Sunday, November 19, 2006

Police Forces Learn from Chess

Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Research Center, believes that police can learn a few things from our game:

In a confrontation with a suspect who’s resisting arrest, an officer with less experience and training may cast about desperately along the force continuum, trying to find something that brings compliance. An officer who’s highly experienced and trained in dealing with resistant subjects will quickly read what he’s up against and promptly and confidently select the level of force necessary to swiftly control the situation.

In chess (and analogously in policing) this kind of instant recognition is possible because, through experience and study, a master player has accumulated a vast storehouse of knowledge about chess games and chess positions. During a game, he can quickly tap into this “well-organized system of connections” and “manipulate” it to meet the challenge at hand.

From How are 5 percenters created?

And in Nigeria, local police there are embracing the game.

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