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Comment by hackyhacky | Hacker News Reader

If you enjoyed this, you might like Mind Chess, which can be played without a board and pieces [1]:

Consider Mind Chess. Two players face each other. One says "Check." The other says "Check." The first says "Check." This continues until one of them says, instead, "Checkmate." That player wins -- superficially. In fact, the challenge is to put off checkmate for as long as possible, while still winning. This may be better stated: you truly win Mind Chess if you call "Checkmate" just before your opponent was about to.

[1] http://www.eblong.com/zarf/essays/mindgame.html

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Which reminds me that I just lost the game.

I also lost the game not too long ago, but before that, I think I didn't actually lose it for a decade of more? And losing it wasn't even because it was mentioned anywhere, I genuinely just thought of it by myself, after forgetting about it for so long.

So my sincerest apologies if my comment just made any readers lose their long streak in the game.

Damnit, I am pretty sure I had a few-year-streak going until just now. Welp, off to the grind again, I suppose.

I've lost it a lot lately, for some reason, after what I suppose was my third multi-year victory streak.

Like, five or so losses this year.

Same here, oddly enough, and every time besides this one was without anyone else mentioning it.

I think once you lost the game once, it's much easier to lose it again relatively shortly after. It takes some long term distraction (and nobody mentioning it) to forget about it again.

damn. multiyear streak ruined. i even managed to forget i was playing.

i just lost the game.

Nah, I won't be fooled again. I won a long time ago and never looked back.

https://xkcd.com/391

Yep, just lost after I think >5 years. But not because of your comment, because of GP comment.

Wow maybe 10+years running here since i lost last..

Damn!

And if you like Mind Chess, you might enjoy Mornington Crescent, which has a similar flavor to it! [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lziCsPmlbZI

Absolutely! Visualising a long string of opponents saying 'Check' to each other until one calls the checkmate reminded me of when you and your opponent both take the classic dub-Victoria understrategy and repeatedly 'Parsons Green' each other. Such memories!

Sounds like a dating game. "Delay texting her back or expressing your feelings as long as possible, until just the moment before she will give up on you"

If you want it, i made a digitally playable Mind Chess, so you're less dependent on the honor system https://jasperblank.com/mind-chess/

Speaking of games without pieces, it's hard to develop one for only 2 players, but I've tried: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43110448 (yes that is my alt account, sorry but I forgot my password)

There's a fantastic game like Mind Chess and Rock-Paper-Scissors called "Hand Cricket". It is like cricket, but played by showing a number with the fingers of your hand. (Showing just a thumb is 6, folding all fingers is 0, and 1-5 is 1-5 fingers as usual).

Both players play a number simultaneously. If the numbers are the same, the batting player gets out. Otherwise, whatever number the batter showed gets added to their score. The innings continues till the batter gets out. And then the roles reverse, the other person becomes batter.

After both innings, the person with higher score wins.

It's spooky because you have 7 different choices for each ball but people still get out rather quickly.

This sounds like an inferior, diminished version of Mornington Crescent.

Wait, how is the "put off checkmate" objective scored? Turns before checkmate? Or what?

Is it just a joke?

I have never played it, but I could imagine a scoring mechanism that would make it interesting, and perhaps is implied by the rules:

The score value starts at 1. Every additional "check" multiplies the score value by 2 (so 2, 4, 8, 16...). The first player to say "checkmate" receives the score. Track your summed score between games; the player with the highest overall score at any given time is "winning."

It only works if there are more than two players

Isn't the optimal strategy just to say "checkmate" immediately? That dominates anything else.

That would be the equivalent of spawn camping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping_(video_games)

I think to have any chance of making this work, you’d need to have a community of players in a tournament. Everybody gets to issue some number of challenges, and the winner is the person who accumulates the most points over the course of the tournament. I think you should only get points based on the length of games you win.

Then the game at least has a chance to develop some mechanics. Players who delayed longer have a chance at winning more points. They also might be challenged more…

Not in an iterated game. If my team agrees we'll never checkmate before turn 5, the game is the same except we start the actual game on turn 5 with a big score advantage compared to everyone else.

You can leave at any time by breaking the rule, but then you will be playing with other people who say checkmate immediately, and that would be much worse.

Being prosocial is in fact a stable equilibrium. As prophecized by gestures broadly at everything.

Isn't that just iterated prisoner dilemma?

The sibling comment proposed a possible scoring mechanism which might result in enjoyable gameplay, but I think the bigger point (for me, at least) is the Mind Chess represents a reducto ad absurdum of the strategy game genre. It eschews as many rules as possible, leaving you only with the goal of knowing your opponent's mind. So Mind Chess is more of a thought exercise.

The Search for the Longest Infinite Chess Game

https://youtu.be/b-Bb_TyhC1A

It's similar to the 2-minute version of Diplomacy - get everyone together and the second sneakiest bastard wins; because nobody will let the sneakiest bastard win.

Give two players cards, "Check" and "Checkmate".

Both players choose a card. Players then in turns reveal their card, and if Check, make another choice. The player first revealing Checkmate wins if their opponent's currently-chosen card is also a Checkmate.

But then this just gives the win to the first person to open their card, since in that round they had both selected Checkmate. Or, you have an incentive to rush to open your card when you know you've selected Checkmate, as you want to be the first one to open.

In the proposed game above, there is no rounds, just alternating plays, in which you have to select you play before the other player announces their play, then swap and repeat

So both players select their cards, then player 1 announces, then player 2, then select, then player 2 announces, then player 1? This seems a bit limiting, as you can't really select Checkmate on the play where you don't reveal first, because you only stand to lose.

I believe the intended turn order is:

1: P1 selects 2: P2 selects 3: P1 reveals 4: P1 selects 5: P2 reveals 6: GOTO 2

I.e. each player always selects immediately before their opponent reveals.

Yeah, but what stops P1 from DDos'ing and picking checkmate each time?

If P2 picks check the first time, then they're done. At any point after if they pick checkmate, since P1 has checkmate selected they will reveal it and P2 will lose.

It seems like a poorly thought through game...

Because P1 lost on their first turn if P2 wasn’t about to pick checkmate

That assume a rule that wasn't state.

You're assume if someone picks 'checkmate' and the next player picks 'check' the games is over and the checkmate selector loses. I assumed that it means you treat it like 'check' 'check' and continue playing. But neither is actually specified in OPs post.

But let's assume it's your rules. Then winning is easy, just never pick checkmate. Literally never. As soon as your opponent picks it, they lose.

It's a terribly designed game as described.

So is war (the card game), but people still play it

I think the proposed game has that both of you lose, like tic tac toe. The only way to win is to checkmate as described. Although it is a memoryless game as proposed, so all options (restart, continue, end) are indistinguishable. Maybe if you win, you go again?

Anyways, the game seems to be described to be the equivalent to the political doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Also a terribly designed game.

But then you won't know if the other player has selected checkmate when you reveal yours.

Maybe I should've worded differently for clarity, the game doesn't go forever:

The player first revealing Checkmate ends the game. They win if their opponent's currently-chosen card is also a Checkmate, otherwise the opponent wins.

Reminds me of The Button[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Button_(Reddit)

Working at the Mind Chess Café is an interesting job.

I did not enjoy this

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