Ron and the Best Game of Chess Ever

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 39906

VioletBaudelaire wrote:
> After reading thoughts  about whether Ron could be duped into 
> unintentionally betraying Harry, I thought I would take some time 
> to examine the chess game from SS, as we know that Ron is 
> good at chess; so good that it is the one thing he can beat 
> Hermione at. <snip chess examination>
>
> Someone may be able to hoodwink Ron into a betrayal, but I 
> think this would be difficult. Ron, while feeling overshadowed by 
> Harry's fame, would give sacrifice himself to protect Harry.  
> Possibly Ron will become a martyr.

I have expressed this view before, from a slightly different point of 
view. When consideriong who's going to die in future books, I believe 
Ron will, in a martyr sort of way, that will, nonetheless, allow Harry 
to defeat Voldemort, just like it happens in the famous chess game in 
PS. This would also accomplish Ron's desire: to surpass his brothers 
actions, by becoming a hero/matyr. I've even coined an acronym: RICK'S 
THE BOSS (Ron Identified with the Chess Knight: Surpasses his 
Triumfant, Heroic or Excellent Brothers Only by Self-Sacrifice).

> (as an offshoot: Hermione says not all wizards are 
> good at logic- who are these wizards? And if she's so good at 
> logic, why isn't she a better chess player?)
>
> -Submitted for your approval by VioletBaudelaire

Hermione reads big books when in bed. I assume that the book "Famous 
wizards and witches" must include not only biographys and how they 
colaborated to the wizard world (WW) (read: reason they were included 
in the book), but must also include descriptions of what they were like 
and their logical capabilities (it's not so strange: I've got a book 
with similar content on scientists). Looking for a specific example? We 
don't know of any, but, for all we know, Sprout is no good at logic. Or 
maybe she is. (Note: except for Snape, you can put any adult wizard 
name there and almost surely fits)

On the second question, don't confuse logic and strategy, someone can 
be good at one and bad at the other (namely, me: I resolve logical 
puzzles with ease, but my strategies tend to be poor and specially 
predictable, which means I'm not good at chess). Logic is the 
capability of solving puzzles ("discovering the rules"), while strategy 
is the capability to create a sequence of events that will give you an 
advantage ("using the rules to the best advantage"). 

You may look at a chess game as a puzzle to be resolved, but that's not 
enough, since you have to discover what your opponent will do. On the 
other hand, a good strategy will only work in one puzzle, and without 
logical thinking, you cannot adapt to new puzzles (unfortunately, I 
cannot think of a good example of this case. If interested, mail me 
privately and I'll devote extra time. It's late, and I'm sleepy).

Thus, Hermione is good at logic (seing a problem, normally for the 
first time, and finding the way to solve it), but is not as good 
strategist as Ron who, given a chess game, can see far into the future 
and plan not only what he's going to do to win, but what his opponent 
is going to try, so he can block it.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf