History Main / Outgambitted

** [[BadassNormal Tess]] manages to out-gambit (the AlternateUniverse version of) her own father, Lionel Luthor, who is the [[TropeCodifier epitome of]] MagnificentBastard, after he usurps control of [=LuthorCorp=] from her. He really should have known better than to underestimate [[InTheBlood his own daughter]], even if the version of her from his universe is a BastardBastard who doesn't meet any of his expectations. He honestly seems a mix between shocked, furious, and [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame impressed]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In "Harvest Dinner", Cricket and Gramma end up buying a papaya instead of the intended paprika for the family stew, so they distract Tilly and switch the groceries; however, when they get home, Bill reveals the jar is empty. Turns out, Tilly knew they would switch the groceries, so she hit the paprika in her pocket to throw them off.

* In the finale of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', Visser One's plan worked well. Tom's worked even better. Jake's worked best of all.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Cinder gets spectacularly outwitted in "Vault of the Spring Maiden". Cinder had already figured out that Raven Branwen had planned on double-crossing her to keep the holder of the Spring Maiden powers, Vernal, away from her. With the trio away from everyone else, Cinder makes her move, freezes Raven, then gloats about how pathetic a leader she is as she uses her Grimm arm to gut Vernal and steal her powers. To Cinder's horror, it's not there. [[spoiler:Raven breaks free and reveals herself to have been the ''real'' Spring Maiden; Vernal was just a decoy.]]

** Sasuke (take a deep breath) thought that Itachi killed his clan out of hatred, but [[spoiler:he really did care about him and he was ordered to by the Konoha elder Danzo, who was than revealed to have been manipulated by Tobi, who had also manipulated Pain into becoming evil. Sasuke was then manipulated by Orochimaru to steal his body, but Sasuke saw through this and was met up by Tobi, who revealed that he was responsible for the Uchiha clan massacre by unleashing Kurama on Konoha, causing Sasuke to kill Danzo and then target Konoha, but then Kabuto blackmailed Tobi by resurrecting the real Madara, whom Tobi had impersonated. Itachi was resurrected by Kabuto as well, but then he defeated him and sealed his own soul away, but then Madara revealed he had caused the death of Rin, which caused Tobi to become evil as he was originally Obito and Madara placed a seal on Tobi's heart which prevented him from becoming the Ten Tails Jinchuuriki in case he tried to sidestep Madara on the plan. Later, Madara tried to force Tobi into restoring his natural body, but actually Tobi foresaw this and previously got rid of seal Madara had placed in order to become the Ten Tails Jinchuuriki. But later, when Tobi is defeated by Naruto and the Alliance, Madara pulls out of Edo Tensei with the help of Black Zetsu. Orochimaru, Sasuke, and Tobi (still struggling with Black Zetsu) then try to help everyone else by defeating Madara. Black Zetsu is revealed to have been a manifestation of Princess Kaguya's (who was the first human to use chakra whom Madara was descended from who in turn incapacitates him) will.]] Whew.

* Thuris from ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'' is said to be the smartest of the three world eaters. While he DOES do some pretty creative things with the fact that [[AGodAmI most people can't see him]], he's simply playing against several other, much better, chess masters. [[InformedAbility Including one of the other world eaters]].

* ''Manga/RenaiHaremGameShuuryouNoAgaKuruKoroni'' has an exchange of plots between [[spoiler:Serika]] and [[spoiler:Ren]] that eventually results in the former's victory. First, [[spoiler:Serika]] impersonates Asunaro and sends a request for a meeting to the fifth heroine to lure her out. [[spoiler:Ren]] suspects a trap and sends someone else to the site of the meeting. However, [[spoiler:Serika]] predicts this and is able to deduce [[spoiler:Ren]]'s identity and location. Not only that, but she later arranges a loss for [[spoiler:Ren]] and convinces her to work with the others.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi out gambits [[spoiler:Kurt Godel]] by simply not revealing that [[DidntSeeThatComing he has an informant from the future]], which allows him to guess his rival's goals.

