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?

(In reply to Your answer to question 2 is incomplete by TomM)

You mean the player who would play White would wait until the duffer made his move with White on the other board before making his first move? The player playing Black would have no choice but to await duffer's first move, since White move first.

However, what's to stop this game from deadlocking? Both the White player and the duffer could just wait indefinitely. Or else, if it's a time game, they would both lose their game, letting the duffer collect the money.

Posted by levik on 2002-09-10 18:41:54