US Amateur Teams

It’s been a while since my last tournament, as some of you may have noticed. Let’s put it this way: When I played my last tournament, the baseball season was still going, IM Emory Tate was still alive, and there had been only one Republican presidential...

Easy card game, hard math problem

Today the New York Times Numberplay blog features a card game that I co-invented, along with a mathematical problem: What is the best strategy? Here are the rules for “Stern-Mackenzie One-Round War.” The game requires three people, one of whom serves only...

The cheating coach redux

A few of you might remember a post I wrote last year about a really cool math problem that a friend sent to me. For those who don’t remember, here it is again: Two chess teams are going to play a chess match. The best players on each team are supposed to play on...

DNM in NYT

Announcement! On Monday, October 8, the Numberplay blog in the New York Times will feature a problem based on my book, The Universe in Zero Words, and it will also have excerpts from my book. (In fact, it may have a whole chapter; I’m not really sure.)...