Thinking Games

By Tan Wen Yuan, Strategist

This article is the start of a series where I am going to present some views, thoughts and theorems regarding thinking games. And obviously, the first question that we need to ask is, what are thinking games in the first place?

Thinking games refer to six rec games played at IH level. They are known as thinking games due to the fact that in order to play them well, or even passably, one needs to think a lot. These games are, in no particular order, bridge, scrabble, chess, chinese chess, othello and weiqi. Observe that among the many rec games, these are the games that really need a lot of thinking, while others like darts, carrom and snooker are more of aiming games than thinking games. Boggle is halfway in between, but it is more about speed rather than the thought processes involved. Therefore, it is important to sub classify the class of rec games into thinking games and otherwise, for easy analysis and strategy.

The word "thinking games" is first coined in my freshie year by the noble and intelligent Huilin, then rec sec of Hall 2. Between her burst of energy and ability to endure long hours during IH, and her maturity and stability of mind which makes it impossible for enemies to bully, arrow or duress her, Huilin is no doubt one of the greatest rec secs that ever came to Hall 2. She was swift and decisive regarding IH matters, and so much outdistanced the hypermodern rec secs of other Halls, most of which were either chosen by nepotism, or ran for JCRC without really knowing what they signed up for. Whether about rec or about life, whether during IH or outside, she spoke many wise words and words of encouragement to the rec players that even an IVP captain like myself had rarely heard of during my external battles. Her coining of the word "thinking games" stirred my imagination as a strategist, and I decided to adopt the word to divide the rec games into two sets; partly for the ease of organization, partly as a tribute to her. The invention of the word "thinking games" is certainly a milestone in the history of NTU rec development, and also contributes to be a beautiful chapter in NTU rec literature.

From now on, thinking games refer to any of these six games, collected as a whole. These six games have some interesting properties, and all of them are consequent of the fact that they are games that require a lot of thinking, planning and visualization. In fact, these games are even isomorphic to a lot of computer strategy games such as Red Alert 2, Heroes 3 and our favourite Warcraft 3. These similarities are the root cause for the phenomenon that if someone is really good at any of these games, then the person can at least passably play each of the other games.

I intend to discuss certain properties about these games, and how they can be played simultaneously. After all, the purpose of IH should not only be to win honour and glory, but also to develop games beyond the level of generations past.