“ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly bad that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.”

— Douglas Adams, book The Meaning of Liff

The Meaning of Liff (1983)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 18, 2022. History

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Douglas Adams317

English writer and humorist 1952–2001

Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

Source: 1960s, "The Use and Misuse of Game Theory," 1962, p. 110

“I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Probably apocryphal. This quotation does not appear in any print translation of Sun Tzu. The first citation in Google Books is from 2002; no citation in Google Books occurs in a translation of Sun Tzu.
Misattributed

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

人皆知我所以勝之形，而莫知吾所以制勝之形。
Source: The Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths

“Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers — not the defined.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Beloved (1987)

“Games develop personal techniques and skills necessary for the game itself, through playing. Skills are developed at the very moment a person is having all the fun and excitement playing a game has to offer--this is the exact time one is truly open to receive them.”

Viola Spolin (1906–1994) American academic and acting theorist

Improvisation for the Theater 1963), page 4

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you're in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.”

Sidney Sheldon Master of the Game

Source: Master of the Game

“Superior technical achievements — used correctly both strategically and tactically — can beat any quantity numerically many times stronger yet technically inferior.”

Adolf Galland (1912–1996) German World War II general and fighter pilot

Quoted in "The First and the Last," 1954.
The First and the Last (1954)

“The game must be played, and played their way, though they made all the rules and had all the skill. His ineptitude did not matter. His honesty did. He was staked now totally on one belief: that an honest man cannot be cheated, that truth, if the game be played through right to the end, will lead to truth.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle

Source: Hainish Cycle, City of Illusions (1967), Chapter 7

“Halley shattered their monopoly, beating them at their own game. A game that no scientist had ever played before: Prophecy. -S01E03”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
Variant: 'Halley shattered their monopoly, beating them at their own game. A game that no scientist had every played before: Prophecy.

“ABOYNE (vb.) To beat an expert at a game of skill by playing so appallingly bad that none of his clever tactics or strategies are of any use to him.”

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