Question Suppose I have never played a game of chess. If I now make the claim that I've won all the games of chess I've ever played, is that claim true, false, or undefined? A group of friends had an argument over this, and I figured that philosophers are deeply logical thinkers that can give us the answer and also to get a proper understanding of why the answer is what it is.

Accepted:
February 9, 2015

Comments

The claim is true. There is no game of chess that you have ever played and lost.

That said, if you say that every game of chess you have ever played you have won, then you have said something very misleading. But that is different from saying something false. H.P. Grice started the development of a theory that would explain that difference.

It would, of course, be equally true that you've lost every game of chess you've ever played. Bad news to go with the good.