Chess and MA

Why is Chess always considered a great game of strategy? In the world of games you have team and non-team type games but Chess falls in the middle of both. It consists of one person playing a game on a board. That person is playing aginst another person. One might assume that it is a non-team game much like singles tennis or golf. We forget that the Chess player is actually has a team of players. The chess pieces.

Men tend to think in terms of "a game." This makes it easier to understand why today's martial arts tend to be more acceptable because men naturally perceive what they do in terms of "the game." Karate-do is a one-on-one type practice. Yet, it does encompass a team since most MA are practiced in a Dojo with other practitioners [a stretch yes, but what the hey].

Whether in self-protection situations or in competition it is thought of by men as a type of game. This is another reason why it becomes foggy as to whether a practice of MA is perceived as both competitive/sport and self-protective which are still thought of as a game where one wins and one loses. This makes the effort to think outside the box, normal/instinctive, and practice to neither win or lose but to NOT-LOSE.

In the dojo we are singular in practice yet we still require a team effort to train and learn and grow and become proficient competitors/fighters. All the team players, other practitioners in that dojo, still have to form a relationship or team type cohesion to achieve knowledge and higher levels of proficiency. We are self-reliant yet group-reliant as well which in turns buys into both "game mentality" and "tribe mentality" where survival of one type or the other is paramount.

A tribe must survive the dangers of the world and the gamers must survive the game to not lose. One may involve possible physical damage or death and the other mental/ego/pride damage or death. What becomes critical is eliminating the crossover in the mind and make the distinctions so there will be no freeze in either the game or the threat.

In addition, Chess is won or lost (not losing the game) according to the overall strategy used and those tactics dictated by that selected strategy. No wonder many games of life whether work of combative tend to seek understanding, strategies and tactics as provided by the examples of Chess.

Note: Women never think of these things as "games." Yet understanding the differences and finding a common ground to instruct both you have to understand the game of men and the non-game of women. If you approach women practitioners as if it is a game you will find confusion and misunderstandings yet the same applies to men, if you fail to recognize that it is a game to men then you can achieve something. [Caveat: There are women who connect to the game analogy in things and there are men who don't; don't let it become a sexist thing, it is just a fact that men are from Mars and Women are from Venus - failure to recognize and accept the fact is where things tend to get hinkey.]