EP 263- Author Oliver Roeder on the Enduring Appeal of Chess and Other Games

Oliver Roeder is an author, and a former senior writer for FiveThirtyEight.com who has often covered chess and other games. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, with an emphasis on game theory, and  studied Artifical Intelligence at Harvard University as a Niemann fellow. Today he appears with a new book, Seven Games, a Human History. It covers the history and current competitive contexts of the games Checkers, Chess, Backgammon, Go. Poker, Scrabble, and Bridge. Oliver’s book gave us an opportunity to talk about why people love games, why people love chess, and his own relationship with the game. Given Oliver’s expertise in A.I., we also discussed how it is changing all of these games. It was lots of fun to get a “big picture” view of chess’ enduring popularity from Oliver, and I highly recommend his book. Links, more details, and timestamps below! 

0:00- Why do people love games, and especially chess? 

5:00- We discuss Oliver’s background with the other games in the book:  Go, Bridge, Checkers, Backgammon, Scrabble, and Poker

12:00- The ease of use and availability of chess learning tools have exploded.  Has this been the case for the other games Oliver wrote about as well? 

18:00- Does the joy of a game diminish when you get good at it?

Mentioned: Word Freak by Steven Fatsis 

21:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out their latest offerings here: 

New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels - Chessable.com

23:00- What are the reasons that make Oliver think chess is booming? How has it sustained itself over the centuries? 

30:00- What is Oliver’s own experience with chess? What does he try to convey to a non-chess audience on FivethirtyEight.com ?

Mentioned: Modern Chess Openings 

36:00- Did Oliver have a preferred broadcast for the FIDE World Championship? 

41:00- Aimchess has a brand new feature called Aimchess recap! It summarizes your year in chess a la Spotify wrapped. Check it out here: 

https://www.aimchess.com/recap

43:00- How is AI affecting other games, like Go? 

Mentioned: Lee Sedol, Episode 196 with GM Jan Timman 

51:00- Does Oliver think chess should be changed to something like Chess960 or “No Castling Chess”? 

55:00- Is Oliver actively studying or working on his chess? 

57:00- Will Seven Games be available on Audiobook?

Mentioned: Yes, it will, here! 

59:00- Are Oliver’s FivethirtyEight.com chess columns popular? Will he cover chess there in the future? 

1:02:00- Patreon mailbag question: How does the question of whether or not there is “perfect information” available in a given game affect the appeal and enjoyment of the games? 

1:07:00- Thanks to Oliver for joining the show! 

You can follow him on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/ollie?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

And you can order Seven Games from Amazon or your local book seller. 

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