It’s interesting that he doesn’t understand the difference between what makes a good game, and what lets you win. Chess is a game about working within constraints. Adding orbital weapons does not “improve” the game, it simply expands the game space, and actually makes it a worse game in the process.
Im sure that says something about his character.
He’s just doing the billionaire thing and looking for a way to pay to win (it’s expensive putting up an orbital space weapon to win a board game after all)
Sorry, man. He wasn’t duped. He did that too himself trying to be a badass edgelord.
So chess for us, Calvinball for Leon.
Maybe he should try golf with ■■■■■.
Oh no. He thinks he’s Jernau Morat Gurgeh.
More to the point, he’s missed the entire point of Chess. It’s a game where all information is visible and both sides are equal at the beginning of the game. It’s a game that teaches you tactics- how to create a win against an equally matched opponent, using movement and every piece to your advantage. 4X games are a completely different beast. They’re about strategy and logistics- in that space, the best way to win a fair fight is never to get into one. From a 4x view, the best way to win a knife fight is to bring a division of tanks.
The fact that he can’t see this is deeply pathetic. And all the evidence from real life- the inability to control the Tesla supply chain, being played into the unforced error of buying Twitter, squandering a massive lead in the electric vehicle space over his pet projects- all of this indicates that in an actual, realistic 4x game, he’s be utterly destroyed by someone who understood supply lines, standardisation and actual leadership, while he was waiting for his Wunderwaffe to turn the tide.
Chess is simple to learn, hard to master. And when playing against someone good, you either have it, or you don’t. You can’t “get lucky” with a die role, you can just “get good”. (Well,you can get lucky if your opponent overlooks a move, but other than that…)
Musk has never demonstrated the actual mental focus, never mind the reflexes, necessary to play StarCraft in anything but solo-mode. I would point him toward the e-sport leagues in either Korea and tell him to try and qualify for any tournament, and watch him squirm out of it while spewing lies.abiut “fairness” or some such rot…
I was thinking that Musk might actually earn some faint respect if he actually championed a particular variant of Star Trek’s “Tri-D chess”, though expecting him to actually participate in tournaments would clearly exceed his tolerance for the idea…
When I was a kid, my dad taught me the basics of how to play chess. He wasn’t very good, but he knew the rules. I expressed some interest, so he gave me a book. In that book, I found a “trick” way to win a game of chess super, super fast, if your opponent is unaware of it. It has a name, which I can’t remember and don’t care to look up. Anyway, I challenged my brother to a game, I whipped that move out and it worked…and my brother got pissed and would never play me again. And I had no one else to play chess with, so I quickly lost interest.
Which is a long way of saying…winning isn’t really the point, for the vast majority of people who play chess. I don’t think Musk gets this.
Thinking about it, “Starcraft” might not be the specific thing he’s thinking about (“Command and Conquer” is probably a better fit), but it’s generally referencing '90s real-time strategy games from back around the time he was an aspiring video game developer. But yeah, it’s his superficial take based on games he had only limited, superficial interactions with.
Before his time, probably.
He’s almost certainly been watching too many movies.
Though I’m loath to fault the flawlessly perfect Real Genius for giving him the idea that it’s real.
In a very important sense, constraints (including self-imposed restraints) are a primary driver of creativity in life just as in chess. It’s easy to solve a problem when you have any imaginable tool or reasource at your disposal.
Others have mentioned Archon which is wonderful, but I also played “Laser Chess” on some computer system (may this one on PC?) which I think is based on this board game, Khet / review at Board Game Geek.
This uses a laser to kill random pieces and lots of mirrors to bounce it around with a beam splitter for added fun.
He should try Go…
And with some luck, a kid possessed by a Go Master from the past would kick his ass hard
In the Real Genius universe, you just know Musk would be Kent – the privileged and egotistical bully that can only exploit the talents of others to get ahead.
But that’s what drives innovation! You try playing chess, start losing, and think to yourself “man, this game would be a lot easier if I had a space laser (and my opponent didn’t)”. And so you tell everyone that you will have a space laser ready in fifteen turns if they just give you enough money. Give a very small portion of that to some engineers, yell at them a lot, and if they do come up with a space laser you can take credit for winning. If they don’t you tell people you just need a little bit more money and then will have one ready in…well, let’s say fifteen turns. And apparently this makes the world a better place for white children or something.
Been doing a rewatch of Hikaru no Go, and out of curiosity tried the Chinese live-action adaptation. I was surprised that it’s really good, for me maybe the equal of the original, though I do miss the fun instructional sections at the end of the anime.
