Rugby is like chess, league is like checkers

Roar Pro

By Ian from NZ, 26 Nov 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: All Blacks, American Football, ELVs, tactics

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Checkers is a game where the pieces do the same thing, and in rugby league, all the players do the same thing: they take the ball up and on the tackle they put the ball through their legs and start again.

There are no lineouts or mauls.

Sure, running the ball up has a different degree on demand between the forward and backs. But not much.

To stop one team having all the possession, there is a six tackle count, as the game does not allow more contests to see possession change hands. The rugby league player, if lined up in a police lineout, would all have the same physical design.

Chess is a game where the chess piece does very different things.

The array of very different abilities of each chess piece allows the chess player to be very creative when it comes to playing tactics. Chess has more structure than checkers, and union has more structure than league.

And it should remain so.

Rugby union can be broken down into combinations: front row, back row, loose forwards, back of scrum, centre field, and back three. These combinations perform as units within the structured game, performing specialised roles, with specific skills and body shape.

If rugby administrators break the rule that ‘rugby is like chess, they will have a hybrid game that is somewhere between checkers and chess. A hybrid game will see rugby lose its hard won identity, and the marketing boys will tell you that to have a good brand, you need a distinctive point of difference from the competition.

Iggy Pop once said: “Death kills you, but death doesn’t kill you. Boredom and indifference kill you.”

This quote highlights that rugby union’s greatest sin is to be boring and indifferent.

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The Crowd Says (192) | Page 1 of Comments

Steffy said | November 26th 2008 @ 3:20am | Report comment

Most amusing.

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Ian from NZ said | November 26th 2008 @ 3:35am | Report comment

here is the full article, the above has beed edited.
http://betterrugbyrules.blogtown.co.nz/2008/04/21/checkers-vs-chess-rugby-league-vs-rugby-union/

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Michael C said | November 26th 2008 @ 5:38am | Report comment

To a lot of people, chess is a pretty wretchedly boring game to observe.

I can reasonably enjoy watching it, can appreciate how much is going on for the ‘masters’, but……….I have absolutely no desire to sit down and watch it.

I guess if RL is checkers, what do you regard AFL to be? Actually, NRL still has off side, requirement to throw backwards, you’ve more so than RU gotta score pts via tries………….seems to me, that AFL is more the checkers, anyone anywhere anytime (effectively – - – and to me, it’s a pretty cool thing)…………and so, NRL, whilst to a RU person, may appear checkers like – - in reality is far, far more aligned to chess.

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sheek said | November 26th 2008 @ 5:56am | Report comment

Ian,

Things quite around your neck of the woods at the moment? The ‘Roar Leagueies Legion’ will be after your blood!

I prefer the complexity & variety of union myself. Trouble is, the meddlesome laws of rugby act like a constant retard preventing union from fully expressing its beauty. That’s not a good thing.

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Nam Turk said | November 26th 2008 @ 6:24am | Report comment

Gridiron is like chess and union is like checkers.

Uh oh, crappy metaphor backfired on you!

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Skull said | November 26th 2008 @ 7:33am | Report comment

Ho hum here we go again. Why are you people so threatened by League that you have to post articles knocking it every day. I really think Rugby has enough problems of its own. Do you think people who are not rugby nuts enjoy watching penalty shootouts all the time. As I have said before Rugby is so complex even the refs dont understand its laws according to various posters on this site, so what chance is there that the casual sports observer will be won over to the cause. Why don’t you try to solve your own sports problems before criticising others?.

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Ian in NZ said | November 26th 2008 @ 8:20am | Report comment

Dear Turk,

…”Gridiron is like chess and union is like checkers”…

This statement is my point exactly. Rugby used to be more complex with more strategies and styles employed that was very entertaining, the new rules and constant changes have dumbed down the game to one of more simple strategy and one common style. (Run and bash and force back)

Maybe I should have said, rugby used to be like chess, and now its like (nearly) like checkers (or league) !

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Ian said | November 26th 2008 @ 8:26am | Report comment

A great analogy. One could put it another way, though I think it may cause a rather heated reaction from League lovers. So here goes anyway: “League is a simple man’s game, whereas Union is an intellectual man’s game.”

Though it’s a generalisation, the truth is that you really don’t have to have much, if any, grey matter at all to play League, whereas you need plenty of it to play Union.

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Pippinu said | November 26th 2008 @ 8:26am | Report comment

To be honest, the chess analogy is the sort of thing the unimaginative sports commentator pulls out when he is faced with a dour game (in any code), and doesn’t really know what else to say.

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Nam Turk said | November 26th 2008 @ 8:35am | Report comment

The analogy would work if board games were played under great time constraints. The appeal of rugby (whichever code) here is that it is played by instinct and ingrained expertise. You cannot take a timeout and think about your next move. It is the accumulation of experience, manifested into brilliant performance. If that wasn’t the case, any group of athletes could beat an experienced team. Thankfully, neither sport is so mindless as you make it seem.

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