Jul 20, 2004

Active and Passive Games

Games can be seen as "active" or "passive"; perhaps "violent" and "sluggish" would be better terms. In active games the pressure is on to get out and make things happen, before your opponent does. In passive, it tends to be better to wait or at least movement is so slow that one cannot get too active.
 
Chess is a bit of both, though I feel the passive tendency dominates a little. Go is finely balanced. Most chess variants tend to be very active, (e.g. Handgrenade and Progressive); indeed most progressives are very active. Connection games tend to be sluggish.
 
(Handgrenade Chess: No direct take allowed. In a move, all opposite pieces at King distance are captured. The one who captures the King wins)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hot and Cold are good terms for the following concepts. A position is hot if you prefer to play than to have your adversary play in it. Otherwise it is cold.