Rales from the Crypt

Why do we play this game? There must be something about the game that we find worth doing or we won’t keep doing it like this (like crazy). As a matter of fact, there’s got to be some reason why people end up doing—or not doing, something.

What reason that might be is just anybody’s guess. It could be something simple (from just for the fun of it to taking anything like the Guinness World Records too bloody seriously), or something deeper (like health or psyche issue, perhaps).

Anyway, here is a game from a shrewd player I know on the internet. Against an opponent no less ‘extraordinary’ (in whatever sense you might find fit) than this friend of mine is.

Looked ordinary enough. But then Blue (my friend, the first player) was in for a surprise..

. . . . .+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass
move+++—+++pass

Which in turn, quite naturally, would give us some kind of not-so-natural board like this..

Seventeen passes in a row(!). Look at the board above again. Check the visual. Creepy is, although there’s only a (very) few red tiles in a vast sea of blue, there was a good chance that it was Blue who would feel some strange loneliness about the game.

Red did make a move again (finally), right after Blue’s DUI (with QUAD). Made another pass in the next turn after that, then moved (again) for the rest of the game.

It wasn’t Blue who made the last move closing the game. Red did. Now that’s the spirit. 😈

*****

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PS:
● Blue was in the one minute extra time, that’s why the time changed from :47 to :53
● SOWPODS words: EE, GI, JA, KY, ITA, LIG, TOC, STONEN