x Strategic thinking is the art of outdoing an adversary, knowing that the adversary is trying to
do the same to you... Good strategic thinking in such numerous diverse contexts remains an art. But its foundations
consist of some simple basic principles - an emerging science of strategy, namely game theory. Our premise is that readers
from a variety of backgrounds and occupations become better strategists if they know these principles.
p.33 The essence of a game of strategy is the interdependence of the players' decisions.
p.35 The First Rule of Strategy
The general principle for sequential-move games is that each player should figure out the other players'
future responses and use them in calculating his own best current move.
p.58 The pragmatic solution [choosing a move in a game of chess] is a combination of forward-looking analysis
and value judgment. The former is the science of game theory - looking ahead and reasoning backward. The latter is the
art of the practitioner - being able to judge the value of a position from the number and interconnections of the pieces without
finding an explicit solution of the game from that point onward.
p.59 What should you take away from this account of chess? It shows the method for thinking about any highly
complex games you may face. You should combine the rule of look ahead and reason back with your experience, which guides you
in evaluating the intermediate positions reached at the end of your span of forward calculations. Success will come from such
synthesis of the science of game theory and the art of playing a specific game, not from either alone.
p.59 good chess players can use their knowledge to disregard immediately those moves that are likely
to be bad without pursuing their consequences four or five moves ahead, thereby saving their calculation time and
effort for the moves that are more likely to be good ones.
p.175 actions that change the game to ensure a better outcome for the player taking the actions
are called strategic moves... There are two aspects to consider: what needs to be done and how to do
it. The former is amenable to the science of game theory, while the latter is specific to each situation - thinking up effective
strategic moves in each specific context is more art than science.
