If you enjoyed this, you might like Mind Chess, which can be played without a board and pieces [1]:
Consider Mind Chess. Two players face each other. One says "Check." The other says "Check." The first says "Check." This continues until one of them says, instead, "Checkmate." That player wins -- superficially. In fact, the challenge is to put off checkmate for as long as possible, while still winning. This may be better stated: you truly win Mind Chess if you call "Checkmate" just before your opponent was about to.
Which reminds me that I just lost the game.
I also lost the game not too long ago, but before that, I think I didn't actually lose it for a decade of more? And losing it wasn't even because it was mentioned anywhere, I genuinely just thought of it by myself, after forgetting about it for so long.
So my sincerest apologies if my comment just made any readers lose their long streak in the game.
Damnit, I am pretty sure I had a few-year-streak going until just now. Welp, off to the grind again, I suppose.
I've lost it a lot lately, for some reason, after what I suppose was my third multi-year victory streak.
Like, five or so losses this year.
Same here, oddly enough, and every time besides this one was without anyone else mentioning it.
I think once you lost the game once, it's much easier to lose it again relatively shortly after. It takes some long term distraction (and nobody mentioning it) to forget about it again.
damn. multiyear streak ruined. i even managed to forget i was playing.
i just lost the game.
Nah, I won't be fooled again. I won a long time ago and never looked back.
https://xkcd.com/391
Sounds like a dating game. "Delay texting her back or expressing your feelings as long as possible, until just the moment before she will give up on you"
Speaking of games without pieces, it's hard to develop one for only 2 players, but I've tried: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43110448 (yes that is my alt account, sorry but I forgot my password)
And if you like Mind Chess, you might enjoy Mornington Crescent, which has a similar flavor to it! [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lziCsPmlbZI
Wait, how is the "put off checkmate" objective scored? Turns before checkmate? Or what?
Is it just a joke?
I have never played it, but I could imagine a scoring mechanism that would make it interesting, and perhaps is implied by the rules:
The score value starts at 1. Every additional "check" multiplies the score value by 2 (so 2, 4, 8, 16...). The first player to say "checkmate" receives the score. Track your summed score between games; the player with the highest overall score at any given time is "winning."
Isn't the optimal strategy just to say "checkmate" immediately? That dominates anything else.
That would be the equivalent of spawn camping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping_(video_games)
It only works if there are more than two players
The sibling comment proposed a possible scoring mechanism which might result in enjoyable gameplay, but I think the bigger point (for me, at least) is the Mind Chess represents a reducto ad absurdum of the strategy game genre. It eschews as many rules as possible, leaving you only with the goal of knowing your opponent's mind. So Mind Chess is more of a thought exercise.
It's similar to the 2-minute version of Diplomacy - get everyone together and the second sneakiest bastard wins; because nobody will let the sneakiest bastard win.
The Search for the Longest Infinite Chess Game
https://youtu.be/b-Bb_TyhC1A