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Those elemental quantities whose comparative values are determined by Grand Reconnaissance and which are termed: Organization, Topography, Mobility, Numbers, Time, and Position, collectively constitute Prime Strategetic Means whose proper employment is the basis of every true Prime Strategetic Process.

POLICY OF CAMPAIGN

That relative advantage in Numbers expressed by the larger aggregate of Chess-pieces is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by additional geometric and sub-geometric symbols.

Excess or deficiency in Numbers determines the policy of Campaign. The policy of the inferior force is:

• 1. To preserve intact its Corps d’armee, and
• 2. To engage in battle only when victory can be assured by other advantages in Strategetic means, which nullify the adverse advantage in Numbers; and even then only when such victory is decisive of the Campaign.

Hence, the policy of Campaign of that army superior in Numbers, is:

Incessantly to proffer battles which:

• (a) Accepted, constantly reduces the inferior army and increases its disproportion in numbers, or,
• (b) Evaded, compels the inferior army to abandon important posts, for whose defence it cannot afford the resulting loss of troops; thus permitting to the numerically superior army a continually increasing advantage in Position.

PRINCIPLE

All else being equal the advantage of Numbers is decisive of victory in battle and Campaign.

Things being unequal, the advantage in Numbers may be nullified by adverse advantages in Organization, Topography, Mobility, Time and Position.

Victory resulting from advantage in Numbers is achieved by simultaneously attacking two or more Tactical Keys from a Kindred Strategic Key and two or more Kindred Points of Command.

TO LOCATE THE AREA OF CONCENTRATION

That relative advantage in Mobility expressed by the situation of the Strategic Front upon the Strategetic Center is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by Kindred Chess-pieces posted upon that great central diagonal which extends towards the Objective Plane. Such advantage determines those points which should be occupied in the proper development of the front so posted; and consequently designates the direction and location of that battlefield upon which the kindred army may concentrate in overwhelming force, despite all possible resistance by the enemy.

MOST FAVORABLE BATTLEFIELD

That relative advantage in Organization expressed by superior potential totality, is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by the geometric and sub-geometric symbols of those Chess-pieces possessed of the superior potential complement. Such symbols taken in combination, describe that field of battle most favorable for the execution of those Major Tactical evolutions which appertain to the Chess-pieces of superior organization.

POSTS OF MAXIMUM SECURITY

That relative defensive advantage in Topography expressed by inaccessibility to hostile attack is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by Corps of Position, posted upon points of different color to that occupied by the adverse Bishop; and this advantage designates those posts situated on a projected field of battle which may be occupied with the maximum of security.

That relative offensive advantage in Topography expressed by accessibility to kindred attack is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by Corps of Position posted upon points of the same color as that occupied by the kindred Bishop; and this advantage designates those posts situated on a projected field of battle which may be attacked with the maximum facility.

CHARACTER OF THE MOST FAVORABLE BATTLE

That relative advantage in Position with the Column of Attack, expressed:

• 1. By superior location, direction and development of the Kindred Strategic Front of Operations; and
• 2. By the occupation of Points of Departure, of Manoeuvre, of Command and of the Strategic Key of a True Strategic Horizon, indicates that a Strategic Grand Battle in the first instance; and in the second case that a Tactical Grand Battle is most favorable in the existing situation.

That relative advantage in Position with the Column of Support, expressed by superior facilities for occupying with the Kindred Promotable Factors their corresponding Points of Junction in the Kindred Logistic Horizon, is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by the larger number of Pawn Altitudes which either are open, or may be opened, despite all possible resistance by the enemy; and such advantage designates those adverse Points of Impenetrability and Points of Resistance to the march of the Kindred Promotable Factors, which it is necessary to nullify.

That relative advantage in Position with the Column of Manoeuvre, expressed by the security of the Kindred and the exposure of the adverse Strategetic Rear to attack by the Kindred Column of Support, is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by the occupation by a Kindred Promotable Factor of the Point of Proximity; and such advantage indicates that the advance with all possible celerity of such Promotable Factor and Point of Proximity toward the corresponding Point of Junction is a dominating influence in the existing situation.

PROJECTED GRAND BATTLE

From the advantage in Position appertaining to the three Grand Columns is deduced the character of the Grand Battle properly in sequence.

Advantage in Position with the Column of Attack indicates the opportunity, all else being equal, to engage in a victorious Strategic Grand Battle against the hostile Formation in Mass, or in a Tactical Grand Battle against the hostile Formation by Wings.

Advantage in Position with the Column of Support indicates the opportunity to engage effectively in a series of minor battles, as though having the advantage in Numbers.

