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There is a famous Chinese story, perhaps it's related so I'd share. The King of Qi[1] held many horse race with his general TianJi, there are three rounds, but
by est 16y ago
There is a famous Chinese story, perhaps it's related so I'd share.
The King of Qi[1] held many horse race with his general TianJi, there are three rounds, but every round the King's horse is better than Tianji's. So the general loses everytime.
One of general's stratagy advisor[2] came up with an idea: Use general's worst horse to race's King's best horse and lose for round one, then use the best horse to beat King's average horse in round two, next use the average horse to beat King's worst horse in the final round. So at last the general wins.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(state) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(state)
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Bin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Bin
- khafra 16y agoSounds like nontransitive dice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice Still a helluva lot easier to understand than Parrondo, here; at least for me.
- stcredzero 16y agoIt's also an excellent parable about defeating a superior enemy in detail.
- bmm6o 16y agoI'm told that chess teams will sometimes do this. Usually, the nth best player on each team play against each other. The same strategy you describe can be used to increase the team's chance of winning the match. I don't know if it's considered unsportsmanlike.