3 ms·

> doesn't work as well in chess: it works better That's not how "as well" works.

• dragonwriter 9y ago
  Yes, it is; while the idiom standing on its own implicitly includes a leading “at least”, it is also idiomatic to use it in exactly the way used by the grandparent post, in an explicit contrast with better, where it comes with an implicit (or sometimes explicit) leading “merely” instead of “at least”.
  • T-hawk 9y ago
    It's unnecessary, though, and makes the point harder to read. "It works even better" would be a perfectly sufficient description. "It works not as well as but better" is an unnecessary rhetorical flourish.
• suchow 9y ago
  The misdirection is being used as a rhetorical device — you're supposed to feel a brief confusion when you get to the colon; it's then quickly resolved.