Advantage in Position with the Column of Manoeuvre indicates the opportunity to engage in a victorious Logistic Grand Battle against the adverse Formation by Grand Columns.

LEAST FAVORABLE ADVERSE CONDITION

That relative advantage in Time expressed by restrictions of the adversary’s choice of movements at his turn to play, is materially manifested upon the Chess-board by Feints operated by Kindred Chess-pieces against adverse vital points; and such advantage of the Initiative dictates the next move of the opposing army.

The advantage of the Initiative determines which of the adverse corps d’armee may and may not move.

The material expression of this advantage always is a Feint by a Kindred Corps against a vital point either occupied or unoccupied, which necessitates that upon his next move, the enemy either evacuate, support, cover or sustain the post so menaced.

Such feint, therefore, restricts the move of the enemy to those of his corps as are able to obviate the threatened loss and proportionately reduces the immediate activity of his army.

RELATIVE ADVANTAGES IN LOCATION

The distance which separates opposing Corps d’armee always modifies the values of the Prime Strategetic Means.

Hence in the making of Grand Reconnaissance, it is next in sequence to determine whether the Chess-pieces are:

• I. In Contact.
• II. In Presence.
• III. At Distance.

Corps d’armee are in Contact with each other whenever their logistic radii intersect; or, their radii offensive and the corresponding adverse radii defensive are opposed to each other.

Corps d’armee are in Presence whenever the posts which they occupy are contained within the same Strategic front, the same Strategetic Horizon, or are in communication with their corresponding posts of mobilization, development, or manoeuvre.

Corps d’armee are at Distance when the posts which they occupy are not in communication with Kindred Corps d’armee posted upon the strategic front adopted, or with posts of mobilization or development contained within the corresponding Primary Base of Operations, or, within the True Strategetic Horizon.

REQUISITES FOR SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNING

Every Campaign, whether upon the surface of the Earth or upon the Chess-board is decided and usually is terminated by a Grand Battle.

Those movements of opposing Grand Columns, whereby such decisive conflict is brought about under circumstances which ensure victory, by reason of superior advantages in Strategetic Means, are termed Grand Manoeuvres; and a proper series of Grand Manoeuvres, combined with their corresponding feints, strategems, ambuscades and minor battles, the whole terminated by a resulting Grand Battle, is termed a Grand Operation.

Those processes of Grand Manoeuvre, which produce an opportunity to victoriously engage in battle, are the most subtle and difficult known to the Strategetic Art.

Successful application of these processes in practice depends wholly upon proper use of the MEANS at hand and the doing of the utmost that can be done in the TIME available.

Nothing can be more repugnant to high art in Strategetics than those crudities termed in the specious mouthings of pretentious mediocrity “waiting moves,” “delayed strokes,” “defensive-offensives,” “masterly inactivities,” and the like.

“Time past is gone and cannot be regained; time future is not and may never be; time present is” and with it Opportunity, which an instant later may be gone.

The gain of but “a foot of ground and a minute of time” would have saved the French army at Rosbach and have cost Frederic the Great one of his most lustrous victories and perhaps his army and his crown.

PRINCIPLE

In Strategetics there is but a single method whereby Opportunity may be availed of, and that is by so augmenting kindred advantages and so depreciating adverse advantages as to acquire for the kindred army that particular advantage of Strategetic means which in the given situation is the proper basis of the Strategetic movement next in sequence.

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At Distance.

The chief requisite for success when acting against an adverse army at Distance, is the advantage in MOBILITY.

The primary process is that of a Grand Manoeuvre against an adverse army acting in the formation by Grand Columns, and the object of such Grand Manoeuvre always is, by superior celerity of movement, to occupy:

• 1. The Strategic Center by the Kindred Column of Attack, thus intersecting the Route of Communication between the adverse main body and its Base of Operation; or to occupy:
• 2. The Logistic Center with the Kindred Columns of Support and of Manoeuvre, thus intersecting the Route of Communication between the adverse main body and its Chief Supporting Column and clearing the way for the advance of the Kindred Column of Support against the flank and rear of the adverse Main Body.

Obviously, the united Kindred Columns of Attack and of Support always will constitute an overwhelming superiority in Numbers as compared with the adverse main body.

In Presence.

The chief requisite for success when acting against an adverse Grand Column in Presence, is the advantage in POSITION.

The primary process is that of a Grand Manoeuvre against an adverse army acting in the Formation by Wings, and the object of such Grand Manoeuvre always is, by availing to the uttermost of its situation upon the Tactical Center, i.e., upon the area midway between the adverse Wings thus isolated from each other; to act in overwhelming Numbers, first against one and then against the other hostile bodies.

