Games and Competition

19th Century Concern Trolling: Chess Is “a Mere Amusement of a Very Inferior Character”

The writers of Scientific American had some not nice things to say about chess

Irish students refine their winning entry, a method for promoting crop growth

Meet the Teen Winners of Google's Science Fair

A flying fruit fly-inspired robot and a bacterial solution for world hunger are among the three winners

The maze is constructed out of glossy maple plywood.

The Winding History of the Maze

Love the idea of getting lost in crooked pathways? Check out the National Building Museum's summer installation

No Matter How Much You Practice, If You Don’t Have Natural Talent You Still Might Never Be the Best, Some Experts Think

Yet other researchers think that different factors, such as the quality and timing of practice, matter most

How Scientists Are Using Games to Unlock the Body’s Mysteries

They’re not just for kids anymore

Challenge Yourself With Ken Jennings’ Latest “Playful” Puzzle

Can you figure out this exclusive new brain teaser from the “Jeopardy!” champion?

Euclid, the Game

This Geometry Game Is Nerdy, Addictive Fun

Bisecting an angle has never been more fun

Behind the Unceasing Allure of the Rubik’s Cube

The 80’s fad should’ve fallen into obscurity—somehow it didn’t

The 1968 spelling bee champion.

The National Spelling Bee Ended With a Tie For the First Time in Half a Century

One champion later said he and his co-winner were competing against the dictionary, not each other

Google Doodle Celebrates Rubik’s Cube 40th Birthday

For its 40th Birthday, the cube goes digital

Laurel Consuelo Broughton, "The World is Flat"

Architects Give the Classic Chess Set a Radical Makeover

The designer behind the traditional kings and queens would resign if he saw these avant-garde game boards

Play on, my mathematicians!

Mathematicians Say Candy Crush Really Is Hard

You can feel better about your obsession with Candy Crush. The game isn’t just mindless swiping; it's an actually difficult math problem.

From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

How Merv Griffin Came Up With That Weird Question/Answer Format for Jeopardy!

Champion Ken Jennings delves into what gives the virtually unchanged game show its lasting power

What is Garry Kasparov's Next Move?

The great chess champion brings his knowledge to the games of Sochi, global politics and computer intelligence

The crossword turns 100 this week.

What's a 9-Letter Word for a 100-Year-Old Puzzle?

The crossword puzzle turns 100 this week -- here's how it rose to popularity

Holographic home computer game of the future from the 1981 book Tomorrow’s Home by Neil Ardley

Disney Kills LucasArts, My Childhood

When LucasArts was first starting out in the 1980s, the future of video games included holograms, virtual reality headsets and worldwide networking

The concept art for the forthcoming game Star Wars 1313 portrays a crime-ridden city.

What Does Citizen Kane Have to Do With Mass Effect 2?

Modern games find inspiration in the techniques of classic film noir

A group of young Parisians playing foosball at a cafe in 1958.

The Murky History of Foosball

How did the tabletop game get from parlor halls in 19th-century Europe to the basements of American homes?

Flipping a coin isn't as fair as it seems.

Gamblers Take Note: The Odds in a Coin Flip Aren't Quite 50/50

And the odds of spinning a penny are even more skewed in one direction, but which way?

William Crockford—identified here as “Crockford the Shark”—sketched by the great British caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson in about 1825. Rowlandson, himself an inveterate gambler who blew his way through a $10.5 million family fortune, knew the former fishmonger before he opened the club that would make his name.

Crockford’s Club: How a Fishmonger Built a Gambling Hall and Bankrupted the British Aristocracy

A working-class Londoner operated the most exclusive gambling club the world has ever seen

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