THE GAME OF THE GENERALS' STORY
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Conceived and born out of two devastating floods, mistaken as subversive material, frowned upon by the country’s Chess lords and snubbed by the All- Filipino Sports awards, the Game of the Generals has quixotically survived.
I invented it August of 1967 in Barrio Palanan, Makati, while Greater Manila was choking through a big flood. Stranded with unprogrammed leisure in my hands, I was deep in the study of Chess having just won a tournament the week passed when I thought about the game.
The idea first floated by and then lingered, longing for action. Why not something different from Chess? Why not a game patterned after modern- day combat? Something everybody could identify with? After all, Chess is of ancient origin-- hardly relevant to battle tactics of today.
My father chanced into my room as I was cutting out cartolina soldiers, marking them with ranks of generals, middle officers and Privates and pushing them around on a Chessboard.“I am inventing a game,” I said with the proud intonation of one at the verge of discovery. Quizzically, quietly he left.As I worked onto the third day, I had sadly succeeded in putting together a mere variation of Chess. The fourth day was still one of frustration. With the movements and starting formation I had developed, the pieces may well have been pawns, rooks and bishops.
TWO DAYS LATER WAS D-DAY
Calling on the systems used in mahjong and card games, I tried setting up the pieces so that they were unseen by the enemy. It was drastic departure from Chess, followed still by another--- this time taking off from the way generals prefer to fight. This meant allowing a player the free hand at deploying his forces, in contrast to the Chess method of forcing a player to start from one single formation.
THEN CAME THE TEDIOUS PROCESS OF FINALIZATION
Experimentation . . . try out games with my father . . . flanking movements . . . guerilla tactics . . . territorial coverages . . . All these brought in the balance and hierarchy of soldiers, the number of playing squares on the board and the various ways of winning games.
Iwo Jima with its victorious marines, provide the heroic angle for ending a game -- the symbolic raising of the flag signalling the capture of enemy territory.James Bond and Mata Hari reminded me to put in a pair of spies with the introduction of the arbiter between two players securing their cloak-and-dagger maneuvers.
Finally, the movie “Night of the Generals” wrapped it up inspiring the dramatic touch needed and people.Thus, the Game of the Generals was born, conceived from a smorgasbord of events, principles and people.
Except for a few friends at Philippine Advertising Counselors where I was then employed, the game generally hibernated for five years until another devastating flood, circa 1972, flushed it out.Actually, it was pushed to the public eye by enterprising journalist Iking Gonzales. He insisted on writing the story as his contribution to the Times Journal’s maiden issue. It was with reluctance that I allowed details of the game to be released for fear of misimpressions, martial law having just been declared the month before.Nevertheless, with the birth of the Times Journal on October 21, 1972, the country woke up to the Game of the Generals.
Gonzales wrote: “Although the pieces stand for military personages, the game-- which is a cross between Chess and cards is as thrilling as it is educational for both young and old. “In Chess you use cold logic. Here in the new game your move sometimes defies logic. Putting in all the details of a battle plan on the board sharpens your memory and psychological insight. The rules of the game can be understood in less time that it takes to learn Chess.”
“It is safe to say that the kings and his court will have their hands full against the general and his men in the near future.”
GAME OF THE GENERALS vs CHESS
With the promise of romanticism ala Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Rommel, the Game of the Generals promptly caught on with Manila’s elite crowd. As quickly as a steamroller offensive, GG started to outsell Chess immediately after its formal public introduction. This was February 28, 1973 at First National Community Bank (FNCB), Makati City, with then Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad as guest of honor. It was the opening of the first tournament in GG history.
The secretary , speaking at the FNCB launching of the game predicted: “Millions around the world will be playing this game, which has the qualities of a Sherlock Holmes thriller.” Shortly after, the game still relatively unknown outside Greater Manila, was causing a few trying moments for some provincial folks.
Iloilo spokesman Tony Hechanova, General Manager of Negros Navigation, reported: “It was funny. I was delayed at the Mactan airport when a companion was detained and questioned for possession of a Game of the Generals set. With all those military pieces in a box, the airport security thought we were up to something subversive.”
But with media publishing photos of sports personalities and Philippine beauties at play and Secretary Tatad endorsing the game: “For those who need an intellectual massage,” charges of subversion dwindled to isolation as even the guardian of peace and order began to enjoy the game.
Perhaps threatened by sudden accident of this local upstart intruding into the world of thinking sport, even drawing the interest of sponsors and Chess enthusiasts themselves, the local lord of the Game of Kings mounted his own quiet offensive against the Game of the Generals.
