Chess, a political game?

Or said otherwise, is it not politics is a chess game?

In the din of the political turbulence, I prefer to go into a lighter topic, the game of chess which also depicts the game of life. And that of politics.

What made me think of writing about chess was after I got a text from a friend of a meeting in Hongkong between First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and the reigning world chess champion Gary Kasparov. Arroyo asked for the best move and Kasparov told him to win, he must sacrifice the Queen.

Of course, this is just a joke as texts are most often jokes. Personally though I am in agreement as I have always been to the idea that the Queen must not step down. She must stay to make good her promise of not sparing anyone to arrive at the truth of corruption in government.

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Chess depicts the game of life and even that of politics. It is believed it originated from India in the fifth century A.D. and was brought to Europe. It is the most popular indoor and intellectual game. I used to be good at it but abandoned it when at night I could not sleep reviewing in my mind the errors in my moves in the games I played that day.

Chess is played by two over a 64-square board of black and white. It has 16 pieces for each player. These are the eight officers composed of the king, queen, two rooks, two knights, and two bishops. Winning is by capturing the king.

The king is guarded by the queen, the rooks, the knights, and the bishops. The queen is the most powerful, very mobile and can do the function of the rooks and the bishops but not of the knights.

* * *

There is similarity of chess to politics. The king and the queen are king and queen. The rooks or castles represent the politicians, the knights or horses represent the military, and the bishops.

The pawns are the people, always being made the sacrificial lambs. In the actual political game now, the king is beleaguered and more so with the queen who has lost and continues to lose her power, being besieged by the bishops and some rooks. Majority of the rooks are with her at this point.

The bishops are pretty effective rallying the pawns. But the knights are effective too standing guard over her. They are just as formidable as the bishops.

* * *

What is the end of all these? Difficult to tell. It’s very suspenseful. It is still nobody’s game. There is a need, in the language of chess, for brilliancy. The brilliancy of a Gary Kasparov or a Bobby Fischer.

Kasparov has held the world’s chess crown for the last 28 years. He won it at the age of 22, beating his Russian compatriot Anatoly Karpov.

The world championship tournament in chess has always been a world event. In 1972, it was between an American eccentric genius Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky.

In 1981 it was between Karpov and Viktor Korchni and in 1985 between, Karpov and Kasparov.

The most famous chess wizard was Russian-born French naturalized citizen Alexander Alexandrovich, more known to chess buffs as Alekhine. He was known for his many brilliancies, a big number of them sacrificing the queen to capture the king.

Like Kasparov and Fischer, he could anticipate and plan as much as 10 moves ahead. He would announce “Mate in five.” And you get mated in five moves.

I recall one game, he attacked with the queen. The queen was captured. It was a sacrifice. He followed the attack with a knight. It too was taken. Then he attacked with the bishop. This too was captured.

Then the king was captured by a pawn which became a queen upon reaching the eighth rank.

Alekhine became world champion in 1927 and held it until 1935. He won the championship after beating Spanish chess wizard Jose Raul Capablance in 1927.

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It will be interesting plotting the political chess in the 64-square board of the game.

Things to watch is the shifting of political alliances of the rooks (politicians) as the bishops are now beginning to zero in on them, after stalemating the queen.

Bishop Vicente Navarra has already challenged local politicians to defend the truth and the people and not the administration.

The knights (military) too are to be watched after the retired Grand Knight and former King (FVR) spoke on greed, apathy, and corruption. But the Grand Knight is also not in favor of the Queen being sacrificed to step down.

The political chess game is getting more interesting every day to this kibitzer. Be a kibitzer too and enjoy the game of political chess.*

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