Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I would like to introduce the term abstract hunting game to describe Chess
and most Chess variants. A hunting game is a game whose object is in some
way the capture, incapacitation, or death of something or someone. Hunting
games are common in sports. Besides bullfighting, which is game hunting
before an audience, American football, rugby, soccer, hockey, lacrosse,
and basketball are hunting games that substitute a ball, puck or other
object for live prey.  Since you can't kill a ball or puck, the goal line
or basket is used to signify a successful capture of the prey. Of these,
football and rugby are perhaps most like hunting, for in these games, a
player may carry the ball, and other players may chase and tackle him.
Baseball is also a hunting game of sorts. Players hunt after the ball, and
they try to use the ball to catch players running around the bases.
Features of hunting are common in other popular sports too. Without the
use of firearms, hunters need to outrun their prey. Races focus on this
aspect of hunting. Many video games focus on the shooting aspect of
hunting.

Getting back to Chess, the object is to checkmate one particular piece,
the King. Each player controls a group of pieces that work together as a
team, or pack, to hunt down their prey. In the course of the game, other
pieces may be treated as prey, but the King remains the chief prey whose
incapacitation really matters. Chess differs from games like football by
being an entirely abstract game that requires only thought (or algorithmic
analysis) and does not depend upon any physical skill or prowess. So, to
distinguish it from hunting sports like football, I call Chess an abstract
hunting game.

This concept is close to Christian Freeling's category of checkmate
games. The difference is that it includes games whose object is the
capture or stalemate of a particular piece. Thus, it would include Smess,
whose object is the capture of the Brain, but which is not technically a
checkmate game. The category of abstract hunting games seems more natural
than the category of checkmate games, because the main difference between
checkmate games and games whose goal is the capture of a single piece is
in what the concluding move of the game is. These games are otherwise
played in the same manner.

Chess has commonly been described as a war game. In some respects, this is
accurate. Both sides control armies of pieces that capture one another. But
I think that abstract war games is a broader category than abstract hunting
games. For one thing, Checkers is a war game whose goal is the elimination
of the enemy rather than the incapacitation of one piece. It isn't always
the object of a war to capture the enemy leader. The American Revolutionary
War was fought to secure freedom from Great Britain, not to capture King
George. Nor was it the goal of the British to simply capture George
Washington. They were seeking to suppress an uprising, and if George
Washington had been captured, other leaders would have stepped up to take
his place. We could say that Chess is a type of abstract war game. If we
want a concept that narrows in on what type of game Chess and most of its
variants are, I think there may not be a more fitting concept than
abstract hunting game.