Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Book Review: Across The Board: The Mathematics Of Chessboard Problems By John J. Watkins, Arthur T. Benjamin

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I think I became a mathematician because I loved to play games as a child. I learned about probability and expectation by playing games like backgammon, bridge, and Risk. But I experienced the greater thrill of careful deductive reasoning through games like Mastermind and chess. In fact, for many years I took the game of chess quite seriously and played in many tournaments. But I gave up the game when I started college and turned my attention to more serious pursuits, like learning real mathematics.