* [[spoiler: Kanba Takakura]] from ''Anime/MawaruPenguindrum''. [[spoiler: ''Several times''.]] First [[spoiler: his sister Masako kidnaps his brother Shouma and sets a HostageSituation... to get a kiss from him, which she does]]. Later, [[spoiler: when Himari dies for real, he fails to stop it... but Sanetoshi is able to do so, also roping Kanba in a DealWithTheDevil]]. Which actually is [[spoiler: the same DealWithTheDevil that ''Masako'' took for the sake of her brother Mario.]] This means, [[spoiler: Kanba is out-gambitted by Masako, who then is "defeated" by Sanetoshi, and ''then'' Sanetoshi plays both of them like violins, or their precious siblings (Himari and Mario) will die again]]. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Kanba is so involved in Sanetoshi's plot ''and'' so desperate to save Himari for real, that he ends up having a FaceHeelTurn despite Shouma and Masako's pleas, and he can only get "free" of it via having himself {{Ret Gone}}d (alongside Shouma, who does it to save Ringo from dying to ScrewDestiny)]].

* ''Comicbook/OneHundredBullets'' is essentially nothing but a massive GambitPileup from beginning to end, but as it nears its conclusion it becomes clear that the plot revolves around a three-way war between the older [[AncientConspiracy Trust]] members led by [[BigBad Augustus Medici]], the younger Trust members, and [[CarnivalOfKillers the Minutemen]]. [[spoiler: In the final issues, one of the Younger Trust members hires an assassin to take out a key ally of the Minutemen and one of the most influential older Trust members, crippling Augustus's power base and forcing him to admit he's been Out-Gambitted by the new generation and resign from the Trust... only for the Minutemen's leader, Graves, to out-gambit ''them'' by resigning himself over their objections... only for the very last issue to reveal Augustus had Out-Gambitted ''everyone'', engineering everything up to and including ''his own out-gambitting'' so that everyone else involved in the war annihilates each other in the power vacuum resulting from his departure. He's entirely successful, too, though he doesn't live long enough to appreciate it, because the one thing he ''didn't'' count on was Graves [[EvenEvilHasStandards having more standards than he expected]].]]

* ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness Act IV'': After learning that Hokuto is apparently planning a full-on attack on Yokai Academy to capture Moka in the future, Tsukune and co. take time to prepare. However, they fail to consider the fact that Luna and Falla, two {{Time Master}}s, weren't present during the attack in ''[[AlternateTimeline that]]'' [[AlternateTimeline timeline]], and are caught unprepared when Hokuto ''does'' factor in Luna and Falla's presence and instead has [[CoDragons Jovian and Jacqueline]] kidnap Tsukune's mother and cousin and hold them hostage at opposite sides of Tsukune's hometown in order to DivideAndConquer the group while a BrainwashedAndCrazy Felucia forces Moka to go with her to Hokuto without a fight.

* ''FanFic/TheEquestrianWindMage'': Once Vaati discovers Queen Chrysalis's ruse during the Canterlot Wedding episode, he secretly transports all his monsters to Canterlot (while having Celestia secretly evacuate the city's civilians), and then ''allows'' the Changelings to attack, which triggers an utter massacre once his monsters reveal themselves.

* ''FanFic/AChanceMeetingOfTwoMoons'': When Blueblood/Bluebelle tries to submit a proposal for a summer house he/she wants to build outside of Ponyville, Luna/Artemis sees it for what it really is - an attempt to set things up to establish a power base down there and make life miserable for the Element Bearers, and she/he immediately rejects it as a result. Later, when Blueblood/Bluebelle tries to convince Celestia/Solaris to their side, they are again made to look a fool by Luna/Artemis.

* In ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'', the group Trio de Minor attempt to win back their HeelFaceTurn old friend Ellen by spooking her constantly, making her think that Hibiki and Kanede were being incredibly insensitive over her fear of ghosts. It seems to work when they're able to hold the duo's Cure Modules as ransom and gets Ellen to join them [[spoiler:only for Ellen to grab the Modules and toss them back and rejoin her friends -- she had already figured out they were the ones spooking her and used the opportunity to foil their plan.]]

