Who Wins a Game of Chess? A Mindreader or A Foresight
There are a lot of thought-provoking questions. Many to be motivational or inspirational.
But I have a favorite that I think is a bit more fun.
Two people play a game of chess. One is a Mindreader. The other is has the ability of Foresight. Who wins?
The Mindreader has the ability to read the mind of the Foresight. This means he can see their next move or what moves they are thinking of. The Foresight can see the future. They can see what move the Mindreader will make in the future.
So if they can both see each other’s future moves how will we know who wins?
Mindreader Wins
One thought is that the Mindreader wins. They are able to read the mind of the Foresight and then make his move accordingly to secure himself the win. He will make sure that he changes the future from what the Foresight sees to maintain a favorable position in the game.
Foresight Wins
Another thought is that the Foresight wins. Since they are able to see the future they know exactly what the Mindreader will play and make the best moves to ensure a favorable position and get the win. The Mindreader’s ability is dependent on the Foresight therefore the Foresight has the upper hand to win the game.
Draw
The final thought is that every time it will end in a draw. Essentially they have the same ability. If the Foresight can see into the future and the Mindreader can read what the Foresight is thinking. They can both see into the future. This will lead them to both players playing the most optimal move which will always end in a draw in chess.
Who Initiates the Game?
I think we need to take a step back from the original question and think about who is initiating the game? Answer that question and use a little bit of Game Theory and you will get your answer to who will win a game of chess.
The Foresight can see into the future, we already know this. But since they can see into the future, they can see if they initiate a game of chess with the Mindreader if they will win. If they see they will lose or draw, the Foresight will not initiate a game of chess.
It wouldn’t make any sense to, you gain more utility by not playing the game than playing and losing or drawing. This is assuming we are self-interested beings.
If the Foresight sees that he will win the game of chess, he will initiate the game. There is greater utility in playing the game and winning than not playing the game at all.
But since the Mindreader knows that the Foresight will only initiate the game if the Foresight knows he is going to win, then the Mindreader should decline any game initiation by the Foresight. Therefore they two will never play a game of chess with the foresight initiating the game.
The Mindreader can not see into the future to determine whether or not he will win the game of chess against the Foresight. He can initiate a game with him though. When the Mindreader initiates the game, the foresight has two options, accept or decline.
The Foresight sees into the future and will accept the game if he sees himself winning and will decline if he sees himself losing or it being a draw. He will decline if it is a draw because we can assume he values his time and will choose to do something else.
Check out: How Valuable is Your Time?
This means they only play a game of chess if the Mindreader initiates a game of chess and the Foresight accepts. The winner of this game will be the Foresight since he only accepts the invitation to play if he sees himself winning.
But since the Mindreader knows that the Foresight will only ever accept his invitation to play a game of chess if he sees himself winning then the Mindreader will never initiate a game of chess with the Foresight. Greater utility in not playing a game of chess than initiating a game and losing.
Who Actually Wins?
The answer to this riddle of who will the game of chess is that they actually will never engage in a game of chess. Since they know the other will only ever accept a game of chess if they see themselves winning they will never initiate a game since it will lead to less utility.
The strategy to the game of chess starts before the game does. And if both players play this pre-chess game strategy perfectly rational then neither will ever engage in a game with the other.