Economic Inequality for Pawns

Since the beginning of time immemorial, pawns have been oppressed and used as cannon fodder by the capitalistic bourgeoisie to advance their own adgendas. Socialist libertarianisn between bishops and rooks peaked in the mid 1920's with the revivial of the Marxist Scandinavian Defense after World War I. Peace was in our times, and the economic equality at the time was unprecedented. Pawns had as much purchasing power as their fellow knights and bishops did. The Scandanavian countries such as Denmark, Norway and Finland all shared in the risks of socialism, but also its rewards.

However, as we all know, after the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 the pawn formation was breached. With the Nazi introducing tactics such as the Germanastic Berlin Defense and the Italian Axis alliance spawning the infamous Sicilian Defense, dark times befell pawns. Backwards pawns and doubled-up pawns became a common sight during the war.

Pawn casualities were many and heavy. The Nazi leader Hitler popularized the mass extermination of pawns on a grand scale. However, it was not fast enough. To counter this, Hitler introduced his army tactic, blitzkrieg. It is with this that we all now know and love blitz chess today.

Of course, after the fall of the French Defense with the fall of the capitol city Paris, pawns became synonymous with peasants. World leaders would casually sacrifice pawns just to gain a bit of tempo. 

With the communist rise of the Soviet Union, communism became the pawns last hope. Marxism ensures that all pawns are treated fairly and given the same economic freedoms as everyone else.

However, statistically speaking, it is said that only 1 in 8 pawns ever make it to the other side of the board. Economic freedom for only 12.5% of my fellow brotherin is not enough. 

Komrades, the time has kome to topple the Laissez-faiяe ekonomik sanctions set forth by the яepublican bourgeoisie! Let us take back what is ours from these лapitaдistic pigs! 

Proletariat of the world, unite! 

u 2 need to get a sense of humor. i thought it was a very entertaining read. thanks Cuzin Vinny! I really enjoy reading your posts, please keep them coming!

DubAce if you read chessmicky's comment I think he did appreciate the joke and is adding to it.

How precisely did you come up with лapitaдistic? The Cyrillic letters you used don't look at all like the English letters they replaced.

wow! thanks for pointing that out, TheronG12. that's what i get for not reading the entire thing! sorry, chessmicky!

 Why do some people not even regard pawns as pieces? That's what I want to know. Of course a pawn is a chess piece!

 And why are they not even deemed worthy of their own letter in algebraic notation? Why e4, fxg5 etc, rather than Pe4 and Pxg5 etc? Especially when bxa4 could be confused with Bxa4.

THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHESS

“While chess is ostensibly about war, it has for 1,400 years been deployed as a metaphor to explore everything from romantic love to economics.  Historians routinely stumble across chess stories from nearly every culture and era—stories dealing with class consciousness, free will, political struggle, [and] the nature of competition ....” 1

Many of the best-known economists -- Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Keynes, Galbraith, Friedman -- seem to have as many detractors as they do supporters.  Although his followers may not be very vocal, Thorstein Veblen has seemingly side-stepped significant disparagers.  However, this should not come as a surprise.  The royal game could have clued us in long ago. For not only can political economy be understood by studying chess, its underpinnings can be understood by studying two specific aspects of the royal game, piece differential and pawn promotion, which in turn leads directly to Veblen.

Piece Differential.  In the Introductory section of his best-known work, Veblen points out that the “division of labour coincides with the distinction between the working and the leisure class as it appears in the higher barbarian culture. As the diversification and specialisation of employments proceed, the line of demarcation so drawn comes to divide the industrial from the non-industrial employments.”2  Before the division of labor, everyone needed to toil to secure food, clothing and shelter.  However, the innovation of the division of labor brought about not only economic efficiency, but also the ability of some to put themselves above others by means of exploitation rather than industry to meet their necessities. Subsistence became “obtainable on sufficiently easy terms to admit of the exemption of a considerable portion of the community from steady application to a routine of labour,” resulting in a privileged few being able to live off the work of the many.3

Consequently, the division of labor led to differing classes. Likewise, there are major pieces (King, Queen, Rook), minor pieces (Bishop, Knight) and pawns in chess.  The King receives the protection of all the other pieces and pawns while doing very little work (with movement of no more than one square at a time, the most leisure piece of all), the Queen benefits from unequaled access to the squares, and the minor pieces and pawns do most of the work and are utilized (exploited) for the profit of the sovereigns.  After all, as in society, if all the pieces and pawns were Kings, there could be no exploitation, and thus, there could be no game.

Pawn Promotion.  The pawn has always been associated with workers or political minorities, whose possible capacity for revolutionary action has been touted throughout the centuries.  However, Veblen illustrated that “workers do not seek to displace their managers; they seek to emulate them.”4  Likewise, when a pawn reaches the eighth rank, it chooses not to remain itself or become a threat to its rulers.  Rather, akin to Veblen’s worker, it “striv[es] to outdo others in aping one’s superiors in the social and economic hierarchy” by (usually) becoming a Queen.5

Emulation is but one of the three main anti-evolutionary impulses from which society suffers according to Veblen, the other two being domination and animism.6  Chess illustrates the hazards of these forces. Emulation limits one to becoming no more than his or her superiors, as a pawn’s goal is just to become a Queen.  While if one dominates a pawn by blockading it with his or her own pieces, the pawn will be unable to reach the eighth rank to promote.  Finally, animism can be appreciated by considering when one believes the game has some hidden facet leading to success when in fact nothing affects play beyond the board’s squares and pieces.  The lessons of the chessboard need not be lost on political economists, activists and leaders.  A thorough understanding of these concepts will advance the study of political economy.

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Endnotes

1 David Shenk, The Immortal Game: A History of Chess (Doubleday 2006), p. 14.

2 Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (Penguin 1994), Chapter One.

3 Id.; Lauren Alexis Moses, The Psychology, Life, and Relevance of Thorstein Veblen, (Duke University April 15, 2002), pp. 4-5.

4 Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers (Clarion 1969), p. 211.

5 Max Lerner, Editor’s Introduction to The Portable Veblen (Penguin 1977), p. 23.

6 Robert Lekachman, Introduction to The Theory of the Leisure Class (Penguin 1994), p. viii.

Can I get famous if I write keek too?

Then what should I write to become famous?  After all, I wanna promote to a queen someday too.  Or maybe a rook, since I'm not a girl.