During the dutiful protest action to heighten awareness of the persisting, obnoxious Venezuelan claim to Guyana’s territory on Tuesday outside the United Nations in Manhattan, a Guyanese participant expressed the view that President David Granger had in essence checkmated his Venezuelan counterpart following their meeting with the UN Secretary-General. The opinion contains merit, although I would prefer to say Guyana’s president has his counterpart in check, chess-wise. When the International Court of Justice pronounces on the matter in Guyana’s favour, only then would Venezuela have been checkmated. That would be the final solution, when the king is being attacked from all sides and realistically has nowhere to run.
It is interesting to learn that some persons are likening the controversy with its military considerations and foreign policy options, to the game of chess. But technically speaking, chess is a war game, and it’s the oldest surviving war game known to mankind, having been around since 6 AD. The aim of the game is to checkmate the king. Chess adherents
