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@simontatham@hachyderm.io

Post #1810164

2026-04-30 11:48 UTC

@fraggle@social.coop no! Another group of friends did once ponder time-travelling chess, but without a multiverse component. The motivating example is that we're playing a perfectly normal game, and then on my turn I reach into the spare pieces box and put down an extra queen on the board. But then later in the game I _must_ send my existing queen back in time in such a way that it would arrive where and when that extra queen materialised, or else I forfeit the game by causality violation. But we couldn't think of any way to fill in the details that didn't make it essentially suicide to use this ability, because it would be so absurdly easy for the other player to _force_ you to turn out to have violated causality!

Replies (1)

  • @TobyBartels@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-30 14:19

    @simontatham@hachyderm.io @fraggle@social.coop Apply the Bill and Ted principle: as long as you win, you can always go back in time *after* the game and set everything up just right. This means that you forfeit the game for causality violation if your first queen ever gets captured, but not otherwise.

    Open ##2589859