A strange little side quest
Zoom out from A Dumb Chess for a moment and the timeline gets surprisingly deep. The name Tetris combines a reference to four-square pieces with Pajitnov's interest in tennis. A second detail makes the picture even better: Modern chess traces back to the Indian game chaturanga, recorded around the sixth century and built around pieces representing parts of an army. So a round of A Dumb Chess is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer puzzles timeline.
