Luck? Or skill?

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do at my grandparents house was to go in their pool.

We didn’t have one, so it was a REALLY nice treat.

But after a swim, one of my other favorite activities was sneaking down to the basement with my grandfather to dig out the pint of ice cream that he had hidden in the very bottom of their freezer.

My grandfather had health issues, and my grandmother didn’t keep any sugar in the house because of it. No cookies, no brownies, nothing good. But my grandfather always kept a pint for my visits.

And then, after a swim and some ice cream, my next favorite thing to do was play chess against my grandpa.

Obviously, I failed miserably for many years. It wasn’t like I didn’t try, but I never grasped the concept of chess. I enjoyed more childish board games like “Sorry” or “Monopoly”. And try as I might, I just couldn’t win against him.

But I always knew it was a game of skill. Like most people. I’m saddened to see that 4% of people think that chess is a game of luck.

Seriously?

Now, a game like Scrabble is definitely a mixture of both. You must have skill to be able to arrange your letters to form words, but the luck part comes into play when you’re drawing the letters out of the bag.

A recent survey asked people if winning at certain games was based on luck or skill.

Check out the results here.