Pitchfork Gothic Chess – Chess Variants Ep. 510

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1. I have a belief that EASTERN cultures are more sophisticated, more spiritual, wiser, smarter, more refined just pick your adjective than WESTERN cultures are. Western cultures are SHALLOW.Here are some examples: 1. BUDDHISM>CHRISTIANITY. Buddhism with its reincarnation and spirituality totally trumps the garbage that is Christianity. I have way way way more respect for Buddhists in general than Christians though that does not always apply to individual people.2. MARTIAL ARTS: Asian Martial arts are superior to Western ultimately. As powerful as boxing is a grand master of karate or kung fu would still have the advantage in a street fight in my opinion due to boxing's limitations.3. FOOD: Western food IS great in many cases but ultimately if you average it out I think Asia has us beat on that too. My favorite is THAI food (actually indonesian but Thai is more commonly served and almost the same so I say Thai). Asian cuisine is superior to Western cuisine.4. HEALTH: WESTERN medicine has chemo and pennicilin and is good for emergencies but Asian culture and medicine trumps us in the HEALTH category with knowledge about healthy herbs, balancing the QI with acupuncture and acupressure and aligning the chakras. They are way ahead of us in those areas.5. BOARD GAMES OVERALL. I mean come on, what Western Games can compare with GO. (Actually, I think there ARE games that rival GO but they are so few and far between, GO has world popularity).6. I think Asia has us beat in mythology and folklore too. They are just plain MORE INTERESTING over there.HOWEVER…. We BEAT THEM in ONE area. WESTERN chess is superior to ALL Asian forms of chess. Chinese Chess (Xang Qi) Shogi, Makruk (Thai Chess) for example. I count variations on standard chess like GOTHICH CHESS, OMEGA CHESS, GRAND CHESS to name a few as Western. Board games where 2 armies face each other across the battlefield, games in the CHESS GENRE are the one area where Europe created something superior to its Asian counterparts. The Asian chesses are weird to me with weird rules that don't make much sense and confusing pieces that just move in weird ways. And GOTHIC CHESS might be a better game than standard chess. I used to own a set but almost everything that I owned was destroyed in huge wild fire that destroyed the apartment complex I lived in and most nearby buildings. Gothic Chess absolutely beats Asian counterparts. To me Western chess represents one very rare exception (there are probably others) where Western culture is superior to Asian culture.

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