Win A Game Of Monopoly In 21 Seconds

As black, it’s possible to win a game of Chess in two moves. This play even has a name, Fool’s mate, as it relies on the white player’s poor judgement. Now Monopoly doesn’t lend itself to such a predictable losing strategy, given its randomness, but with the correct alignment of celestial bodies, it’s entirely possible to bankrupt a player in a mere four turns.

Scatterplot’s Dan Myers decided to orchestrate the feat on video, which you can watch above. It doesn’t do that great a job of demonstrating how the hypothetical game would play out, but, thankfully, Myers has outlined the steps on his blog (using the game’s US edition). Here’s a snippet of the first two turns, so you can get an idea of its improbability:

Player 1, Turn 1:

Roll: 6-6, Lands on: Electric Company
Action: None, Doubles therefore roll again

Roll: 6-6, Lands on: Illinois Avenue
Action: None, Doubles therefore roll again

Roll: 4-5, Lands on: Community Chest “Bank error in your favor, Collect $200”
Action: Collects $200 (now has $1700)

Player 2, Turn 1:

Roll: 2-2, Lands on: Income Tax
Action: Pay $200 (now has $1300), Doubles therefore rolls again

Roll: 5-6, Lands on: Pennsylvania Rail Road
Action: None

The odds of this magical sequence occurring is beyond remote, considering it requires specific dice rolls, consecutive moves/actions by the one player, a set ordering of Chance and Community cards and of course, player cooperation.

It’s also been pointed out that by the rules, if a player decides not to buy a property he or she lands on, it goes to auction, where it could be sold for a single dollar. While both players can choose not to bid, it’s highly unlikely.

Fun exercise, though. Any suggestions for other board games?

[Scatterplot, via Neatorama]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.