Chess used as military training in Armies

Military Similarities

The relationship between the game of chess and the military tactics is nothing new under the sun. There are a lot of similarities between the two and, of course, no really able commander has missed out an opportunity to entwine the great possibilities of the game and the vitality of his armies. It is just one of the most important things of wars Ð being able to predict, think before acting and foreseeing the next moves of your enemies. These are all chess tactics and rules and this is why in many movies, stories and real-life events, chess is depicted as a game between two opponents, where whoever wins actually gains a lot more than a king piece.

Chess in Cavalry Training

It isnÕt such a well-known fact, but chess has actually been used as a military mean in the past. For example, when the infamous Jingis Chan was in a terrible situation when he and his men were unable to occupy one town for more than a month, he ordered to his strategist to start thinking. Thus, they created a special board with wooden pieces, which were different for the own and the opposite forces. They were said to be divided in warriors, cavaliers and martial carts. It was the board on which they planned their strategies and tactics, working towards a win that had recently looked as almost unachievable.

Defence College in Sweden

Chess is considered an easy way to achieve the needed experience in wars and battle tactics. It is also a great way to learn about them. At least, that is what the Swedish National Defence College in Stockholm and the Defence Science and Technology Organization in Australia have proven to think. Both use chess games in an attempt to understand the rules of wars and battlefield tactics better, so that someday, if a the grave fate of war reaches them, they would be able to achieve a military success.

Siegbert Tarrasch

There is also a very interesting work by a very famous and great chess master from Germany by the name of Siegbert Tarrasch. In the German paper Die Woche he put up an article about how real wars repeat themselves through chess. He explains this theory with the help of the game played in Ostende in 1905 between himself and Heinrich Teinmann. He depicts a battle led by the Prussians in 1870 and shows their actions through chess moves.

It is a very interesting thing, to be able to control full armies with the tactics of just a bunch of little figurines. What is more interesting is that some people actually do it. This is why chess is considered as the game, which is the most related to the battlefield. outflanking, diversion, concentrated attacks and many more real war tactics can also be experienced in a game of Chess. You just have to be a good enough player to do it.