Chess compared to Social Truth essays

Chess compared to Social Truth essays Although board games may appear to be merely a means of recreation and a trivial factor of American culture, they actually represent much more. One specific game worthy of study is chess, which serves a much more fundamental purpose than that for which it is generally given credit. Chess not only has historically formed one of the chief means employed by societies to draw its collective bonds closer, but it also conveys many truths of politics and gamesmanship, while shining a light on economic solutions as well as foreign relations. In Making Your Move: The Educational Significance of the American Board Game, 1832 to 1904, by David Wallace Adams and Victor Edmonds, there is given a preliminary explanation of how board games, in a general sense, have the capability of bringing to the surface social mores. One such more demonstrated in the game of chess involves traditional protestant values such as hard work, piety, frugality, and perseverance, then success was just around the corner (Adams and Edmonds 363). Chess, unlike many games, stresses such qualities as perseverance and frugality. It is not essentially a game won with bold, romantic moves in the opening, but rather with careful patience in the end game. Chess involves calculation and hard work, but these must be courted by a sense of inherent piety and understanding. Much like in the intricate process of volleying to get ahead in American society, chess can not be won in the opening, but it can be lost. Classic openings such as the Ruy Lopez, the Kings Gambit, the Sicilian Defense, the Caro Kann opening, and the Scotch Game all are opening sequences that encompass a careful guardianship of the center squares. Although the object of the game is to checkmate the king, it is first mandatory to acquire board position that allows this end result to be possible. This sort of strategy, which is common among excellent chess players, is analogous to the type...