This book is divided into five parts: spatial games, number games, combinatorial games, risk and reward games, and information games.
But remember, there's something odd about this classification.
Rather than being a perfectly organized, well-organized taxonomy, each sample is more like a mood light highlighting the unique features of each game.
For example, 〈Chess〉 fits into any of the five categories, but it can look slightly different depending on the lighting.
Each section begins with an engaging essay on a relevant area of ​​mathematics.
After that, five recommended games are listed, and the complexity generally increases as you go further.
However, the complexity also resets each time a new chapter is started.
The last chapter of each section briefly describes related games, including some of my favorites.
--- From "Beginning this Book"

Here a question arises.
Why would students from a prestigious university spend time creating a children's game? And why would a respected scholar like Edouard Lucas decide to publish it as a book? The answer is simple.
Because serious mathematics is often born from childish play.
This pattern is also evident in Lucas's career.
His most famous work is the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers (this classic sequence begins with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.).
Fibonacci numbers may seem like a silly game at first glance.
But when you start counting the bumps on pinecones, the petals on daisies, and the tiny fruit on pineapples, you realize that this silly game is played not only by children and vaguely mature adults, but also by nature itself.
--- From "Chapter 1: Points and Boxes"

Plato would have hated fractals.
This ancient philosopher firmly believed in pure Euclidean geometry.
In one of his books, Dialogues, he postulates that the entire universe is made up of triangles, especially two 'special right triangles' that are the nightmare of trigonometry students.
Well, well.
I want to tell him this.
Plato, check out your favorite 'nature' account on Instagram.
How many triangles can you find with angles of 30, 60, and 90 degrees? Now, try to find a fractal.
Isn't it more common? Nature is a garden of fractals.
On the mountain, there is a small pile of rocks on top of a jagged pile of rocks, and on top of that, an even smaller pile of rocks.
The lungs begin in the trachea, which branches into bronchi, which branch and branch again, an average of 23 times, ending in small, balloon-shaped alveoli that supply oxygen to the blood.
In short, you breathe fractally.
--- From "Chapter 3: Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe"

I don't support a critical view of marriage, but I like the tension this game creates.
Suddenly, I want to get married quickly, I want to marry someone who is a good fit, and if possible, I want to marry someone with better conditions.
These impulses confront each other and pose difficult questions.
For example, it is like this.
Is 1 a good card? For one thing, upward marriage is guaranteed.
However, the most similar numbers (e.g. 2, 3, 4) may reject you, as they too wish to marry upward.
As with real marriage, no strategy can be judged "good" or "bad" on its own.
The value of a strategy depends on the overall context of what choices everyone else makes.
--- From "Chapter 12 Various Number Games"

Skani came from an underground gambling den.
Despite being America's greatest card magician, a friend of the famed escape artist Harry Houdini, and a regular on television variety shows, his shabby past haunted him like a shadow (at least that's how he felt).
So Skani chose Tico, a sweet and wholesome family game.
A game without cheats or mafia.
In the 1950s, it seemed as though Skani's bold ambitions would be realized, as "Tico" attracted the attention of celebrities like Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe.
But the heyday is over.
Today, the game has faded into obscurity, known only to a small number of dedicated gamers.
Of course, you all know this now.
In any case, it is far from being a replacement for Chess, as Skani had hoped.
--- From "Chapter 14: Tico"

In short, the “peak” is like a wine where different flavors are balanced.
And that's not all.
It's a game that tastes better after a while, like wine.
At first, threats and opportunities may be hidden, not easily visible.
You scan the dotted yard with your eyes as if looking through an old magic eye pattern.
For those unfamiliar with Magic Eye, let me explain: it's a hallucinatory wallpaper that never looks as advertised.
Early in the game, the soundtrack is filled with “Oh my, I didn’t see that!” and “Wait, how did I miss that?”
But just give yourself to time.
Soon a square will pop out unexpectedly.
Learning the game of 〈Vertex〉 is like learning a whole new perspective.
In that sense, “Vertex,” like all other games, is a training ground for our perception.
--- From "Chapter 16: The Vertex"

With its painful collisions and close calls, "Raceway" is perhaps the most exciting fate you can experience on graph paper.
What's even better is that once you master the rules, the game starts to invoke real physics.
Of course, it may take some patience to get there.
Why can't I move four spaces to the right and then three spaces to the left on the next turn? It's the same reason I can't make a quick U-turn on the highway.
--- From "Chapter 23: The Racecourse"

Why does this winner's curse exist? After all, under the right conditions, we humans are capable of remarkably sharp inferences.
There is a very appropriate example.
In the early history of statistics, 787 people at a county fair in the United States attempted to guess the weight of an ox.
These were not cattle experts.
That doesn't mean I was a master at guessing weights.
They were just ordinary, fair people.
In any case, the average of their guesses (547 kilograms) was not even 1 percent different from the truth (543 kilograms).
Impressively, that is.
--- From Chapter 26, “Principle of Buyer Risk”

The true champion is this glorious monster called "Quantum Fishing."
I think of this game as a cross between a logic puzzle, an improv comedy session, and a group hallucination.
To be honest, I'm still wrapping my head around this game.
Quantum Fishing is a true game of its own, with a core fan base of math PhD students.
In any case, there is no better candidate than Quantum Fishing to culminate this book, which began with a game I played as a child.

--- From Chapter 28, Quantum Fishing