How many times in the previous eight years did we hear or use the phrase, “Obama is playing chess while (insert whomever) is playing checkers”? The assumption is that the person playing chess is significantly smarter, or is looking further ahead, than the person playing checkers. But is that true? That depends on the game being played. I’ll explore this further, but first a word from our sponsor.
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Let's start with checkers, or as known by others, draughts. This should not be confused with drafts, which are cold breezes, cold beers, or cold conscription into the armed forces. The most common form of the game is played on a 8 x 8 checkerboard. This is probably why the game is compared to chess; the board is the same size and style. Many of us have seen the "Chess / Checkers / Backgammon" game, with three games combined into one box. However, there are variations to the game: Russian draughts, also played on an 8×8; and international draughts, played on a 10×10 board. There are many other variants played on an 8×8, and Canadian checkers is played on a 12×12 board. (see Wikipedia on Draughts)
So why is chess for the "smart" folks? In draughts, there are only two types of pieces: Men and Kings. Men only move forward; Kings can move both forward and backwards. In addition, all moves are on the diagonal, effectively making the checkerboard only 32 squares large (those numbers on the black squares are for designation of the moves). Chess has six types of pieces, and all of them have different rules for moving. Most pieces move forward and backwards; you capture instead of "jump" (which is also a capture), the pawn can move forward only, one move, except on the first move, where it can move one or two, but it captures diagonally, and it is the only piece that could be promoted (and don't get people started on en passant). Pieces can't jump other pieces, except for the knight. And kings only move one square at a time, except when castling (which is defined as a king move).
So chess is by definition more challenging, right?
Yes. And no.
A friend of mine, a Russian candidate master, told me that if a chess grandmaster played a checkers grandmaster in checkers, the chess grandmaster would lose, 999 times out of 1,000. Huh? Why? For someone to become a master (let alone grandmaster) in either game, it takes years of study and experience, as well as the personal determination to reach that level. So, what would the draughts player have over the chess player? Experience, specifically draughts experience. Moreover, the game of draughts is, by its nature, extremely unforgiving. Since you can't retreat any men, one mistake cannot be taken back. In chess, if you move a piece, you can retreat it, and the only thing lost is time (not that you want to lose time, or tempo, in chess, but you can often survive it). In draughts, especially at the highest level, you are committed. The game is nearly 100% tactics. For an interesting thread on why checkers is not easier than chess, see this thread at the American Checker Foundation.
Chess, however, has much more strategy in addition to the tactics. First of all, most pieces can retreat. The only ones that can't are the pawns, which is probably why André Philidor said, "Pawns are the soul of chess." It is this inability to retreat that determines which squares are under control by a player and which are disputed. The pawn structure determines a player’s strengths and weaknesses in a position. Good players know how to recognize those weaknesses, and how to exploit them.
Chess also has three "phases" of the game: the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. The opening is where you get your pieces into play; the middle game is where you attack and defend, exchanging pieces; and the endgame is where you have few pieces on the board and your objective is to either deliver the checkmate or promote a pawn (so you can then deliver a checkmate). And it's the middle game where so much often happens, where you decide how much risk you are willing to take, and your personal comfort level with the game, that determines an outcome. Granted, there can be plenty of tactics in a middle game, but there's often timing, based on how you feel, you assessment of your opponent, time remaining on the clock. your current standing in a tournament, and more.
One final thing about chess: the endgame. That part of the game is where it becomes more like draughts, in that you need to know the tactics. There's a saying in golf that, "You drive for show, but you putt for dough." Well, endgames are like putting; you can turn a win into a draw, or a draw into a loss, because you don't know the many tactics involved in the endgame. I've seen it dozens of times where people could not win a "won" game, because they didn't know how. That would be the equivalent of getting up and down in two, then three-putting.
To wrap it up, playing chess while the other person is playing checkers sounds good. However, make sure the game is chess, and not draughts.
And don't get me started on Go.
And now, on to tonight's top comments!
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From JSappAR:
A great comment by Dnrojas11, in David Pakman‘s diary The Left is Devouring Itself Over Trump-Russia.
A highlight:
BP in WA highlighted this comment by UnionMade from their diary Group lays hands on Trump during prayer in Oval Office. Yikes.
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