* In ''Film/TheSilentPartner'' Cullen does this repeatedly with Reikle.

** Here's an example from ''[[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]'' done by Yusei. Yusei has on his field nothing except two face-down cards, against Greiger/Bommer's Flying Fortress SKYFIRE/Giant Bomber AIRRAID. If SKYFIRE's attack goes through, then Yusei will lose - and SKYFIRE allows Greiger to destroy a card on the field once per turn by discarding a card. Greiger decides not to destroy either one, speculating that it's actually a ploy to make him deplete his hand uselessly. It turns out he's right: the two cards are Wasteland Tornado and Limiter Break. If Wasteland Tornado is destroyed while set, Yusei would be able to destroy a face-up card - in this case, SKYFIRE. If Limiter Break is sent to the Graveyard, Yusei can Special Summon Speed Warrior to protect against SKYFIRE's attack. But since Greiger doesn't destroy either card, Yusei reveals that was covered, too: he activates Wasteland Tornado ''himself'' to destroy his own Limiter Break and get Speed Warrior to intercept the attack.

** Every fight in ''JoJo'', considering that it's a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being Out-Gambitted, such as Joseph's battle with Esdisi in part 2.

** Every fight in ''Jojo'', considering that it's a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being Out-Gambitted, such as Joseph's battle with Esdisi in part 2.
** One of the earliest examples lies in part 1, when Dio planned to have Johnathan cut him in order to take hold of and freeze him. Johnathan Out-Gambitted him by cutting him at an area with the tip of his sword at the torch that allowed him to defrost himself.

* Subverted in the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' anime. [[spoiler: The AntiVillain Akemi Miyano met up with [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Gin and Vodka]], fellow members of the Black Organization, and told them they wouldn't kill her or they'd never know where she put the HUGE sum of money that she stole for them... but they shot her to death and took the key to the locker where she hid it. However, Akemi had the last laugh: said locker key was false, and she gave the real one to Conan (who had tried to disuade her from the robbery) before dying.]]

* A well-known example was the Battle of Midway. The reason for the Japanese attack was to force the American carriers to come out to fight. By breaking the Japanese code, the Americans knew this and so were able to get their carriers in a position where they could catch the Japanese carriers by surprise.

** Sherlock pulled this on Moriarity at the end of Season 2/beginning of Season 3. The latter, while being interrogated by Mycroft, got lots of little hints about Sherlock, learning more about his captor than his captor knew about him. He proceeded to use these set up Sherlock as a HeroWithBadPublicity, framed him for kidnapping, turned the police against him, and made him [[spoiler: commit suicide.]] Except that Sherlock [[spoiler: and Mycroft knew exactly what they were doing, fed Moriarity enough rope to hang himself with, and in the end Moriarity shot himself while Sherlock escaped easily]] and spent the next two years dismantling Moriarity's criminal network, coming home to a hero's welcome.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', Eggman pulls this on Sonic and Tails. Eggman kidnaps Amy, in order to get Sonic to give him the last Chaos Emerald. However, earlier, Tails made a fake, which would ultimately blow up the [[KillSat Eclipse Cannon]]. Sonic plans to exchange it for Amy, to kill "two birds with one stone". However, Eggman tricks Sonic into getting trapped in an escape pod rigged to explode. What follows can only be expressed in dialogue.

** Really, the whole scene is Vizzini trying several different gambits. First, he tries probing for information, trying to get Westley to unknowingly give away some hint of which cup is poisoned. (The book version of Westley does start becoming agitated and concerned that Vizzini may figure out the whole setup, while the movie version stays cool and lets Vizzini ramble away and go on tangents.) When that fails, he [[LookBehindYou gets Westley to look away]] and [[PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo then switches the cups]]. Before drinking, he carefully watches Westley's reaction to see if there's any hesitation on Westley's part. When Westley doesn't hesitate to drink, Vizzini figures that Westley ''thought'' that he was reaching for the "safe" cup, but due to Vizzini switching the cups, now Vizzini has the safe cup. Had Westley hesitated, Vizzini would have inferred that he was now holding the poisoned cup and tossed it aside. Of course instead Westley had poisoned both cups and was exploiting his AcquiredPoisonImmunity.

