The Game of Zut

In ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ the unforgettable Count Rostov describes the time between placing an order in a restaurant and receiving your meal as ‘one of the most perilous in all human interaction‘ —a time of doubt, sudden silences and foreboding (!).

His own recommendation?

Zut!

A game of their own invention, Zut’s rules were simple. Player one proposes a category and compassing a specialised subset of phenomena — such as stringed instruments, or famous islands, or winged creatures other than birds. The two players then go back and forth until one of them fails to come up with a fitting example in a suitable time (say, two and a half minutes) victory goes to the first player who wins two out of three rounds. And why was the game called Zut? because according to the Count, Zut Alors! was the only appropriate exclamation in the face of defeat.

‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ – Amor Towles P. 339

So yesterday, when having dinner before a movie, I challenged Gold Coast resident and wily competitor, Muky, to a game of Zut.

Round one was stringed instruments — and it threatened to go on forever. My own specialisation in orchestral and unusual guitar-like instruments was evenly matched by Muky’s encyclopaedic knowledge of stringed instruments from the Far East. The winner? Not sure as we forget to enforce the time limit — but it’s certainly a fun, interactive game and it sure beats scrolling Facebook.

Why not give it a go?