BUSINESS CHESS

Business Chess as a Martial Art

In the previous paper “On Business Chess, economics, politics, and school education” (Chess Weekly, №21, 2005) it was clearly demonstrated in what way the Business Chess can be used for cognitive simulation of economic and political processes. The topicality of the problem at hand is emphasized by the fact that the 2005 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded for the development of a theoretical basis of business games. At the same time Business Chess is perhaps the best model available today to carry out scientific research in this field. This is explained by the fact that Business Chess is the only business game, in which one may give a mathematically precise evaluation of any possible playing actions. To this end, several analytical chess computer programs have been developed.
Furthermore, the awarding of the Nobel Prize for the achievement in the domain of business games suggests that the world science elite consider this direction as strategic for the development of the modern society. And what is this strategic significance? One of the possible explanations is that the inculcation of business games in all spheres of human activity is directly related to the development of the so-called Strategic Informational Weapon. And it is to this problem, in particular, that the 4-th International Conference “Cognitive Analysis and Management of Developing Situations”, held in Moscow at the Institute for Management Problems (IMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in 2004 (http://ipu.web-soft.ru/cgi-bin/main_katalog_articles.pl?action=viewbody&razdel=line&id=5).
In the program report “Cognitive Analysis of Development Models for Russian Society and Management of Its effectiveness”, the Director of the IMB RAS, academician of the RAS I.V.Prangishvili, in particular, notes: “Today many advanced countries “unroll” their economies based on knowledge and efficient management. Intellectual property is becoming the most valuable commodity of the state. The essence of a modern or future war is the confrontation of intellectuals. Under these conditions the most expedient methods of achieving geopolitical aims are indirect and nonconventional actions. So, as a consequence, the informational weapon acquires a tremendous importance. There are two concepts of strategic weapon development, in which different roles are played by the Strategic Informational Weapon (SIW).
The SIW of the first generation (SIW-1) represents an integral part of strategic weaponry, along with other kinds of strategic weapons and also conventional weapons. The SIW of the second generation (SIW-2) represents an independent, cardinally new type of strategic weapon, which has emerged as a result of the information revolution and which has already been used in new strategic directions (for example, economic, political, ideological, etc.). Such a weapon may operate for a much longer time (a month, a year and even longer). The SIW-2 will be capable of withstanding many other types of strategic weapons, and it will constitute the core of strategic weaponry”.
The effectiveness and destructive power of the SIW-2 may be judged based on such results of its application as the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the sequence of the Coloured Revolutions and a number of other catastrophic events. It is quite significant that such results have been achieved without using any other type of weapons. Moreover, as has been noted by I.V.Prangishvili, “Situations which arise due to the application of the SIW-2 represent a menace to the security of Russia, and they are characterized by an uncertainty, an unclear and indistinct structure, the influence of a large number of diverse factors and the availability of a multitude of development alternatives”. All this is suggestive of the qualitatively new race of informational arms that has been unleashed in the world.
In connection with the aforesaid one should note that the Business Chess is a practically perfect cognitive model of the SIW-2. It is precisely the informational weapon in pure form as a fruit of the joint intellectual activity of a well organized professional group (team) that is the real means which is used in the Business Chess to suppress the forces of the opponent. And the efficiency of the given type of weapons significantly exceeds its individual counterpart. This has been discussed in detail in my article “Concerning the quality of the game of chess” (Chess Weekly, №15, 2004).
What is the main purpose of using the Business Chess as a cognitive model of the SIW-2? According to I.V.Prangishvili, “Cognitive modeling is intended for structuring, analysis and making managerial decisions in complicated and uncertain situations (geopolitical, intrapolitical, military, etc.)…” The emergence of such situations is very typical of the Business Chess, too. This is due to the fact that the purpose of the players may be very different in the various branches of the game. Hence the possibility, as well as expedience, of using more often nonstandard and even unusual for the traditional game of chess so-called “diversionary’ openings. This, new for chess, term comes from the word “diversion’, meaning a diverting military manoeuvre.
Thus the Business Chess is giving back to the game of chess its original, but (it would seem) for ever lost status of a vital martial art. And what is so important is that the principal skills of that art may be acquired as early as at school – by playing the Business Chess and by watching the professionals playing it on the TV.