Imperfect Simulations
ShortStory 3,430 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"The kids like Luzhanqi because it’s a non-perfect strategy game: a bridge as they make their way onto bigger, more serious things, like chess and Go. It’s something that even the most incompetent of them could hope to win. Sometimes you just get lucky. Sometimes your opponent’s general starts off trapped."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.