Applied & Practical
Games, Strategy & Play
Structured competition — small enough to analyse completely, complex enough to teach real lessons.
6 fields · 47 topics · 6 curated works
Fields within Games, Strategy & Play
Chess
9The most studied game in history.
Opening Principles · Chess Tactics · Positional Play · Endgame Technique · Chess Strategy
Go & Abstract Strategy
8Games with simple rules and deep structure.
Go Fundamentals · Go Strategy · Shogi · Xiangqi · Backgammon
Card & Probability Games
8Decisions with hidden information.
Poker Fundamentals · Poker Strategy · Bluffing & Game Theory Optimal Play · Bridge · Blackjack & Card Counting
Strategy & Wargaming
7Simulating conflict and competition.
Wargaming Method · Red Teaming · Simulation & Scenario Games · Strategy Board Games · Real-Time Strategy Games
Puzzles & Recreational Mathematics
8Problems built purely to be interesting.
Logic Puzzles · Mathematical Puzzles · Cryptic Crosswords · Sudoku & Variants · Rubik's Cube & Speedcubing
Play, Sport & Culture
7Why games matter socially.
Theory of Play · History of Games · Sport as Culture · Gambling & Its Harms · Competition Psychology
Reading in Games, Strategy & Play
6Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
- BookMathematical Puzzles and DiversionsMartin Gardner, 1959
The first collection from twenty-five years of Scientific American columns that recruited more mathematicians than most curricula.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
- BookLessons in the Fundamentals of GoToshiro Kageyama, 1978
Insists that strength comes from doing the obvious things reliably rather than from knowing more, and is really a book about deliberate practice.
- BookThe Theory of PokerDavid Sklansky, 1987
States the fundamental theorem of poker: you gain whenever opponents play differently than they would seeing your cards.
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
- BookMy SystemAron Nimzowitsch, 1925
Systematises positional chess — blockade, overprotection, prophylaxis — and reshaped how the game is taught.
- BookHomo LudensJohan Huizinga, 1938
Play precedes culture rather than deriving from it — law, war, poetry and ritual all retain the structure of a game.
- BookThe Art of WargamingPeter P. Perla, 1990
A history and method of professional wargaming, and clear that its value is in exposing assumptions rather than predicting outcomes.