Big prize-laden Chess tourneys were organized and Grandmasters were imported. When even the Grandmasters started to show interest in the Generals, the Chess official clamped down on his writer’s incursions which mainly dealt with giving GG sets to Grandmasters and getting them to grace GG events and pose for photo releases.
“I can have you banned from the premisses of this event (the Grandmaster’s tilt at the Philippine Village Hotel) if you don’t stop promoting your game through my Grandmasters”, the Chess lord heatedly threatened. There was even a move in the Philippine Chess Federation to ban its players from joining a GG-Chess tournament, which fortunately pattered out. Nevertheless, Chess players have reported that they are still frowned upon for involving themselves with the local game.
To date, the cold war between Chess and the Game of the Generals continues but has somehow thawed with the quiet diplomacy of Chess organizers.Bloodied but unbowed from skirmishes against the powerful Chess drive, the Game of the Generals plods on.
WORLD SERIES EYED
Roads are always long and lonely, crowds sometimes cynical and callous for those who seek to pioneer. But GG’s volunteers struggle on, painstakingly carving out a place in the world of sport, staking this generation’s claim on the game and the country of its birth.
It is a tribute to the fighting heart that the Game of the Generals’ benefactors now include San Miguel Corporation, Marlboro, Paper Mate Corp., Levi-Strauss Inc., Philippine Refining Co., La Tondeña Inc., The Ministry of Public Information, The Kabataang Barangay, and The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
In its three years, three million Filipinos tried the game. It has been introduced to 33 other countries. It has inspired the formation of more than 2,500 GG Clubs and, with its success, cause a rash of 28 other new Filipino game inventions.
GG is the only board game to have outsold Chess at local bookstores and supermarkets. It also hold the distinction of being the most outstanding invention in the general category of the Inventor’s week competition organized by the Philippines’ National Science Development Board.
Today, it also holds the distinction of being the only electronic board game in the world. The invention of the Electronic Arbitek, which replaces the third person or arbiter in a match, also won the award for the 3rd Most Outstanding Electronic Invention Of the Year in the 1978 Philippine Inventor’s Festival. It has been manufactured under license in the United States and other licensing agreements are still in the works.
It is with a mixed feeling of historical pride and hope that GG pioneers look back to these achievements. Said one rabid fan: “To have been with it from the start is priceless. . . we now dream of a World Game of the Generals Championship series. . .”
(Originally in THE TIMES JOURNAL issue of April 21, 1976)
Conceived and born out of two devastating floods, mistaken as subversive material, frowned upon by the country’s Chess lords and snubbed by the All- Filipino Sports awards, the Game of the Generals has quixotically survived.
I invented it August of 1967 in Barrio Palanan, Makati, while Greater Manila was choking through a big flood. Stranded with unprogrammed leisure in my hands, I was deep in the study of Chess having just won a tournament the week passed when I thought about the game.
The idea first floated by and then lingered, longing for action. Why not something different from Chess? Why not a game patterned after modern- day combat? Something everybody could identify with? After all, Chess is of ancient origin-- hardly relevant to battle tactics of today.
My father chanced into my room as I was cutting out cartolina soldiers, marking them with ranks of generals, middle officers and Privates and pushing them around on a Chessboard.“I am inventing a game,” I said with the proud intonation of one at the verge of discovery. Quizzically, quietly he left.As I worked onto the third day, I had sadly succeeded in putting together a mere variation of Chess. The fourth day was still one of frustration. With the movements and starting formation I had developed, the pieces may well have been pawns, rooks and bishops.
TWO DAYS LATER WAS D-DAY
Calling on the systems used in mahjong and card games, I tried setting up the pieces so that they were unseen by the enemy. It was drastic departure from Chess, followed still by another--- this time taking off from the way generals prefer to fight. This meant allowing a player the free hand at deploying his forces, in contrast to the Chess method of forcing a player to start from one single formation.
THEN CAME THE TEDIOUS PROCESS OF FINALIZATION
Experimentation . . . try out games with my father . . . flanking movements . . . guerilla tactics . . . territorial coverages . . . All these brought in the balance and hierarchy of soldiers, the number of playing squares on the board and the various ways of winning games.
Iwo Jima with its victorious marines, provide the heroic angle for ending a game -- the symbolic raising of the flag signalling the capture of enemy territory.James Bond and Mata Hari reminded me to put in a pair of spies with the introduction of the arbiter between two players securing their cloak-and-dagger maneuvers.
Finally, the movie “Night of the Generals” wrapped it up inspiring the dramatic touch needed and people.Thus, the Game of the Generals was born, conceived from a smorgasbord of events, principles and people.