In Contact.

The chief requisite for success when acting offensively against an adverse Grand Column, or Wing, or Corps d’armee, in Contact, is the advantage in NUMBERS.

The primary process is that of a Grand Battle in which the kindred army has an overwhelming superiority in Numbers in contact, and at least the equality in all other Prime Strategetic Means.

In this circumstance, the object of such Grand Battle always is:

• 1. To attack the hostile Formation in Mass frontally at the center, and upon both wings obliquely; all three attacks being made simultaneously and the evolutions so executed that the hostile army never is able to penetrate between either kindred wing and the kindred center, nor to outflank that kindred wing which may be in the air.
• 2. In case the kindred army has the equality or inferiority in all other Prime Strategetic Means, then the object of a Grand Battle on the Offensive is to attack the hostile Formation in Mass obliquely with the whole kindred army, and preferably upon that wing which covers the route of communication of the adverse army with its Base of Operations, but always upon that wing which contains the Tactical Key of the actual Battlefield.

Obviously, the concentration of the entire kindred army against a single adverse wing always will constitute an overwhelming superiority in Numbers.

In making such attack obliquely against a single adverse wing, the center and remaining wing of the kindred army must not engage until the kindred Van and Corps of Position of the attacking wing first have formed the center of three sides of an octagon; of which the Kindred Corps of Evolution will form the farthest side and the Kindred Center and left wing Corps d’armee will form the nearest and latest constructed side.

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The chief requisite for success when acting defensively against a Grand Column, or Wing, or Corps d’armee is the advantage in TOPOGRAPHY.

The primary process is that of a Grand Battle in which the kindred army, decidedly inferior in Numbers in the aggregate, has the advantage in Topography and equality in all other Prime Strategetic Means.

In this case the object is to support both flanks of the inferior army upon impassable natural barriers, strengthening both wings at the expense of the center, both in quantity and in quality of troops.

If the Tactical Defensive be selected, the center should retire before the oncoming of the hostile army in order to enclose it between the Kindred Wings, which will then overwhelm it by superior Numbers, while the natural barriers on the flanks being impassable will prevent the remaining hostile corps from participating in the battle otherwise than as spectators.

Should the Tactical Offensive be selected, that kindred wing best adapted for attack should engage supported by all kindred Corps of Evolution, while advancing the Kindred Center in reserve and holding the remaining wing refused and in observation.

All else being equal, relative advantage in either branch of Prime Strategetic Means is sufficient to ensure victory in battle, and the proper use of such advantage for securing victory is outlined thus:

PRINCIPLE

Utilize advantage in Prime Strategetic Means to obtain the superiority in Numbers at the Point of Contact in an Offensive Battle; and to nullify the adverse superiority in Numbers at the point of contact in a Defensive Battle.

Between War and Chess there is a seeming incongruity, which is the basis of that doubt of the utility of Chess-play, so commonly held by laymen, and which fallacy few, even among proficients, are competent to combat.

This doubt most frequently is voiced by the query:

This query readily is answered in the words of Frederic the Great, viz.:

The Strategetic talent possessed in common by Morphy and Napoleon, in both was brought to perfection by long and expert training.

But circumstances placed the twelve year old Napoleon in the midst of soldiers and in an era of war, while circumstances placed the twelve year old Morphy in the midst of Chess-players and in an era of Peace.

Napoleon was educated a General; Morphy was educated a lawyer.

To develop his self-evident and superlative Strategetic talent, Napoleon’s education was of the best; to develop his self-evident and superlative Strategetic talent, Morphy’s education was of the worst.

Napoleon succeeded as a General; Morphy failed as a lawyer.

The innate capability of Napoleon for Strategetics was developed in the direction of Warfare; the innate capability of Morphy for Strategetics was developed in the direction of Chess-play.

In War, Napoleon is superlative; in Chess, Morphy is superlative.

Educated in the law, Napoleon might have proved like Morphy a non-entity; educated in Chess, Napoleon might have proved like Morphy a phenomenon.

Educated in War, Morphy might have rivalled Napoleon.

For the Chess-play of Morphy displays that perfect comprehension of Strategetics, to which none but the great Captains in warfare have attained.

Perfection in Strategetics consists in exactly interpreting in battle and campaign, the System of Warfare invented by Epaminondas.

Those able to do this in War have achieved greatness, and the great at Chess-play are those who best have imitated that exactness with which Morphy employed this system on the Chess-board.

To those who imagine that Strategetic talent, as exemplified in Warfare, is different from Strategetic talent as exemplified in Chess-play, the following may afford matter for reflection.

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