WINTER 2008

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Christmas Chess

December 21, 2008

Today, I met an usual mate at the Chess and Checker's House in Central. Last week I lost all the games I played with him. Today, after having reviewed my opening, I came with a better idea; it was to show that Chess indeed obey to Bayesian Statistics, i.e., to conditional probability. To show that my studied and cautious opening is still good, I have tried to reduce the probability of any judgmental and tactical error at its end, by looking deliberately at limiting the number of pieces on the board in practicing a careful policy of exchanges; it has worked. Marc lost the game; he was carrying a deficit of pieces since the middle game and, undecided at a point in the end game, he came to move a piece, his queen, twice and lost by forfeit according to the rules of the game. After that, I have allowed him to replay his queen, the game ended with a draw. Nevertheless, during the whole gane he was never been able to dominate and was never been able to repair the defict he carried since the beginnig of the middle game, due to my cautious startegy. In fact I should have won the game for this second time, but I probably made some faulty tactical moves at the end game that have allowed it to end in a draw while victory was certain for me.