Your Opponent's Shoes

Previously on <the show you're watching>, <the narrator recaps the entire episode in 30 seconds, cutting out all of the irrelevant, time-filling crap; side stories that you wish you'd been getting a glass of water in the kitchen for; and generally making you realize you wasted an hour of your life last week to get what everyone else just got during this 30 second blurb at the beginning of the conclusion episode>.

So my dad went on to explain, (once you know the rules and how the pieces move and interact) the way to defeat your opponent is understand what he or she is going to do.  As he explained it, the way to out maneuver your opponent is to put yourself in his or her shoes and figure out what his or her best move is going to be.  Once you know what their best move is, think about what your pieces can do to make that move ineffective, disadvantageous, or down-right stupid.  Start planning ahead, and you will be along way toward making your opponent mystified to the point that victory is all but assured.

Of course, this is the mere beginning of a strategy.  There is a world of ground to cover in each of the steps.  First you have to figure out what your opponent is doing.  What you may think is the best move may not be what your opponent thinks is the best move.  Your opponent may be doing exactly what you are doing, resulting in a mind game like the iocaine powder scene in The Princess Bride. 

Secondly, there are also situations, much like the iocaine scene, where you don't have all of the information and are about to fight the wrong battle to your misfortune.  You must also have the wits and/or experience to figure out how to counter your prediction of your opponent's move.

Finally, sometimes, there is no amount of strategy that will guarantee victory.  Sometimes you're playing a numbers game and hoping for luck to be on your side.  Sometimes, you cannot or do not win.  That is where the real lesson of gaming comes into play--being a better winner or loser than other competitors.

Speaking as one who struggles with sore losing (you never truly overcome the disappointment and frustration of defeat when you want to win), I know that accepting defeat with grace can sometimes be very hard to do.  Just as hard to deal with are those who cannot win with dignity.  Neither a sore loser, nor a sore winner, will have the wealth of opponents and opportunities to learn from them as players who show respect.  If you truly want to become a master of strategy, you must learn that not all games are over when they end.  If you really love to play, teach your foes why they lost, and seek to learn from those who best you.

Until next time,

End Turn.