Battlespace Shaping, Chess, 5GW, and the Khrushchev Maneuver

Zenpunit has a short post on battlespace shaping using chess as an analogy. I think some very interesting posts could come from work out all sorts of examples for different games (American Football, Go, Bridge, Poker, etc.).

RevG brings in 5GW:

Now consider that your opponent is actually many opponents using your apparent opponent as a proxy; who, while remaining invisible, imports rule sets from other games they know better than you and use the board in ways you never imagined. That’s a battle space shaped by 5GW.

To which I added:

Chess effectors could also infiltrate the schools and universities and game clubs to discourage good chess learning, or alternatively promote go, bridge or sheepshead instead of chess. When it comes time to play chess for real, nobody is any good, or they don’t want to play at all.

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This also made think back to high school when I chose “How to Cheat At Chess” as my topic for a demonstration speech.

I don’t remember very much about the speech except awesome ending.

For the entire speech I had been sitting on a chair with a chess table and set to my side. My Friend Brad (RIP) acted as my opponent/prop and gave it his all. I worked through example after example.

Then I slowly began to describe the “Khrushchev Maneuver” to a non-historically astute audience, while removing my show. I then proceeded to pound it on my chair making many sleepy students jump upright in their desks. Brad acted confused and irritated and made a move. I replied something like “Oops, bad move Brad, I take your queen…and that is check”. It was the most fun I ever had in speech class.

(Image originally uploaded to Flickr by theudric)