that game is unwinnable. But chess, hey, any fool can learn that one, right? It's what I've tricked myself into believing over the years, to the point of obsession. I play chess on my iPhone. I play chess on my desktop. I play chess when the last thing I should be doing is playing chess, against strangers from all over the world. When I lose a game, I immediately fire off a challenge to the next player, and on it goes. Now, this is from an admitted non-gamer. I tell myself that I'm not that guy in his basement with a PlayStation controller in his hand, sinking deeper and deeper into an overstuffed sofa. Then there's my other gaming diversion, a website called Sporcle, which bills itself as the world's large...