That old thread Chess and Martial arts

[YongChun]

Various people including Grandmaster William Cheung have compared Chess and martial arts. I have done the same myself. So here is another article where the author discusses the distinction between Chess, martial arts and combat.

http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_kondek_0702.htm

I used to think about that kind of stuff in the 1980's. Now occasionally I mention it to students during Chi sau because I don't like the kind of Chi sau where people just roll, roll, roll and then put in a very fast flurry of hits. I want them to do more of a study and predict ahead what their partner is likely to do so that they can calmly pick him apart instead of only relying on the attribute of speed or strength which everyone has naturally already. Of course there is also the idea of predicting nothing and just relying on the feel of the opponent's reaction but that may also put you in catch up mode of always reacting and never initiating. The flurry also has it's occasional use as something to try and detect and stop immediately or as a way to attack a weak defense.

Ray

[Vajramusti]

Hi Ray- Interesting article- admittedly points out limitations as well as the similarities.

There are some factual errors IMO - chiefly in history--- it was not the Persians but the Indians who posited the importance of zero in number theory... and the placing of numbers so that all sorts of multiplications and divisions and algebraic operations could be engaged in. 8 was an important number(8 fold path etc) in in Indian number theory as well. 8X8 +64 ...gives a lot of possible moves.
One key similarity (to me) is the preoccupation with the center-
specially early on in wc and in chess-controlling the 4 center squares.
((Indians also had 5 element theory. Four were the same--earth, fire, water,air--- but the Indians did not isolate wood- but the Hindus had akash-ether-space, whereas the buddhists had
emptiness( the 5 rings of Mushashi))

In Indian chess pieces- the rooks were elephants and the pawns were sipahis- foot soldiers.

My two sons for a long time played pretty good chess- they didnt keep up much anymore though they run kid's high school tournamnets from time to time-when requested. At one time both were very high experts close but not quite masters in their ratings. One was the team captain of a New mexico HS champion team -the other did it in Arizona after we moved back to Arizona.

I taught them the basic moves and lugged them around to tournaments. They soon started beating me after I ran out of
my standard repertoire of
psycholgical tricks to throw off their attention span. I dont play-rather do wing chun-forever. It too sharpens the mind... I quit before I get a response re resisiting opponents and "proof".