Chess Idiocy

I'll always remember legendary journalist Alistair Cooke using a chess analogy to describe the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Michael Gorbachev at a summit on arms reduction in the 1980s. It was similar to an unknown American player meeting a chess grandmaster and the yank makes a seemingly obviously stupid move, and the grandmaster hesitates and thinks that there must be some deep underlying strategic reason for this move. And he eventually plays the game out several moves further ahead in his mind and sees that it is indeed a brilliant move. So he reacts defensively, to save himself from future embarrassment. But in reality, the yank did just make a stupid move.

This is how I'm able to beat my iPhone at chess at progressively harder levels. If I play enough times, eventually I make a stupid move that the iPhone realises will lead to a positive outcome for me several moves ahead. So it reacts and sacrifices a rook or retreats and I won't understand why except I'll know that I'm the unknown American player against the grandmaster.

Anyhow, I recommend the free chess.com app. If you're ever stuck in a queue or waiting for an appointment, you have time to lose several times to it.

ps. Here's a reference to the Alistair Cooke story.