A "titanic" scam

I was watching "Mysteries at the Museum" a bit earlier today and they had a segment covering this little historical obscurity:

http://www.richardmarcusbooks.com/2008/02/casino-cheats-poker-cheats-chess-cheats.htm

Obscure because the scam of an unknown playing two games against two grandmasters kept in different rooms and copying the moves from one move to the next didn't happen on the Titanic. 

The whole situation, known as the chess grandmaster problem, was invented in 1976 by a mathematician. named John H. Conway.

He wasn't on the Titanic either.

I was going off the Mysteries of the Museum bit - I would have thought they would have taken the basic step of checking the names Borsov and Heilmann against the passenger list - assuming they were well heeled enough to make the wager they would have traveled first class.  Not there.

If I had just been going on the few internet references I would have done that first.

Most of their stuff is much more accurate than this (at least when they cover stuff I am familiar with).

Heh - you should see the phone calls I get (I am retired and over 65 so I am sure I get a larger share of these than most folk):

The county sheriff is coming to get me since I didn't show up for jury duty.

Microsoft is going to fix my infected computer.

Apple - same as above.

Law officers are coming for me for unpaid credit card bills,

Another company is going to give me a lower interest rate on the above.

Some company went bankrupt that I hired for something and another company is going to give me a refund.

The IRS is sending a hit squad for fraudulent tax returns.

Social Security wants their money back (this is rich since I don't collect social security to begin with).

Not to mention my two errant grand children - one named Fred (after I suggested that was his name agreed that it was) who told me to f myself when I told him I didn't have any children let alone grand children - I suppose he was upset after I played dumb and strung him along for 10 minutes.  I did suggest something creative with a pry bar before he hung up.

The other grand child (never did get his name) didn't sound like himself because ruffians in the hoosegow broke his nose,

Fortunately all these situations (and many many others) can be resolved with money (my money anyway).

Actually 66 - but that is just another mile on the odometer in any event.  Already signed up - when do I get my decoder ring?   

So is ten million five hundred thousands actually this much?

$10,000,500,000

For that much money it is probably worth your time.