A feint within a feint within a feint. A plan and a counter-plan. Outwitting your opponent. Seeing the trap and letting him think you stumble into it. Plotting for four turns down the road without losing sight of now. Check-mate.

Centuries old and still the best war game of all time. So complex and yet so infuriatingly simple. A child knows how each piece moves; can send in attack after attack towards the king; takes every kill he can find. An older player sees the strategy behind the moves; how pieces play off of each other; lets two, three, four pieces stand at a stale-mate until an upper hand can be reached. And the experienced veteran knows the nunances of moving a rook one space left just so that it is there half a game later; can have two fronts with a third goal so subtle that it is inpercievable until it happens; will know how his opponent will move and can control their pieces with his own. An old saying maintains that if you throw a frog into boiling water, he will jump out. But if the water is cold when you put him in there and then heats up, he will let himself cook. If I could plan a guilt-free war, I would love to pit myself against another man; my mind agianst his. I want to be able to read someone's move from the way they line their troops up on the field. Such subtle things, and the masters see into the other's mind like Bach saw into an organ.

And then to take that same skill, that same ability and put it into everyday living. To be able to hear a twist in a companion's voice and know. Subtly is such a lost art in the modern world. Or at least in my world. Everything around is so overt and straight. And that that isn't is either mildly masked or pure jest. I suppose it's nice to be able to trust everyting so freely, to not have to worry that my words and thoughts; the way I look at people and the order in which I do things is being disected. But there is still that cutting edge on the mind that I can see but never venture out to. And quite honestly, even if I were to, it would only be for my own pleasure. I couldn't bring myself to use that manner of political power over my friends, and there are so very few out there who would like to play my game against me.