Seven Games

One of the oldest human activities, game playing dates from ancient times and retains its importance up to the present day and doubtless beyond. “Seven Games” by Oliver Roeder, an avid player himself, examines the origins of seven of the most familiar (and oldest) games - checkers, chess, Go, backgammon, poker, Scrabble and bridge. And, most importantly, he explores why we play. Roeder vividly brings to life the histories and genesis of these evergreen games, some of which date back millennia, yet are being transformed by rapidly developing artificial intelligence.
Much is made of “machine learning” and the question of whether computers can think for themselves; one recurring theme is that of computers playing like “God”) However, many of the stories in these pages are very human ones, with dedication sometimes leading to divorce, illness and heartbreak. Alan Turing and Garry Kasparov, among other gaming and scientific notables, take centre-stage in this book to provide a human core.
Well-written, often gripping and very easy to read, this excellent book is perfect both for experts and anyone interested in a deeper dive into the world’s favourite games.

Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton for an ARC of this title.

I've deeply enjoyed FiveThirtyEight's coverage of puzzles and games, and this new book from Oliver Roeder (creator of their Riddler column) is exactly the kind of cultural history book I like to read. Each of the seven games covered is well researched and reported, and has a fantastic story "hook" connecting all the info and Oliver's exploration into notable names in each game's field. I found myself slowing my reading pace so I could spend just a little bit more time with each chapter of this. Well done!

A wonderful delve into the history of seven popular games, why we play them and their relationship with AI. I hadn’t heard of ‘go’ before so was keen to learn more about it. Being a fan of word games, I was particularly interested to read about Scrabble. A fascinating read and really well researched. Thank you to Oliver Roeder, Net Galley and WWNorton & Co for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What is a game?

Seems like a simple question, right? But when you really sit down and think about it – what’s the answer? Is there a universal definition? Or is it more a case of knowing it when you see it? And furthermore, there’s an even more fundamental query – why is a game?

It’s that last inquiry that seems to be at the center of Oliver Roeder’s new book “Seven Games: A Human History.” It’s an exploration of, well, seven games – checkers, backgammon, chess, Go, poker, Scrabble and bridge – and our connection to them.

With each entry, Roeder offers us a look at the game’s origins – its place of birth, its precursors, its evolution – as well as introducing us to a formidable practitioner. And perhaps most fascinating, he also takes us into the realm of artificial intelligence as we meet the people who have devoted their lives to teaching machines to play these games.

It’s a fascinating treatise on the importance of games and how they influence the people who play them, as well as a wonderful glimpse at some of the eccentric and idiosyncratic folks who have devoted their lives to achieving a kind of granular greatness. To Roeder and the people to whom he speaks, games are far more than mere entertainment – they are an opportunity to better understand the world, both around us and within us.

Part of what makes “Seven Games” such an engaging read is the presence of fascinating figures, some of whom you may have heard of and many others of whom you almost certainly haven’t. Take Marion Tinsley, a math professor and lay preacher who is quite probably the greatest checkers player who ever lived. He won several world championships in the ‘50s, then left the game for two decades, only to come back and win more titles. By some accounts, he lost fewer than 10 matches of the thousands he played from 1950 on (and a couple of those were to the Chinook computer program, the first-ever program to win any game’s world championship against humans).

Did you know that backgammon is one of the world’s oldest gambling games? Boards have been uncovered that date back to ancient Egypt, dice and all. It’s such a complex game that the AIs created to solve it wound up working for NASA. Or that Go was considered by many to be impossible for a computer to solve … right up until a group called AlphaGo did just that a few years ago? Or that chess engines and poker programs have fundamentally changed the way that the top-tier players approach their games?

So many stories, both about the human champions and the men and women building the AIs intended to surpass them. The idea of a person devoting themselves fully to mastery of a game. The idea of someone seeking to literally solve a game through algorithmic and self-learning means. And both are in search of excellence, albeit via very different paths.

Roeder has more than done his due diligence here, penning compelling portraits of the various people and programs at play here. And here’s the thing – we’re all familiar with these games, even if we don’t play them at the elite levels reached by those in discussion here. We have that familiarity, that frame of reference; the context that we as game players have rendered the stories being related here all the more interesting. Add to that the historical aspect of things – the games’ origins, for instance, or the titans who stood head and shoulder above their competitors within their admittedly niche sphere of influence – and you’re left with one heck of a read.

It doesn’t hurt that Roeder has gifts of his own, both as a writer – he’s got an ear for narrative and a prose style that suits his subject beautifully – and as a player. Oh, did I not mention that? Roeder also devotes time to sharing his efforts to compete with the elites – he plays in the World Series of Poker and enters the National Scrabble Championship and so on – adding a level of Plimptonian participation into the mix.

As someone with a general affinity for games, there was little doubt that I would find “Seven Games” to be of interest. What I didn’t anticipate was just how fun a book this was going to be, a clever and thoughtful mélange of histories and personalities and ambitions, all rolled into an extremely readable work of nonfiction. Drawing tiles or drawing cards, kinging or checkmating or simply rolling the dice – these “Seven Games” are worth playing.