Costikyan on Chess

Greg Costikyan has posted to his blog an essay on the game of chess with an eye to its implications for game designers.

Digital game people – vidiots, as I have uncharitably described them at times in the past – often dismiss games like Chess as being irrelevant to their concerns. Actually, as I think I've shown, there's a lot to be learned from Chess that is directly relevant to digital games. In fact, precisely because it is so different from most digital games, it's a useful reference point when thinking about games, so much so that when someone starts generalizing about games, it's always worthwhile to ask yourself "Does this apply to Chess?" If not, perhaps this generalization is of dubious universality – and perhaps there are many fruitful design paths that do not conform to that generalization.

If you care about games, read the whole thing.