#which was conducted by a licensed examiner who additionally administered another test chosen specifically based on my prior data | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kaurwreck · 9 months ago

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I think you're right that it's significant, and I think Mori is clever to recognize that Akutagawa is a rook.

Like a rook, Akutagawa is powerful, but generally contained and often undercut by his predictability. However, because he's keenly aware of his own constraints, and because others often aren't (especially regarding variables they've internalized as known), he's able to play into and against his own predictability to paradoxically surprise them.

He moves within the confines of his rigidity to shape outcomes, sometimes more effectively than his more dynamic opponents and peers. Rooks do that too, if you let them.

Me, knowing nothing about chess, probably overthinking the significance of referencing akutagawa in this scene, but is going to look it up later anyways

#i have very specific chess feelings and thoughts re: rooks (which is what that piece is)#because in elementary school i was in a program for intellectually gifted students - by which i do NOT mean an honors program #i mean i displayed several specific neuro characteristics and struggled in a classroom environment such that i was referred for screening #the results of the screening flagged me for several additional tests and my results on those tests then prompted a comprehensive assessment #which was conducted by a licensed examiner who additionally administered another test chosen specifically based on my prior data #the report from which triggered a review of all of the above data by a panel of specialists who determined that I was wired so atypically #that I required specifically designed support services to avoid an adverse impact my access to education #ie I was not considered academically gifted which is what people are usually thinking of when they talk about giftedness (esp on tumblr)#i prefaced with all of that to counter misconceptions and emphasize that i was not in a program for smart and highly successful students #i was in a program for students with distinct cognitive processing needs that could not be met without specialized intervention #but inanely and entirely b/c of misconceptions the administrators at my school forcibly registered us in an annual chess tournament #which they wouldn't let us opt out of b/c there was a funding incentive for the school if we advanced far enough #ironically chess is a bad fit for this type of giftedness b/c it's rote + relies on bounded conventions instead of creative problem solving #but anyway i did not want to fucking play chess especially not competitively - it's boring and gets redundant #so i intentionally threw all of my games to remove myself from the tournament early #except my fellow indentured chess competitors noticed i was doing that and they were also bored and didn't care for the tournament #and so several of them made a game out of forcibly advancing me as far as they could by outmaneuvering my attempts to lose #horrifically they managed to corner me into winning enough that i was in serious danger of advancing #and so i started AGGRESSIVELY practicing chess in my spare time to learn how to shape the board and get confident in my ability to do so #i played against computers and then strangers online for hours a day and i studied checkmate patterns and how to subvert + reconfigure them #all so i could play well enough to ensure i'd lose even when being actively sabotaged #it worked - i narrowly escaped advancing that year and I don't think they were able to lose to me again after that #they kept trying - even playing me outside of tournaments to try and figure out how i was consistently losing #it's b/c i layered multiple strategies that involved breaking select conventions + manipulating their focus and psychology #BUT the fulcrum of my approach relied heavily on my rooks and select pawns as my most valuable pieces #i got very good at using rooks to shape the board without placing them in a position to be captured until i wanted them to be #once i had a few pawns close to promotion i would shift my rooks into bait b/c once one was taken i could just promote a pawn into a rook #and because absent a potential stalemate people almost always promote pawns into queens #my opponent would forget my additional rooks and would make choices based on the implicit assumptions that my deputized pawns were queens #rooks are treasures

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