By the time the eleventh season of the The big bang theory came around,1 it had deflated to a sort of small whimper supposal. The original cast of four brainy physicists and their pretty neighbour had been extended with love interests for all, but the jokes were still exactly the same and the characters hadn’t changed. In particular, Sheldon Cooper was still his annoying but supposedly intelligent self. To suggest this intelligence, they had him play chess of course.
In this particular episode, he has been arguing with his girlfriend Amy over his lack of emotional maturity. To show his improvement in that area, he decides to lose to her in a game of chess.
This seems to be the position they have when we first see them: 2
Sheldon has just moved his knight to d7. An obviously stupid move, but that fits precisely in Sheldon’s plan. Amy asks whether he’s sure about that and, after getting confirmation, goes Rh8 checkmate. She is immediately suspicious, though:
Amy: You let me win so you could show me how emotionally mature you are, didn’t you?
Sheldon: Well, I couldn’t wait for you to actually beat me — that would take forever.
From everything the show suggests; this is very plausible and, even if it weren’t true, would be a reasonable assumption. But Penny nevertheless gets rather upset at this, showing her own lack of emotional maturity.
Realism: 3/5 Locally plausible and black’s horrible play is understandable since Sheldon is trying to lose.
Probable winner: Amy. I’m fairly sure that losing on purpose is against the rules, but if the winner was not involved in organising it, she shouldn’t get punished.
1. [It must have been summer by then, because the first season started in autumn.] ↩
2. [The diagram novelization.] ↩