Topic leader:

Prof. Dr. Kende, György; colonel ret.

Doctor of The Hungarian Academy of Science

e-mail: kende.gyorgy@zmne.hu

Office

Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University (ZMNDU)

Address: Hungária krt. 9-11.   Budapest, Hungary 1101     

Assignment: professor

Branch of Science

Military Technology

Leader: Prof. Dr. Turcsányi, Károly

THE TOPIC TO RESEARCH:

Studying chess and its information technology background to find analogies and application possibilities regarding battlefield operations, armaments development, decision making, military training and education

Justification of the research topic

(Preliminaries, actuality, etc.)

There is nothing new regarding correlation between chess and strategy, chess and skills development, chess and personality development. Newness and actuality of the topic first of all is justified by the information technology (IT) revolution in the last decades. In 2004 Swedish and Australian researchers achieved new results in correlation between chess and war using new IT and mathematical methods. Nowadays chess has an excellent IT background which effectively supports chess training, chess skills measuring, long term memory development. Chess as a test bed for theories of cognitive science. Chess and the excellent IT background of chess helps to create methods of personality and skills development.  The other goal is to explore analogies between IT supports of chess and conducting war, chess and war gaming, chess and computer aided exercises.

The main ideas I  have formulated in these publications:

·       Kende, György: Chess as a Martial Game and as a Means of Skills Development. AARMS
(Academic and Applied Research in Military Science), 2006. Volume 5 Issue 3. 456-466. p.

http://www.zmne.hu/aarms/docs/Volume5/Issue3/pdf/10kend.pdf

(There are several useful references in this publication)

·       An abridged version the above publication can be read here:

             http://www.chessville.com/misc/ChessAsMartialGame.htm

Three more publications in reference to this topic:

• Kuylenstierna, Jan (Department of War Studies, Swedish National Defence College): Chess as a research tool for the study of military command and control. Presentation at the “New Challenges in the Field of Military Sciences 2006. IV International Conference” plenary session, MZNDU, November 7. 2006. http://www.zmne.hu/hadmernok/kulonszamok/newchallenges/kuylenstierna.html

• Kasparov, Garry: How Life Imitates Chess. Random House UK Ltd. 288 p. ISBN-13: 978-0434015405

• Ross, Philip E.: The Expert Mind. Scientific American, August 2006, 46-53.p. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945

Research Objectives:

Analogies between chess and military strategy, chess and war-gaming, chess and military tactics. Analysis of chess IT background in order to use in military. Chess and game theory. Chess and military – correlations and differences. Possibility of chess IT  for positioning of military equipment on the battlefield. Research of use of chess in foreign military organizations and education facilities (academies, colleges, universities).

The main objectives:

(1) New findings which make possible to work out new methods in military command and control, in skills and personality development;

(2) Search and analysis of related Hungarian and foreign results (for example PhD thesis, publications, books), synthesis and summarizing of main results and directions;

(3) Application of findings in military training and education.

Methodology

According to research objectives adequate research methods must be chosen which naturally may vary regarding the desired goals. Besides classical library methods Internet seems to be a good possibility (chess homepages, chess news and other chess related publications). Other method may be studying chess programs, their algorithm and analytical ability to use them for military purposes. Finding and analyzing chess related PhD thesis, chess educational conferences and other chess educational papers.  Search for international cooperation. Search on the Internet of adequate chess related homepages (e.g. fide.com, chessbase.com, professorchess.com, etc.) in order to find results achieved by other researchers. Analysis and evaluation of homepages in aspects of military education, training, skills development and strategic thinking. Exploration of effective methods of using search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) to find relevant information.  

Expected new scientific results

Proper formulation of research objectives and use of appropriate research methods must guarantee finding of new scientific results in conformity with research objectives. Results have to answer many questions, among which at the moment the most important ones are:

(1) Analysis of super grandmaster level chess program (e.g. Fritz 10, Hydra, etc.) in order to find possibilities of their adaptation in battlefield activities and in training of military commanders

(2) Exploring coherencies and differences between chess and battlefield activities, chess and positioning of military equipment,  chess and C⁴I, chess and informational uncertainty

(3) Usage  of chess in skills and personality development

(4) Usage of chess in military and civilian BSc and MSc education

(5) Drafting a chess-related curriculum at military academies and universities.

Development of main lines ands points of chess related subjects, designing content of lecture notes, course books, textbooks and multimedia curriculum.