Christopher Hickman writes:
>On Wednesday, April 01, 2009, at 01:26PM, "Don Sheldon" <don.sheldon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>When an early decision guarantees a quick path to victory for the
>>opposition. A few simple misteps, especially in the "the second
>>players makes the first normal move" variant, can end the game in just
>>a few moves.
>So this is like the "Bluebird Mistake" that Andy vlogged about?
Not really -- Bluebird is an endgame issue; if, while planning your
opponent's distruction, you fail to notice that the first catastophe
will also give them a clear attack into your homeworld from theirs,
you may find out that it's a mistake you don't recover from.
Fool's mates (and relatives) are the results of mistakes in the early
game that allow the opponent to cut past any early build-up in favor
of a quick win; no endgame or midgame needed.
--
Joshua Kronengold (mneme@(io.com, labcats.org)) |\ _,,,--,,_ ,)
--^-- "Did you know, if you increment enough, you /,`.-'`' -, ;-;;'
/\\ get an extra digit?" "I knew," weeps Six. |,4- ) )-,_ ) /\
/-\\\ "We knew. But we had forgotten." '---''(_/--' (_/-'