Miles Militis

Picture by ~leonard-ART
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=chess#/dcweaa

Chess.

To a computer or maybe a Vulcan, it is merely one of the most set-piece strategy games known. There are exactly 6 types of pieces each with their own unique allowed set of moves. Once battle has been joined, any one move by White would have a corresponding single response from Black and so on and so forth.

Yet I've come to see chess as more than just a mechanical ratio of actions and reactions. There's a bit of philosophy to be seen once you take on a new perspective in looking at this age old sport.

There is a God in chess. There is a prime mover in the life of the pawns, the knights, the rooks, the bishops, and their kings and queens. As was told in the Bible how the universe came into being out of nothing and how the ancestry of man allegedly traces itself to Adam and Eve, so does White lead the first move the whole series of moves, blunders, and mishaps to follow. Almost as if that King side pawn was a way of saying "Let there be light."

Every grandmaster knows the meaning of loss and sacrifice. I believe that there is not every sacrifice means a loss. Many a chess game have necessitated the offering of a sacrificial pawn for an advantage in the ensuing exchange or for a step closer to check-mating the opposing King. All of us have our own styles of play. Some, like myself, favor the use of Knights over Bishops and I would early on use my own Bishops to take out the enemy Knights.

But of all the pieces in those black and white pieces that piques me most, it is the lowly Pawn.

Most of the games I played began with that poor little guy making the first move. Heck, more often than not, it's not just once step ahead, but one great stride of two paces. Have you ever looked at the Pawn at a different light? Rather than that negligible grunt for cannon fodder, he is like the Achilles leading the Myrmidons on the charge!

While many a novice has been quick to commit Pawns to the exchange of pieces, relishing in the figurative bloodbath that would ensue (eh Jedrick?), masters like the pawnmaster Philidor saw the Pawn as like a chain. Each individual holding up the other. Think the phalanx of Spartans in 300. One of the finer points of the lowly Pawn is that it really shows how one man can truly make a difference.

Yet the most inspiring of all is how the Pawn defies determinism, as proven by a watch I won just recently to defend my 1700 public skill rating on the internet.

Are we all set, from the moment of our birth, on a course set by fate?

Are we already chosen to be the one to sacrifice our life?

Are we already decided upon by the greater powers to be the ones to advance, to kill, to die before we even have an opinion on the matter?

Are we damned only to play the part on the script of life?

Look at the Bishop. Trapped to but one color. Narrow-minded, dogmatic folk are the clergy eh? Appropriate how one is trapped forever on the black and the other to the white.

The Knights? Forever jousting about. Leaping in and out of the fray. Their mighty steeds proving unique flexibility yet its unreliability also the chink in their armor.

The Pawn, ahhh oh-so-expendable and numerous. But what other piece in the chessboard has a chance to be something else? What other piece has a choice on what it becomes in the end?

Additional:
After a brief online conversation with a buddy of mine, I've come to look at the Pawn as particularly badass! What other piece doesn't look back? When a Pawn takes a step forward, it never looks back... like it doesn't regret whatever it is it's going to do on the battlefield!

PS
Teh King is a pussy!