Thru’ the Desk of the Editors
A nation‘s strategic culture is developed on the basis of not only its traditions but also on the basis of recreational activities and language.
Owing to peculiar geographic features with her vast plains interspersed with forests, ancient India states had to make extensive use of mounted forces which comprised of cavalry, chariots and elephants, in addition to infantry, which was collectively known as ‗Chaturangabala‘‘. This name is also shared by an old game of chess and this game is mentioned in Rig veda, Atharva veda and in Buddhist and Jaina books. According to Taylor, Chess is based on a game of war, with the Ashtapada board as a field of battle. The vales of chess pieces were identical with the relative values of different arms as laid down by Kautilya, Sukra and Vishampayana.
Juxtapose this with the 500 B.C Chinese game – WeiQui ( Go in Japanese). Time honored traditions of both India and China is to link chess and Go to the formal education of princes and scholars to learn the statecraft. Chess is much easier to learn, with less than 10 raised to 123 moves, where Go has 10 raised to 360 moves or more. In chess one kills the opponent‘s pieces, where in Go, one has to encircle. In Go, what matters is positioning with give and take across the board. Chess is like a take-over- bid, while Go is like capturing market share.
Chinese military theory and Go, are both manifestations of the same philosophy – sun Jsu‘s art of war‘ warfare is almost always the option of last resort. Wit trumps the weapons. The preferred and superior approaches are to convince your enemy, by whatever means, that you are invincible. Any subsequent battlefield encounter thus becomes a mere ratification of results already obtained.‖
Chess is more logical – left brain. While Go is perceptive, something that represents patterns. Sanskrit is decoded by left brain, while Mandarin – Character based, tonal language that engages the right brain.
Thus, tactical orientation, like deep penetration raid is a particular art come of chess theory, where there is heavy emphasis on the use of force. Chinese strategy of encirclement involves broad patterns like string of pearls. Philosophy behind chess is to win decisively, in Go, into compete for relative gain. The chess players typically focus on the powerful military units as centre of gravity and decisive point. The Go player must always keep the entire complexity in mind till the end.
It is therefore important that the strategic thinkers need to keep different philosophical undertones of strategic community, while perusing the nations core objectives.
