The rook darts forward, trapping white’s king behind his own pawns. White surveys her options, and defeat seems imminent.

But the park is windy that day, and a sudden gust sweeps the board clean. “Well then,” she says. “Draw?”

The ability to focus and narrow our thinking is critical. When immersed in that chess game, it’s a waste of brain power to consider the weather, or the pigeons flying overhead. You’re participating in a theoretical game space, represented in the physical world by plastic and stone. You learn the rules of the game and abide by them.

But those laws are not immutable, however much respect we give them. Try telling a toddler that a pawn can’t move backwards — You’ll see quite plainly that it can.

Edison didn’t invent a better candle. He didn’t think about where to move his bishop, or whether to castle. By thinking creatively, he knocked over the board instead.