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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.

Middlegame. Anything about the middlegame. Seems there are load of stuff out there on openings and endings, but not nearly the same amount of middlegame stuff. How to come up with a good middlegame strategy? How to play the middlegame in closed positions, or open ones? Different approaches as White or Black? How to locate weaknesses in the opponents position? How to find the best squares for your pieces? When to go on the attack? What endgame principles to consider when deciding what moves or exchanges to make in the middlegame?