George Duke wrote on Wed, May 7, 2014 05:03 PM UTC:
This is half of a Bridge column in 2008 by Jared Johnson "Game Doesn'
t Suffer from Bad Luck of the Draw":
'Many years ago in football, a tie score at the end of four quarters meant
a tie. Then overtime was added. We don't like ties. In baseball they go
extra innings. We don't like ties. There are playoffs in golf. We don't
like ties. .... You rarely have ties in Bridge. .... In a game that has
already been made less interesting by conservative play, this gives at
least one of the players even more motivation to have draw after draw after
draw. .... And whereas Chess has just two opponents facing each other, a
Bridge event can have dozens or hundreds of pairs, so no one is playing for a draw.
Another problem with Chess is that the standard range of opening moves has
become so thoroughly analyzed and predictable, you just don't get much
excitement. Not so at Bridge. You get the occasional dull deal, but the
next hand might be seven hearts, six clubs and 17 high card points.
If they really do want to rejuvenate Chess, some new approaches are needed.
Computers have already beaten world champions at Chess. The Bridge
computer programs aren't even close, since the game is so much harder to
program with all the hidden variables and psychological elements. Knowing
that a machine can beat a man has been one more blow to Chess. At Bridge,
the humans are still on top. ....
Bobby Fischer was once asked his favorite part of the game of Chess. His
reply: "That moment when I can feel my opponent's ego being crushed."
Meanwhile, Bridge players will pick up their next hand with fair confidence that most of the time the complete deal will be something they've never seen before. And there will be a winner. And a loser.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_bridge.