Jordan Peterson interview: Chess vs Kriegspiel

If you’re interested in seeing how a mature, intelligent, professional scholar deals with a jingoistic liberal who thinks in platitudes, and you haven’t seen this yet, you’re in for a treat. It’s half an hour long and Peterson shows great aplomb and grace under fire. The most delicious part is after he’s endured about 20 minutes of the “interviewer’s” hostility, when he flummoxes her by referencing her own supposed principles ... you can see her sluggish mind creaking around to the idea she had never considered before: Oh! He means that if I apply this standard to him, then I should also apply it to myself! Huh! 

There is a delightful chess variant called Kriegspiel , where each player plays without being able to see the other player’s moves. Usually they sit at separate boards, back to back or with a barrier, while a third person referees by rejecting moves that are illegal. It’s actually a fun game even for spectators to watch, which is a rarity for chess variants.

Anyway, what struck me watching that interview/debate was that while he was playing chess, she was playing Kriegspiel: flailing about making moves that had nothing to do with what was actually going on in the discussion. Such a handicap naturally turned out to be insurmountable.