In Seven Games: A Human History Oliver Roeder covered, in order, checkers, chess, go, backgammon, poker, Scrabble and bridge. Naturally I was drawn to the chapter on Scrabble yet read this book from cover to cover. Roeder gave a history of each game and described its evolution and variants, yet stuck to the basics as some rules–especially for bridge–can seemingly go on forever. It was that final chapter that went over my head, as even the briefest review of the rules of bridge had the effect of causing drowsiness.
Roeder spent considerable time in each chapter detailing the computer programs, or various artificial intelligences that have been developed to master each game. Some players use these programs to improve their own game, while some view AI as a way to take the fun right out of playing. As a competitive Scrabble player I was familiar with the early program called Maven and know of the later Quackle. Since each individual game scene, at least on the highest level of tournament play, is so specialized I can say that I recognized every single name Roeder mentioned in the Scrabble chapter, and have even played some of them in tournament and casual games many times over.
Among the seven games covered, bridge seems to be on the way out, for several reasons. Its player demographic is not attracting new, younger players. As a result, newspaper bridge columns are being cancelled. It is the young computer techs who are developing the AI programs for Scrabble, chess and even for other games not covered in the book, yet no such program exists for bridge. Granted, there are some rudimentary bridge programs out there but nothing as advanced, updated and improved as for the other games. Roeder writes:
“That no computer has yet mastered the world inside of bridge, however, may say more about the state of the game than it does about the unique talents of the humans who play it. While its devotees proselytize the game, there is little incentive, monetary or otherwise, to conquer the world of bridge with artificial intelligence. Bridge–along with those who play it and write about it–is dying.
“‘When my generation dies,’ [former New York Times bridge columnist Phillip] Alder said, ‘in the next twenty years or so, there’s going to be this huge void, and I think bridge in this country will be in big trouble. Which is a pity.'”
Roeder has a competitive Scrabble history covering ten years up to 2019, when he played in the National Scrabble Championship in Reno, Nevada. I did not play in this tournament, yet missed the drama of a player being ejected for cheating, which is the first I had heard about it. Roeder doesn’t reveal much but one can put two and two together via the Scrabble tournament website cross-tables to find out who it was.
When I picked up Seven Games I was not expecting to learn so much about the development of artificial intelligence in regards to each game covered. This might be unappealing to those who are more interested in other aspects of game history. Yet the math did appeal to me, where Roeder analyzed how board situations could then lead to multimillions (and beyond) of permutations of each possible chess or go move or bridge hand. Fortunately for Scrabble, as long as one plays legitimate words, there are far fewer possible moves to make.