Checkers, backgammon, chess and Go. Poker, Scrabble and bridge.
These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people
worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and
historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules and the
ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces
thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley,
who across fourty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai,
the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending
tradition against "modern rationalism" and an IBM engineer who
created a backgammon programme so capable at self-learning that
NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and
lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt; the Indian
origins of chess; how certain shells from a particular beach in
Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and
personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial
pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early
philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an
Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can
effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language
itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how
humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have
invented AI programmes better than any human player and what that
means for the games-and for us. Funny, fascinating and profound,
Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history and how
play makes us human.
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