* ''Film/{{Maverick}}''. Bret and Zane out-gambit everyone who is trying to out-gambit ''them'', and are topped themselves by [[spoiler:Annabelle, who doesn't does some complicated con but [[LastPlanStanding just waits until all hell calms down]], [[BoringButPractical walks in on them while they are taking a bath with a gun in hand, takes the money and leaves]]]]. They don't mind - they think it's all a game and the fun will be in getting the money back from her. [[spoiler:Plus Bret anticipated something of the kind and stashed half the money in his boots.]]

* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatch'' novels are made up of {{Gambit Pileup}}s by two [[TheArchmage Great Others]], the Light Geser and the Dark Zabulon. They've been doing this for decades. It helps that they're able to foresee the probabilities of future events very clearly.

* ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'', as demonstrated in the page image, was a comic consisting of the two spies Out-Gambitting each other in ridiculous and amusing ways. It would almost universally end with one of them getting shot, blown up, or hit with something due to the other spy using their plan against them.

* Caliborn and Calliope in ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}''. Calliope typically comes across as by far the smarter of the two, but unfortunately for her, Caliborn is ''really'' good at thinking outside the box. At one point, their relationship is reflected by a [[ChessMotifs game of chess]] they're playing, and Calliope comments that Caliborn is playing really badly and wonders why he bothered pestering her into letting him switch the positions of his king and queen. A few turns later, he calls checkmate, and she thinks he's crazy... only for Caliborn to reveal that he hadn't switched their positions, he'd just made little hats that made his queen ''look'' like his king and vice-versa, and he hadn't ''[[RulesLawyer technically]]'' made any illegal moves. Calliope, quite understandably, {{Rage Quit}}s.
** More importantly, he short-circuits most of her plans instantly by just [[spoiler:[[MurderIsTheBestSolution having her dreamself assassinated]] before their session even starts]].
** The events surrounding the trolls' entry into the medium also qualify. Equius and Vriska are plotting to usurp the title of Blue Team Leader from Aradia (with both of course also planning to backstab the other). Aradia allows them to proceed, because a.) the position of Team Leader doesn't really matter much anyway and b.) in their plotting they are actually unwittingly advancing ''Aradia's'' goals.
** [[NightmareFetishist Rose]] gets Out-Gambitted big time by [[TheChessmaster Doc]] [[ManipulativeBastard Scratch]]. She knew that she was an UnwittingPawn from the beginning, though never knew to what extent she was being controlled. This becomes symbolic when you consider her Aspect, [[LuckStat Light]], and her class, Seer, and how she was manipulated by creatures of the [[PowerOfTheVoid Void]] to do their bidding.

* Happens incredibly often in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. Technically Yusuke's [[spoiler:death]] falls in this category; Jaki's attempt at turning [[spoiler:Kuwabara]] to the DarkSide, possibly for a stronger host; Yusuke outwitting Goki (with little difficulty) and then later Hiei, back when they first met; Kurama's fight with Roto; Kurama outwitting Kaito (although that was technically ''supposed'' to happen); Sensui and Toguro both getting their way despite the team's actions. There's also the fight between Yusuke and Kibano. Who used a mask that shuts out the other senses to focus on sensing spirit energy and uses it to fight Yusuke in the dark. The mask however is also the reason Kibano was unable to see or smell the cigarette Yusuke puts on him to find him through the darkness.

