Anticipation

A lot of this should go into my personal blog. But I really want to get things rolling over here again... so here goes.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how lazy my mind has become. I could justify it by saying my headaches and illness are the sole blame. But they aren't. My mind has become lazy.
Like many young intellectuals I learned the art of strategy from such classics as Chess, Chinese Checkers and Stratego. There are hundreds of strategies for these games, thousands of play styles and more information then I could ever learn in one lifetime. But the first thing a great player learns and never ever forgets is how to anticipate.

I've seen people who think 5-6 moves ahead in chess and I've seen people who think ahead 15. The latter will beat the former almost every time. They calculate every move and counter move until they lock into that winning combination. Everyone loves to use Chess as an example, but I do not. Although I am good at chess I cut my teeth on Magic: The Gathering and video games.

Skill in chess does not translate into skill at newer games of strategy for a variety of reasons. For starters chess is enclosed. The board does not become larger or smaller. Nor do the pieces change from game to game. Once you have mastered the basics of chess all you can do is master the art of anticipation and reading moves ahead. In a game like Magic the parameters of the game vary wildly from one game to the next. There are other reasons but they aren't important for the purposes of this musing.

Learning to anticipate an enemies strategy is the first and most important skill you can learn as a tactical mind. The parameters of the game might change, but human nature does not. People can be read and predicted with amazing accuracy.

I've just barely started to feel well enough to play games again and my mind has become so very lazy. I don't look ahead to see my enemies actions but narrow my focus on my own moves. (Know yourself and know your enemy.) I played Warcraft 3 for the first time in months the other day and I knew. I knew what my enemies were doing, I saw the telltale signs and ignored them, I ignored the patterns and even the blatant warnings and I lost badly.

Anticipation might not be the easiest tool of the trade to start with, but I feel it's the one I would benefit from the most right now. The knowledge of strategy you aquire from games has far reaching practical value in life.