One Two Connect Four

KOH SAMUI, Thailand - With the darkness on the white sands of Koh Samui's Chaewang Beach arrive an unusual breed of snake-oil salesmen. They are young children, some still in their neat school uniforms. Beachgoers at Chaewang's sea-side dinner and drink establishments are inevitably approached several times in the course of the meal. The question is always the same.

"You want to play Connect Four? You win I give you 100 baht, you lose you give me 100 baht. Come on buddy, let's go!"

And then a young girl or boy throws a red plastic checker down the middle row as a challenge.

I played twice. The first time it took my opponent, 12-years-old with pigtails, about ten moves to beat me. Someone at my table convinced me to go again - on her time. The only condition was that I went slow and concentrated. I treated the match as I would a game of chess looking at each possible move and the effect it would have in three, four turns. It took me several minutes to drop each checker. I wanted to win.

Three moves in, it was over. I'd been so distracted with hypothetical future turns that I failed to see that I'd left the bottom row open to four tiles.

"I win! I win!" The girl screamed as she cleared the board.

It's an ingenious scheme. Connect Four is a relatively simple game, and there must be a few strategies that mean these they win 95% of the time. The deck is stacked further because the child always goes first, taking the center, and most important square. Most of the competition is not sober. On the off chance they lose, what tourist accepts money from a child in a third-world country?

Not me. Tomorrow I'll probably play again.