Two reasonably competent chess players are discussing chess in a bar. A duffer comes up and challenges them to simultaneous matches, with the duffer playing white on one game, and black on the other. He offers a substantial bet on the outcome. However, since he's inexperienced, he will win the bet unless the two experienced players as a whole do better than the duffer. (That is, two draws or one win and one loss will result in the duffer winning the bet.)

The challenge is accepted, and play starts. After a few moves, the experienced players throw up their hands in disgust, and pay off the bet.

Question 1: What happened?

Question 2: Having accepted the challenge, what ought the experienced players to have done in order to win?

Assuming simultaneous means the duffer is playing two games at once but not actually moving pieces on two boards at once...

1. He's using the experts' moves against them via imitation.

2. Make the game where he is White the first game they start.

Posted by asad on 2002-12-24 12:59:10