Competitive Dominoes

“You become a big winner when you lose,” Dan says. “Everyone plays well when they’re winning. But can you control yourself and play well when you’re losing? And not by being too conservative, but trying to still be objective as to what your chances are in the hand. If you can do that, then you’ve conquered the game.”

The gamester never plays the card the opponent expects, still less that which he wants.

“One never explicitly plays by these rules.” And West remarked that there was no telling which rules might be real, because only de Castro made the rules that counted, and de Castro was once quoted as saying, “Well, I guess the only good strategy is one that no one else understands.”

But unlike typical chess, with each game of Who Not How you play and win, your pieces will become more powerful, as will your own ability to create new strategies and get new chess pieces with enhanced capabilities. The other key difference from chess is that you don’t have opponents—in this game, virtually everyone is a potential partner.

But they might be able to act as their own don by signing a legally binding contract to the effect that, say, any proceeds earned by either shop on a Sunday go to the other shop. By worsening the unsatisfactory equilibrium, they’d make a new and better one.