Just Sayin': Go Time

I remember a quote from the Cold War era in which an American military official stated that while the Soviets played chess in war, the U.S. played poker. Chess is a tactical game, where the action is visible and domination is key. I guess that individual was thinking that flexibility gives an edge that is more difficult to counter. Sun Tzu had a lot of insight into strategy above and beyond tactics which he developed after much experience on the ground. This sage general hasn't been proven wrong over the centuries, either.

Chinese gentlemen scholars had to master four arts: painting, calligraphy, the guqin (a 7-string zither) and wei ch'i ("the surrounding game"), which we know as Go, after the Japanese word for it. It has a 3000 year history and a long and deep cultural influence Someone else, I wish I remembered who, said that the revolutionary leaders of China and Vietnam understood strategy and tactics through the lens of this game. I wonder if they had studied it at our service academies and senior colleges, whether it would have better prepared the military for Asian land wars (which General Eisenhower said we should avoid).

Unlike chess, Go begins with an empty board with a grid of lines, the boards ranging from full-size 19"x19" to a compact 9"x9". Black or white stones are placed in turn by either player anywhere on this grid (there are 361 intersections on the large board). The point is to claim and expand territory, attacking weaker groups while surrounding and neutralizing your opponent's forces. (Once placed, unlike in war, a stone cannot be moved again until it is captured). Does this maneuvering remind you of Grant's Vicksburg campaign, the Chinese Civil War in 1948/49, Vo Nguyen Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu or Hannibal at Cannae? Cover the battle area with dense vegetation and mountain mist, as in Vietnam, and you have a lethal combination of Go and poker.

There are several interesting states the play can go to in some areas of the board such as seki, or mutual life, in which neither player wants to move any of his group due to danger of capture. Both groups remain alive but in stasis. The Japanese term atari (sound familiar?) means a successful attack, or literally "to hit the target," when the fatal blow to a threatened group is stuck. And there are old traditions to be observed, like picking up the stones between the fore- and second fingers, delicately and deadly like a spider moving in.