Finchley Central (game)

Finchley Central is a humorous game in which two players take turns naming stations in the London Underground.

Mathematics professor Jonathan Partington compares Finchley Central to the concept of polite refusal, describing the reciprocity and the game's solutions to be isomorphic as he somewhat facetiously notes: An opening move of "Finchley Central" is too much of a cheat, and you might wish to start with, say, Liverpool Street, when, assuming that your opponent isn't rude enough to reply with Finchley Central, leaves you with a mate on your second move (though you probably would prefer to stall by playing, say, Bank, in the hopes of a more spectacular win later).

[1] Possibly inspired by The New Vaudeville Band's song "Finchley Central" ("Finchley Central / is two-and-sixpence / from Golders Green on the Northern Line..."), the game was first described by the mathematicians Anatole Beck and David Fowler in the Spring 1969 issue of Manifold magazine (A Pandora's Box of Non-games page 32).

In that case, your opponent puffs on his cigarette and says, ‘Well… Shame on you.’[2] Finchley Central became the basis for the game Mornington Crescent in the BBC Radio 4 series I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

A 1976 variant where the first person to think of Finchley Central station loses has been suggested as a possible origin for The Game.