Except for a few friends at Philippine Advertising Counselors where I was then employed, the game generally hibernated for five years until another devastating flood, circa 1972, flushed it out.Actually, it was pushed to the public eye by enterprising journalist Iking Gonzales. He insisted on writing the story as his contribution to the Times Journal’s maiden issue. It was with reluctance that I allowed details of the game to be released for fear of misimpressions, martial law having just been declared the month before.Nevertheless, with the birth of the Times Journal on October 21, 1972, the country woke up to the Game of the Generals.
Gonzales wrote: “Although the pieces stand for military personages, the game-- which is a cross between Chess and cards is as thrilling as it is educational for both young and old. “In Chess you use cold logic. Here in the new game your move sometimes defies logic. Putting in all the details of a battle plan on the board sharpens your memory and psychological insight. The rules of the game can be understood in less time that it takes to learn Chess.”
“It is safe to say that the kings and his court will have their hands full against the general and his men in the near future.”
GAME OF THE GENERALS vs CHESS
With the promise of romanticism ala Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Rommel, the Game of the Generals promptly caught on with Manila’s elite crowd. As quickly as a steamroller offensive, GG started to outsell Chess immediately after its formal public introduction. This was February 28, 1973 at First National Community Bank (FNCB), Makati City, with then Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad as guest of honor. It was the opening of the first tournament in GG history.
The secretary , speaking at the FNCB launching of the game predicted: “Millions around the world will be playing this game, which has the qualities of a Sherlock Holmes thriller.” Shortly after, the game still relatively unknown outside Greater Manila, was causing a few trying moments for some provincial folks.
Iloilo spokesman Tony Hechanova, General Manager of Negros Navigation, reported: “It was funny. I was delayed at the Mactan airport when a companion was detained and questioned for possession of a Game of the Generals set. With all those military pieces in a box, the airport security thought we were up to something subversive.”
But with media publishing photos of sports personalities and Philippine beauties at play and Secretary Tatad endorsing the game: “For those who need an intellectual massage,” charges of subversion dwindled to isolation as even the guardian of peace and order began to enjoy the game.
Perhaps threatened by sudden accident of this local upstart intruding into the world of thinking sport, even drawing the interest of sponsors and Chess enthusiasts themselves, the local lord of the Game of Kings mounted his own quiet offensive against the Game of the Generals.
Big prize-laden Chess tourneys were organized and Grandmasters were imported. When even the Grandmasters started to show interest in the Generals, the Chess official clamped down on his writer’s incursions which mainly dealt with giving GG sets to Grandmasters and getting them to grace GG events and pose for photo releases.
“I can have you banned from the premisses of this event (the Grandmaster’s tilt at the Philippine Village Hotel) if you don’t stop promoting your game through my Grandmasters”, the Chess lord heatedly threatened. There was even a move in the Philippine Chess Federation to ban its players from joining a GG-Chess tournament, which fortunately pattered out. Nevertheless, Chess players have reported that they are still frowned upon for involving themselves with the local game.
To date, the cold war between Chess and the Game of the Generals continues but has somehow thawed with the quiet diplomacy of Chess organizers.Bloodied but unbowed from skirmishes against the powerful Chess drive, the Game of the Generals plods on.
WORLD SERIES EYED
Roads are always long and lonely, crowds sometimes cynical and callous for those who seek to pioneer. But GG’s volunteers struggle on, painstakingly carving out a place in the world of sport, staking this generation’s claim on the game and the country of its birth.
It is a tribute to the fighting heart that the Game of the Generals’ benefactors now include San Miguel Corporation, Marlboro, Paper Mate Corp., Levi-Strauss Inc., Philippine Refining Co., La Tondeña Inc., The Ministry of Public Information, The Kabataang Barangay, and The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
In its three years, three million Filipinos tried the game. It has been introduced to 33 other countries. It has inspired the formation of more than 2,500 GG Clubs and, with its success, cause a rash of 28 other new Filipino game inventions.
GG is the only board game to have outsold Chess at local bookstores and supermarkets. It also hold the distinction of being the most outstanding invention in the general category of the Inventor’s week competition organized by the Philippines’ National Science Development Board.
Today, it also holds the distinction of being the only electronic board game in the world. The invention of the Electronic Arbitek, which replaces the third person or arbiter in a match, also won the award for the 3rd Most Outstanding Electronic Invention Of the Year in the 1978 Philippine Inventor’s Festival. It has been manufactured under license in the United States and other licensing agreements are still in the works.
It is with a mixed feeling of historical pride and hope that GG pioneers look back to these achievements. Said one rabid fan: “To have been with it from the start is priceless. . . we now dream of a World Game of the Generals Championship series. . .”
(Originally in THE TIMES JOURNAL issue of April 21, 1976)