** In part 3, Dio launched a barrage of knives against Jotaro, which made him fall quite a long distance. Knowing Jotaro was probably NotQuiteDead because NoOneCouldSurviveThat, he decided to chop his head off with a Stop sign. Too bad that's just what Jotaro wanted, because he got a free hit while Dio was closing in. Earlier, Jotaro successfully Out-Gambitted D'Arby in their [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame poker game]], where the stakes were the souls of him, Joseph, and Polnareff - the boy that Jotaro choose to give the cards was working for D'Arby, and gave Jotaro weak cards, but Jotaro refused to look at them, making D'Arby think that he had switched them, and adds too much to the stakes, with the possibility that losing would equal D'Arby's death, playing a BatmanGambit that made D'Arby break down.
** Every fight in ''Jojo'', considering that it's a series where intelligence goes far beyond strength, results in one of the fighters being Out-Gambitted, such as Joseph's battle with Eisidisi in part 2.
** One of the earliest examples lies in part 1, when Dio planned to have Johnathan cut him in order to take hold and freeze him. Johnathan Out-Gambitted him by cutting him at an area with the tip of his sword at the torch that allows him to defrost himself.

** In Part 4, [[SerialKiller Angelo]] pulled a Batman Gambit, predicting Josuke would choose to break through a specific wall in his house to escape Angelo's [[MakingASplash Aqua Necklace]], so he set a humidifier into overdrive behind that specific wall. Aqua Necklace successfully entered Josuke's body...and then [[CrazyPrepared Josuke]] revealed he had shredded and swallowed a rubber glove. One use of Crazy Diamond, and Aqua Necklace was trapped.

** During the Hunter Exam arc, Gon is engaged in a game of choice: he has to keep one of two candles lit in a windy room for longer than his examiner can do the same; as such, he picks the longer one, but the examiner actually has ''four'' candles, two of which are rigged to burn quickly. However, because it burns so strong he's able to leave it unattended to blow out his opponent's candle.
** Another test involves the room where they must leave two people behind or take the long road. The team loses 50 hours in a gambling match just after the above example, so they have about 2 hours left, one route which only 3 of the five can travel down takes 5 minutes, the other route takes about 12 hours. The [[TakeAThirdOption solution]] Gon sees is to choose the long route, [[CuttingTheKnot break through the wall]] to the short route, then stop for just long enough to slide down the hill on a door... [[spoiler:and the group make it to the finish with less than a second to spare.]]

** Shikamaru Nara pulls this off quite a lot. All of his battles involve him making his opponent so sure of their victory that they inevitably screw up and fall to his masterfully laid BatmanGambit.
** Sasuke (take a deep breath) thought that Itachi killed his clan out of hatred, but [[spoiler:he really did care about him because he was ordered to by the Konoha elder Danzo, who was than revealed to have been manipulated by Tobi, who had also manipulated Pain into becoming evil. Sasuke was then manipulated by Orochimaru to steal his body, but Sasuke saw through this and was met up by Tobi, who revealed that he was responsible for the Uchiha clan massacre by unleashing Kurama on Konoha, causing Sasuke to kill Danzo and then target Konoha, but then Kabuto blackmailed Tobi by resurrecting the real Madara, whom Tobi had impersonated. Itachi was resurrected by Kabuto as well, but then he defeated him and sealed his own soul away, but then Madara revealed he had caused the death of Rin, which caused Tobi to become evil as he was originally Obito and Madara placed a seal on Tobi's heart which prevented him from becoming the Ten Tails Jinchuuriki in case he tried to side step Madara on the plan. Later, Madara tried to force Tobi into restoring his natural body, but actually Tobi foresaw this and previously get rid of seal Madara in order to become the Ten Tails Jinchuuriki. But later, when Tobi is defeated by Naruto and the Alliance, Madara pulls out his resurrection with the help of Black Zetsu. Orochimaru, Sasuke, and Tobi (still struggling with the Black Zetsu) then try to help everyone else by defeating Madara. Black Zetsu is revealed to have the manifestation of Princess Kaguya who was the first human to use chakra whom Madara was descended from who in turn incapacitates him]]. Whew.
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'', [[spoiler:Near & Mello beat Light by anticipating his "fake death note" plan and exploiting it for their purpose]].