Military tactics strategy for chess application

On my top 200 to do list, determine if military history or theory has application for improving chess. Its way down on my list, so I will ask. Have there been such studies or do you have personal experience applying this knowledge to chess?

@morphyms1817

You will enjoy looking at Franklin K. Young's (1857-1931) writings on chess. Here is an example concerning 1.e4...

"Always deploy so that the right oblique may be readily established in case the objective plane remains open or becomes permanently located on the center or on the King's wing, or that the crochet aligned may readily be established if the objective plane becomes permanently located otherwise than at the extremity of the strategic front."

Young was trying to use the military field and vocabulary of military terms and apply that to chess. I suggest reading more of Young's quotes, and what people thought about them, here:
www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/young.html

@jomega
That is deep... first I'll need to expand my vocabulary. I'll check out the link.

I think it is the other way around. Military in peace time play chess for application in possible warfare.

@morphyms1817

The problem was that very few people could understand Young; certainly not me. I don't think any of his terminology is used today. Anybody know of an example?

There is terminology in chess that comes from military history/theory. Maybe we should start a list.

blockade
break, breakthrough
capture
castle
consolidate
control
counter-attack
decoy
defend/defense
engage
flank
fortress
guard
initiative
liquidation
loose position
maneuver
mobility
move
outpost
phalanx
position
rank
recapture
sacrifice
salient
shot
space
stalemate
strategy
strong point
tactics
trade
trap
trebuchet
undefended
undermining
unit
weak
wing

There is some general concepts shared by any strategic game (considering war, economy, marketting... as such) : strategy / tactic (macro/microgestion), position & risk/reward evaluations...

#5
That is a good list, I look at that and I realize there is much I need to learn.

#6
I like that, adapting economical and business lenses.

look up US Grant and his strategies, thinking, tactics, judgements during the civil war. you can even read his memoirs, which are reputedly among the finest memoirs of a military leader ever written. for example, in one instance early in the war, he realized that the enemy, demoralized, should be attacked immediately, before any reinforcements for either side would show up. he attacked, and won the battle. if he had waited - he felt he would not have prevailed. in another, he decided NOT to build defensive fortifications, which many other generals would have done. he knew he would be on the move, and it would be a waste of forces. these are all strategies which apply directly to chess. i think great military leaders know that they need to keep moving, attack, and be mobile. don't let the other guy dictate; your side should force the issue. this is all completely applicable to chess.

personally, i've never fully understood a flanking movement (i still don't exactly) but somehow when armies of men do it -- and maybe that is the original flanking movement, it is more concrete for me. yup, US Grant.