_Utilize advantage in Prime Strategetic Means to obtain the superiority
in Numbers at the Point of Contact in an Offensive Battle; and to nullify
the adverse superiority in Numbers at the point of contact in a Defensive
Battle._
* * * * *
Between War and Chess there is a seeming incongruity, which is the basis
of that doubt of the utility of Chess-play, so commonly held by laymen,
and which fallacy few, even among proficients, are competent to combat.
This doubt most frequently is voiced by the query:
If Chess and War are analagous, why was not Napoleon a Master
Chess-player and Morphy a great military Commander?
This query readily is answered in the words of Frederic the Great, viz.:
“To be possessed of talent is not sufficient. Opportunity to
display such talent and to its full extent is necessary. All
depends on the time in which we live.”
The Strategetic talent possessed in common by Morphy and Napoleon, in
both was brought to perfection by long and expert training.
But circumstances placed the twelve year old Napoleon in the midst of
soldiers and in an era of war, while circumstances placed the twelve year
old Morphy in the midst of Chess-players and in an era of Peace.
Napoleon was educated a General; Morphy was educated a lawyer.
To develop his self-evident and superlative Strategetic talent,
Napoleon’s education was of the best; to develop his self-evident and
superlative Strategetic talent, Morphy’s education was of the worst.
Napoleon succeeded as a General; Morphy failed as a lawyer.
The innate capability of Napoleon for Strategetics was developed in the
direction of Warfare; the innate capability of Morphy for Strategetics
was developed in the direction of Chess-play.
In War, Napoleon is superlative; in Chess, Morphy is superlative.
Educated in the law, Napoleon might have proved like Morphy a non-entity;
educated in Chess, Napoleon might have proved like Morphy a phenomenon.
Educated in War, Morphy might have rivalled Napoleon.
For the Chess-play of Morphy displays that perfect comprehension of
Strategetics, to which none but the great Captains in warfare have
attained.
Perfection in Strategetics consists in exactly interpreting in battle and
campaign, the System of Warfare invented by Epaminondas.
Those able to do this in War have achieved greatness, and the great at
Chess-play are those who best have imitated that exactness with which
Morphy employed this system on the Chess-board.
To those who imagine that Strategetic talent, as exemplified in Warfare,
is different from Strategetic talent as exemplified in Chess-play, the
following may afford matter for reflection.
* * * * *
_“Frederic the Great was one of the finest Chess-players that Germany
ever produced.”--Wilhelm Steinitz._